Keith Houde, Ph.D.

Keith A. Houde, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at Ave Maria University in Florida. He served as founding chair of the Department of Psychology at Ave Maria from 2011 to 2021. He has developed and taught numerous course offerings within the psychology curriculum, which have most frequently included Foundations of Psychology, Psychopathology, Health Psychology, Sport Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, and History and Systems of Psychology. He has served as internship coordinator for the Psychology Department and as faculty advisor for the Wojtyła Society (Psychology Club). Dr. Houde has also held an affiliation as Visiting Professor of Psychology at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków, Poland, where he has taught summer study abroad courses on the personalist psychology of John Paul II and the history of faith and culture in Poland.

Dr. Houde previously trained and worked (1982-1985) conducting psychological assessments within the special education department of a K-12 public school system. He had the privilege to serve for over twenty years (1990-2011) as a Clinical Psychologist within a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Maine in the areas of post-traumatic stress disorder and health psychology. Within this role, he also provided clinical education as Psychology Training Director (1998-2011) for an accredited predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship program.

With an academic background in psychology and theology, his primary scholarly interests are theological anthropology, philosophical psychology, and the history of psychology, with an emphasis on the psychological thought of John Paul II. He is co-author (with James F. Brennan) of History and Systems of Psychology from Cambridge University Press (7th ed., 2018; 8th ed., 2023). He has also written on Christian personality theory, Christian anthropology in the Catholic undergraduate psychology curriculum, the personalist psychology of John Paul II, and the contributions of John Paul II to faith and culture. He has been an active member of the Catholic Psychotherapy Association (CPA) and the Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS). He serves as an Associate Editor of Integratus, the journal of the Catholic Psychotherapy Association, and on the Editorial Board of the Annals of Cultural Studies, affiliated with the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. He has served as a reviewer for Integratus, Studia Gilsoniana, the Journal of Positive Psychology, and the Journal of Psychology and Christianity.

He has been honored with an Advisor of the Year award from Ave Maria University, a Distinguished Member Award from the Christian Association for Psychological Studies, and an alumni award in recognition of a distinguished career in psychology from Franciscan University.

Professor Houde has traced his ancestry through twelve previous generations of Franco-American, Roman Catholic forebears. He and his wife have been abundantly blessed as parents of five adult children and as grandparents of five.

• Houde, K. A. (2024, in press). Man creates culture, Culture creates man: The reciprocal relationship between humanity and culture in the life and thought of Saint John Paul II. Roczniki Kulturoznawcze/Annals of Cultural Studies, 15(3).
• Houde, K. A. (2023). Wojtyła’s “Thomistic personalism”: Philosophical foundations for a psychology of the person. Studia Gilsoniana, 12(2), 219-258. http://gilsonsociety.com/files/08_Houde_219-258.pdf
• Brennan, J. F., & Houde, K. A. (2023). History and systems of psychology (8th ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/books/history-and-systems-of-psychology/B56D26448112727D9CD32B746F7DC738#overview
• Brennan, J. F., & Houde, K. A. (2023). History and systems of psychology: Instructor manual (8th ed.). Cambridge University Press
• Brennan, J. F., & Houde, K. A. (2018). History and systems of psychology (7th ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/books/history-and-systems-of-psychology/B48046DF88A23F49904D3B7C99D201B1#overview
• Houde, K. A., & Sabates, A. M. (2016). Christian anthropology and personhood in the Catholic undergraduate psychology curriculum. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 35(2), 163-174
• Houde, K. A. (2016). From brokenness to beatitude: Therapeutic goals of the flourishing person. Christian Psychology Around the World (EMCAPP Journal), 9, 48-58. https://emcapp.ignis.de/9/#p=48
• Houde, K. A. (2014). The mystery of persons: Catholic foundations for a psychology of persons within the thought of Karol Wojtyła/Pope John Paul II. Christian Psychology Around the World (EMCAPP Journal), 5, 43-61. https://emcapp.ignis.de/5/#p=43
• Houde, K. A. (1999). Paul Tournier. In Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 1216-1217). Baker Book House.
• Houde, K. A. (1995). Vision for a personalist psychology: Contributions of Paul Tournier and John Paul II. In J. M. DuBois (Ed.), The nature and tasks of a personalist psychology (pp. 155‑184). University Press of America.
• Houde, K. A. (1990). The Christian personality theory of Paul Tournier (Vols. I & II; Publication No. 9033538) [Doctoral dissertation, Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary]. University Microfilms International.
• Houde, K. A. (1988). The treatment of religion in personality textbooks: Fifty years after Allport. [Unpublished master's thesis]. Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary.