Arbitration and forensic specialties ...

In his other forensic work, Boltuch is often hired by personal injury attorneys to assess the psychological damage suffered by complainants and their families. In one case he’s been working on for three years, a young Asian girl was shopping for back-to-school clothes with her mother. At the store, when she bent down to pick something up, she bumped her head into a sharp object on a display case, putting her eye out.

Boltuch assessed the girl and the parents, and has prepared reports for their attorney. “Besides the impact on her self-concept, it’s wrecked the family,” Boltuch says. “The father can’t go back to work, and there’s a lot of tension in the family. The store claims the girl is doing fine now, so we’re going back and forth with the lawyers.

“In some Asian cultures, if someone is deformed it’s like a curse. It affects social interaction. That’s why the mother and father are so stressed.”

About 95% of cases like this one are settled out of court. “I think the company is going to settle, but they’re trying to stretch it out.” Boltuch has done extensive networking with attorneys over the years, and now doesn’t need to do much marketing for that part of his practice. But it took years to get to that point, he says.

To clinicians trying to break into this field, he suggests joining an arbitration trade group such as the American Arbitration Association (www.adr.org), and taking some related workshops. Then he recommends a direct mail program: Send letters to every attorney within a certain radius of your office.

“Always say you’d like to meet with them,” advises Boltuch. “And remember it’s a numbers game. If you send out 150 letters and you get three lunches, that would be phenomenal. But once you have that lunch set up, the ball’s in your court.”

You can contact Bruce Boltuch in Old Tappan, NJ, (201) 666-7717, email: drboltuch@yahoo.com.


* * * * * * * * * *

Treating infidelity in the gay community...

Dealing with the aftermath of an Internet affair, according to O’Mara, “is trickier. The partner wants passwords in order to snoop around.” While that’s not a good idea, she says, “the person who has had the affair needs to find ways to be more accountable.”

The first step in the healing process, whether it’s a hetero or gay couple, is to assess the level of commitment on both sides. “I always encourage people to break contact with the source of the infidelity.”

Is there a difference between treating gay and heterosexual couples? O’Mara says there can be. “In gay couples, there are issues of shame. It’s also a matter of the comfort level within their relationship.

“Some people have the idea that a relationship isn’t as real or viable if it’s a gay relationship. Even some gay people look at it that way.”

Because of her specialization, O’Mara gets a lot of word-of-mouth business. Her Web site, www.micheleomara.com, has been in place since 2000—three years after she launched the practice. It’s a constant and still-growing source of referrals.

Her fees are $90 for a 50-minute session; $175 per couple for a 90-minute session. She offers a 30-minute session for $60 and will do extended sessions, up to four hours, for $420.

“I take no insurance. It’s all self-pay.” Four times a year, O’Mara runs a couples weekend. For $650 per couple, four to six couples attend day-long sessions, Saturday and Sunday, right in her office.

O’Mara says that a big chunk of her individual work is with transgendered people—both pre-and post-surgery.

“My goal is to help them make peace with their gender,” she says.

You can contact Michele O’Mara at 6450 W. 10th St., Ste. 7, Indianapolis, IN 46214, (317)517-0065, www.micheleomara.com.