About the Institute for Human Development
The Institute for Human Development (IHD) was founded in 1976 in Upper Montclair, NJ. After having been based in Manhattan for a number of years, the Institute relocated to Kingston, NY in 2004. Following his retirement in 2015, Bill Colagrande continues writing and maintains his home office in Phoenicia, NY.
The Institute offers a number of varied self-guided workbooks, tutorials and workshops. These programs offer an informative, fun and inexpensive way to work on your personal growth without having to enter into formal session work.
The SmartLiving© Workbooks were designed for those interested in working on themselves but not desirous of entering formal session work. They are self-guided and offer inventories, challenging assignments and helpful tips and support. A fictional narrative runs throughout each workbook to help clarify and personalize the material. Workbooks can be purchased as a hard copy or e-mailed to you as a PDF file. A private consultation with the workbook author and Institute Director, Bill Colagrande, is available for an additional fee. The Workbooks fall into a Personal Growth, Career Growth or Marital Relations category
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The personal-growth SmartLiving© Workbooks include Fresh Start, letting go of past hurts and resentment, The Pursuit of Happiness, learning to bring more happiness into your life, Seek and Ye Shall Find – Discovering God’s Grace in the Modern World, Turning Over a New Leaf – Dealing with Emotional Dependency, A Nice Little Path: Rediscovering the Warmth, Closeness and Trust in Your Marriage, Servant of Christ and Twelve Things You Probably Never Thought About in Dealing with Loneliness.
The career-growth SmartLiving© Workbooks include How to Get Along with Almost Anybody in the Workplace, How to Succeed in Business by Really Trying: Thriving and Surviving under less than Ideal Working Conditions, Dealing with Workplace Bullying, Be Happy in Your Work and the booklet How to Be a Star Employee.
2016 saw the introduction of the Marital Relations or Axe Murder SmartLiving© series. Titles include: So I Married A Pessimist, So I Married A Workaholic, So I Married Someone Moody, So I Married Someone with a Mean Streak and So I Married Someone Uncooperative.
The eight-week courses include The Stanford Marriage Enrichment Program, an affordable and effective alternative to conventional marriage counseling, and The Stanford SmartDating© Program, which helps men and women get their social lives on track. They are courses are given live, via Skype and are scheduled on-demand at a mutually convenient time. All are written and run by the Institute Director, Bill Colagrande.
The Institute offers consulting services to businesses, groups and organizations. Aside from direct individual and group services, course and workshop titles include a special workplace version of The Pursuit of Happiness, How to get Along with Almost Anybody in the Workplace, How to Succeed in the Corporate Culture by Really Trying, Dealing with Workplace Bullying and How to Be a Star Employee. All of these titles are great topics for ongoing staff professional development training.
In addition, the Institute maintains a no-cost library of over one hundred mental health-related articles on topics of general interest.
The Institute’s Director is William R. Colagrande, MS. Mr. Colagrande graduated with a BA in Psychology from Seton Hall University in 1969 and holds a Master’s degree in Counseling from Miami University. He is a Certified New York State Mediator and a Pathwork Helper. A retired Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the state of New York, he had maintained a private psychotherapy practice for over thirty-five years. Active in the Knights of Columbus and avid fisherman, Bill and his lovely wife Margit, split their time between Phoenicia, NY and Venice, FL.
For additional information, see the Contact page