Ron D. Kingsley (1954- ) was born in Portsmouth Virginia to a father who was a career Navy man and a mother who might have been described as a frustrated artist. His parents divorced when he was five years old and he grew up between their homes (father settling in the San Diego, CA area; mother in the Phoenix AZ area). Ron bounced back and forth between the two never living more than a few years at a time in either home and ending up finishing the first half of the last of his High School years living, initially for a month or so with a kind hearted family trying to help him, and then with one of his high school art teachers and his wife. The last half of his senior year he lived alone in a tiny one room apartment that had a hot plate for a stove. He is amazed sometimes that he actually completed high school. If it hadn't been for his love of art, drama, and sports he probably would not have finished. He always felt "stupid" by his own admission because it seemed like he was always in trouble at school and at home and he literally hated math, which was his worst subject. So, he avoided math in any form with zeal and a little creativity. This avoidance would eventually come back to bite him and very nearly keep him from attaining the career path he eventually decided to pursue.

After graduating without distinction from high school and with no plans to attend college (he hadn't even considered it as an option: he remembers getting a 2 in math on the ACT) he took on a few menial jobs that were "totally unsatisfactory" and then on impulse entered a recruitment office one day and joined the Army (1972) during the final winding down years of the Vietnam war. That's where he found out that he wasn't exactly stupid as he had once thought. In basic training the Army put all the recruits through a battery of tests and Ron with a couple of the other guys in his platoon kept having to go back to the testing center while the rest of the platoon continued their training exercises. At the end of the several days of additional testing one of the three was asked if he would be interested in attending West Point, the prestigious Army University, and becoming an officer. It was at this time that Ron had the thought "maybe I'm not so stupid after all."

Following an Honorable discharge from the Army Ron still had no idea what to do with the rest of his life. Again, menial jobs were sought out and with the added prestige of being a veteran he was able to go to the front of the lines at the employment centers. Then one day he found out that he could get about three hundred and fifty dollars a month from the G.I. Bill if he went to college. Suddenly he wanted very much to go to college, although it was for all the wrong reasons. He selected an, at the time, very small junior college in Phoenix AZ that had minimal tuition fees and began his college career getting paid by the government to go.

The first year he took only art classes never really intending to graduate. He planned to simply use the G.I. Bill benefits until they ran out, as he knew they eventually would. He always made extra money on the side doing caricatures and some art work on demand to supplement his income. Towards the end of that first year a life changing event occurred. He found a religion that would become a dominant force in his life from then on. He joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Suddenly he became motivated to do more with his life than he had ever dreamed possible. His new church valued learning and education and the sharing of what they called the gospel message. He wanted to do that as well and decided he would go on a two year proselytizing mission for his new found faith. The Church policy required that he be a member for at least one year before doing so.

He decided he would work hard to graduate in general studies from his junior college before leaving on a mission and then attend a university when he returned. He immersed himself in the core courses he had been neglecting up until then and ended up having to take 24 credit hours during his last semester in order to reach his goal, which is why he graduated with a 3.97 GPA rather than a 4.0. He got a B in English (a subject he truly loves) because of the heavy work load.

After serving a mission for the church in Switzerland and France (becoming fluent in French in the process) he returned and was offered an academic scholarship to Brigham Young University where he intended to go. He had taken some psychology classes in that last year of junior college and the subject fascinated him. It became the central focus and direction he wanted to go in pursuit of furthering his education, and was his sole career choice. He never looked back.

A year before receiving a B.S. degree in Psychology with minors in Art and English from BYU Ron prepared to take the Graduate Records Examination or GRE, which was required for all those seeking entrance into graduate programs in psychology. He remembers purchasing one of the GRE practice books, opening it, and nearly having a heart attack. At that time the test was composed of two sections essentially: math and language. He couldn't do a single problem in the math section, not even one. How he had ever managed to graduate with an AA degree and eventually with a BS from a University without having taken an algebra or geometry course is a testament to his innate ingenuity and creativity and ultimately, also to his stupidity. That's right, he acknowledges that this was "stupidity in motion" and he often shares the details of this incredible story with youth in an effort to enable them to refrain from making such a potentially career ending error themselves. It almost cost him his profession.

After taking the first GRE, his obtained math score was quite a bit less than most and made him a very unlikely candidate to be accepted into a Clinical Psychology graduate program, which was his ultimate goal. Fortunately, he was offered a spot in a "lesser" program, if you will, which was a terminal Masters Degree in School Psychology at the only University he had naively applied to for entrance as a graduate in Clinical Psychology. Since he eventually wanted to focus his work in the areas of childhood and adolescence he accepted the offer, figuring that if he was going to work with children it would probably be a good idea to be familiar with the issues of the environment within which they spend most of their lives; i.e. school. Plus, if he did well in the School Psychology program, perhaps he could parlay that success into acceptance into the Clinical program thereafter.

Throughout the first year of his masters he also studied math on his own and then retook the GRE. His math score did improve this time but the best he could do was a standard score of about 100, which is smack dab in the middle of the average range. Math was always a difficult subject for him. The actual difference between his math ability and other abilities is more than two standard deviations, which is a very significant discrepancy and indicates a learning disability but would never be diagnosed as such because if he works really hard he can do average work. Go figure.

He also felt that if he could do well in his required statistics classes this too could work to his advantage in getting him into the Ph.D. program. He got a B the first time he took the class and decided to take it again from a different professor in an attempt to do even better. The second time through he also got a B. That really was the best he could do. He did, however, get accepted into the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program and the rest is history, as they say.

Interestingly, twenty years after graduating with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, he returned to BYU to give a lecture to the psychology students not long after his second book Circles was published and one of his old professors shared something with him privately. He said, "We felt we really took a chance by accepting you into the Clinical Psych program. You were definitely not the type of student we were generally looking for to bring into the program." He sincerely thanked this professor publicly during his lecture for taking that "chance." This has been the story of Ron's life.

After graduating Ron was finally able to figure out that ADHD had always been a significant part of his life and influenced it in both positive and sometimes very negative ways. Recognition and treatment made an incredible difference and later the realization that yet another factor (mild-moderate obsessive and compulsive issues) that also played a huge and influential role in the directions and results of his life's path led him to focus on these areas. He began to do research and write about the phenomena he called OCS, and differentiate it from the related more severe diagnosis known as OCD. This culminated in the publishing of his first book Making Sense of the Senseless in 2002 (a title that to him, says it all) and then later Circles in 2009, which added further information gathered since 2002 and is written in a much more reader friendly manner.

Ron shares that he is currently writing a series of children's books with recurring characters aimed at about seven to twelve year olds. He has also completed a stand-alone novel aimed at about eleven to fourteen year olds about drug use (available now on kindle through Amazon, and titled "Too Near the Edge". The aforementioned series is tentatively called "Stories from the life of Ronnie Kaye" and is meant to be a story of therapeutic value written in a fun and exciting way. The first in the series is called "Monsters" and is available on Amazon. It examines the monsters in our lives and tells how the main character Ronnie deals with having to come to terms with his fears and anxieties surrounding them. Ron has five follow up children's novels planned so far in this series but sees no real end in sight as he proceeds to work on them. The second is nearly completed and focuses on problem solving skills through a humorous story about a crocodile and what to do if one should end up under your bed. The title is tentatively "The Crocodile Solution". Others planned include a novel about lies, winning and losing, keeping promises, as well as the difference between right and wrong. Ron believes that the things he is writing about have a universal appeal and value. In his work he has seen what a good story can do in the lives of individuals and especially children with whom he has focused on his entire life.

Ron has presented numerous lectures in the public schools, at colleges and universities, and within the general community throughout Arizona and Utah for the past twenty-three years. Topics have included his areas of expertise ADHD, OCD, and Tourette's Syndrome as well as presentations on Music Therapy, Building Self Esteem, Bibliotherapy, Conquering Fears, Handicap Awareness, Individual Differences, and using Art therapeutically. His hobbies include; writing fiction books and stories, writing songs (over 2000 to date), playing drums, guitar, piano, and harmonica and singing, drawing (thousands and thousands of them) cartoons (check out his photo section on this page), doing caricatures, and sometimes portraits, reading, and utilizing all of his hobbies as therapeutic tools whenever appropriate in his practice as a psychologist.

Ron has four children, eight grand children, and lives with his wife of 36 years that he still adores.