W. David Lane, Ph.D., Clinical Director, and Owner of Compassion Cove Counseling, LLC

David Lane is Clinical Director, and owner of Compassion Cove Counseling. He is also Professor, Department of Counseling, Penfield College of Mercer University, and is the founding faculty member of the Counseling Program at Mercer University in Atlanta. He earned the Bachelor of Science in Education degree from Troy University in 1976, the Master of Education degree in Counseling from Georgia State University in 1981, and the Ph.D. in Counseling from Georgia State University in 1992 and has over 40 years’ experience as a counselor, counselor educator, and supervisor. David is a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a Nationally Board-Certified Counselor, a Certified Professional Counselor Supervisor, and a Clinical Member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists. He is in his 25th year at Mercer University. Prior to coming to Mercer, he was the founder and Coordinator of the Community Counseling and Marriage and Family Counseling Programs at Columbus College (now Columbus State University). While at Columbus he worked with Ft. Benning and the Department of the Army to create a program to train Army Chaplains in Marriage and Family Counseling. The program was highly successful, and the Army sends these Chaplains all over the world to work with soldiers and their families. After the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, David worked extensively in Haiti for over a year leading team of professionals to train pastors, teachers, and mental health providers in trauma assessment and care. In the wake of the Newtown, CT, Sandy Hook School shootings in 2012, David led teams to train pastors and community workers to assist with the trauma. Recently in 2022, along with faculty and students in Mercer’s College of Professional Achievement (COPA) went to Kigali, Rwanda, to teach trauma training to local counselors and community workers.

He served for twelve years as a member of the Board of Directions of the Licensed Professional Counselors Association of Georgia, was Ethics chair for six years, Editor or the Georgia Journal of Professional Counseling for ten years and worked with LPCA-GA to create the Certified Professional Counselor Supervisor (CPCS) credential. He has published numerous articles, book chapters, and manuscript reviews in the field of Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy and is the co-author of Ready to Learn: Teaching Children How to Succeed in School, a nationally award-winning program for pre-school and early childhood classrooms. In 2010 he co-authored with his wife, Dr. Donna Lane, Please Share the Door, I’m Freezing: Creating Oneness in Marriage, a workbook for marriage and pre-marital counseling and in 2015 he and his wife wrote Trauma Narrative Treatment, a narrative group treatment approach for treating trauma. He is an author of 7 children’s books and in 21014 the co-author of Gold Stone: Phoenix Beginnings, also a children’s book, designed for trauma survivors. He is a regular presenter at local, regional, and national workshops in the field of Counseling.

David has been married (to the same woman) for over 43 years and they have three wonderful, successful children (he says this is his best credential).