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Dr. Charles A. Flinton began his career in the field of community mental health in upstate New York in 1983. He was employed in the Mental Health Unit
at Saratoga Hospital in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he worked with severely mentally ill individuals. From 1986 to 1987, he was an assistant to Dr. Alan Ross and
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investigated issues related to child abuse. In 1988 he graduated with majors in psychology and philosophy from New York State University at Stony Brook.
That same year Dr. Flinton relocated to San Francisco, California and began working with adult forensic populations including those on probation and parole. During this time, he developed a special interest in doing therapy with individuals with violent and sexual offense backgrounds. He received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 1997, and became licensed as a psychologist in 1999. While completing his post-doctoral work, Dr. Flinton was employed as a substance abuse specialist with criminal populations, for which he wrote a comprehensive substance abuse treatment curriculum for a residential forensic drug treatment facility. In 1993, Dr. Flinton focused his practice on treating sexual offenders. Simultaneously, he volunteered his time at a local facility for juvenile offenders where he ultimately conducted research on anxiety and "locus of control" in incarcerated adolescents. After completing an internship at the University of San Francisco, Dr. Flinton remained on staff at the counseling center, performing therapy with students with substance abuse and anger issues. In 1995, Dr. Flinton joined Pacific Forensic Psychology Associates (PFPA; better known as Sharper Future) where he was the Director until 2008. While directing all of Sharper Future's Bay Area clinics, he developed a comprehensive core curriculum for the sexual offender treatment program, and provided sexual offender evaluations, as well as outpatient treatment. Dr. Flinton began consulting on the management of sexual offenders with various local and national organizations, including the Center on Sex Offender Management (CSOM), Generation 5, and the National Organization of Women (NOW). In 2004 he was appointed Co-Chair of the San Francisco Sex Offender Management Alliance (SFSOMA) by the San Francisco's Mayor's Office. He is also a member of the Treatment Committee of the California Sex Offender Management Board (SOMB), which was initiated by the Governor. In 2006 Dr. Flinton co-authored, "Engaging Resistance", a book that explores the manner in which sexual offenders resist change and how this resistance both mirrors and is facilitated by treatment providers, the criminal justice/child welfare systems, and society. In 2010, as chair of the Adult Standards Committee of the California Coalition on Sexual Offending, he was the primary author and editor for the "Guidelines and Best Practices: Adult male sex offender treatment". Read Less... |
Following his completion of a dissertation on the assessment of psychopathy, Dr. Mark G. Koetting (rhymes with "setting") earned his Ph.D. in
Clinical Psychology in 2002 at the APA-accredited Nova Southeastern University in South Florida. He became licensed to practice in California in 2003. His graduate
training
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was centered on the specialty of criminal forensic psychology. Dr. Koetting completed a formal, APA-accredited pre-doctoral internship through the U.S. Department
of Justice at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal jail in downtown Los Angeles, with additional training in the evaluation and treatment of sexual aggression
provided by Dr. Wesley B. Maram in Orange County. Prior to that, he received formal psychological training at the Federal Detention Center in Miami, the University of
Miami School of Medicine, and a large community mental health center in South Florida. Dr. Koetting has worked in outpatient, inpatient, correctional, and residential settings in both Florida and California. He was the program coordinator for the San Francisco Bay Area clinics of Pacific Forensic Psychology Associates (better known as Sharper Future) for four years. In that capacity, he also conducted individual and group psychotherapy with violent and sexual offenders, and provided formal supervision to pre-doctoral psychology interns as well. Since 1993, Dr. Koetting has worked professionally with various criminal populations, including violent offenders, men diagnosed with pedophilia and other sexual disorders, sexual aggressors and serial rapists, sexual murderers, mentally disordered and legally insane/incompetent offenders, prison gang members, career bank robbers, suicidal inmates, and psychopathic males. In the mid-1990s, he provided legal representation for civilly committed psychiatric patients on a secure treatment unit. He has also treated non-criminally involved men who engage in compulsive sexual behavior. Dr. Koetting has testified in U.S. District Court and various county Superior Courts on the West Coast, consulted with the San Francisco County Probation Department, made professional presentations to federal judges and parole agents, and given scientific presentations at the annual conferences of the American Psychological Association, the California Coalition on Sexual Offending, and the Society for Personality Assessment. In addition to conducting original empirical research on the characteristics of detected rapists, he has also co-authored papers on mentally disordered violent offenders and on intensive psychodynamic therapy, which are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Read Less... |
Cynthia Rinker began her career working in residential treatment for severely emotionally disturbed children after graduating with a Bachelor's
Degree in Arts at the University of California, Davis, in 1992. A year later, she entered the Master's in Clinical Psychology program at Antioch University in Santa
Barbara, CA.
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During this time, she did individual, group and family therapy in a multi-disciplinary residential treatment program, Sanctuary Psychiatric Centers, serving seriously mentally ill adults. Also during this time she did individual therapy with school aged girls at Girls, Inc. in Santa Barbara. She earned her Master's degree in 1995. After earning her master's degree, Ms. Rinker worked full time at Sanctuary Psychiatric Centers continuing to do individual, family and group therapy with clients struggling with bipolar and major depressive disorders, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorders, and co-occurring disorders, particularly substance abuse. She eventually became the Assistant Program Director before moving to the Bay Area. Also during this time, she provided individual therapy for women and their children in Domestic Violent relationships at Shelter Services for Women in Santa Barbara. In 1997, Ms. Rinker relocated to the Bay Area and began working at the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in Alameda County as a Child Welfare Worker in the Dependency Investigations program. She completed her hours during this time and became licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist in June 2000. Ms. Rinker continued her career at DCFS becoming a supervisor and then a program manager during her 13 year tenure. During her time with Alameda County, she worked in units and sections that interacted heavily with the Courts, including testifying, and she was the Program Manager of the Family Reunification program for over five years which is one of the most challenging positions in the Department based on the competing needs of the children, the parents, the foster parents and the legal system. In addition, she was the Department's liaison with Behavioral Health care and the Peri-natal drug council, collaborated with community based agencies to enhance services to the families she served, and participated in developing innovative programs that increased prevention, early and post intervention services to effect better outcomes. In November 2009, Ms. Rinker began doing outpatient individual and group therapy with sexual offenders at the San Francisco Forensic Institute (SFFI) while continuing her full time employment with DCFS. In December 2010, she resigned from DCFS to dedicate herself to private practice and working with Sexual Offenders full-time at the SFFI. Read Less... |
