Dr. Vinny Dehili

Good news everyone! I’ve created a digital pathway for you to learn about the saga of Dr. Vinny Malik Dehili through the reading of this digital lightbox! Vinny hailed from the small town of Ormond Beach Florida, born to an Algerian father, and a Canadian white mother. He grew up as a simple, nerdy child, enjoying video games and listening to ska music far past when it was somewhat cool. In his youth, Vinny blossomed into uncharted territory and joined the circus while studying in his undergraduate psychology program at Florida State University. Hanging up his clown shoes, Vinny went into the world of psychotherapy through FSU’s Counseling and School Psychology Ph.D. program. Vinny’s research on ADHD in college students eventually allowed him to recognize that his research may have been more of a me-search, shifting to owning his neurodivergent strengths of creativity and hyperfocus.

It was only after this formal education, that Vinny began to explore and become aware of how the aspects of psychological theory tend to be Eurocentric in the ways they focus on the individual self as the reason for one’s problems, rather than the systems surrounding them. Vinny takes the stance that we should not blame the flower for wilting in a drought. Influenced by the Buddhist Monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, Vinny became an avid reader and learner of diverse therapy practices and theories in group therapy and began to shift to a diversity-conscious, anti-racist frame of psychotherapy. Put simply, Vinny believes in Human-Nature, that humans are similar to any other part of nature, not separate from it. Each person weaves and bends to adapt to their environment to receive nourishment, love, and connection in the best way they know how. Vinny’s clinical interests vary as much as his attention, and he is board certified in group psychotherapy, nationally involved with various professional organizations advocating for social justice and anti-racist practices within psychotherapy, and researches the benefit of utilizing Tabletop RolePlaying Games (e.g., Dungeons and Dragons) as a medium in group therapy to unlock the inner hero we each have inside of us.

When you work with Vinny, you'll get a compassionate curiousity around the systems that caused you to adapt and become who you are in this moment as well as a relational human who wants to find creative solutions to change the narrative around your self-centered blame and shift towards owning your inner strengths, embracing your sense of identity, be it nerd, queer, race, or any intersection in between who will encourage you to find methods to connect with people in life and potential in groups to lean into the unknown, find the play through the emotional work being done, and treat your mind, body, and emotions the love you would want to show a young child by creating a space where you can feel more seen, held, heard, and be understood, like you've always deserved to be.