User:Kensey Smith/Max Wachtel

Max Wachtel is a clinical forensic psychologist. Wachtel works with a range of patients, including some who suffer from severe mental illness. Through his work, Wachtel aims to protect and inform local communities about individuals suffering from mental illness.

Early Life and Education
Wachtel was born and spent his early years in Sheridan, Wyoming, where he enjoyed exploring the world around him. He graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where he majored in Psychology and Religion, in 1995. Wachtel then moved to Colorado to start his Ph.D. in Counseling. He is a former instructor in the psychology department at the University of Denver. Wachtel has been licensed to practice psychology in Colorado and Wyoming.

Career as a Forensic Psychologist
Wachtel aids police departments in efforts to find criminals who attempt to escape legal responsibility for their alleged crimes. He uses his psychological background for investigations in courtrooms. Watchel's services often include mitigation evaluations and expert witness testimony. He believes it is important to show the courtroom that people are human beings who sometimes make bad choices. Wachtel also informs judges and juries that an alleged criminal's childhood can be an indicator of wrongdoing. In this role, Wachtel works closely with inmates while they are in jail. This approach provides greater perspective of the factors that inform criminal behavior.

In addition to working with inmates in the jails, Wachtel appears on new broadcasts as a specialist to discuss motives behind criminals' or society's behavior. In November 2017, for instance, Wachtel appeared on 9News to discuss the mind of a shooter. When appearing on television, Wachtel will describe the reasons why individuals behave in a particular way, such as the psychology behind society wearing masks during a pandemic or acting adversely to a situation due to unstable environmental upbringing. Wachtel believes that unstable environments can induce addictive behaviors, a concept the discussed on an episode of Recovery Week. According to Wachtel, mental health practitioners must think about the implications that recovery can have for these individuals.

Furthermore, counseling and therapy have been found to be very influential in change. In The One Rule for Boys: How Empathy and Emotional Understanding Will Improve Just About Everything For Your Son (2014), Wachtel states that children are not inherently "bad" and that they do not have inherent psychopathic traits passed down from their parents. Instead, Wachtel argues that society needs to do better at raising boys who are appropriately assertive. In this way, Wachtel opposes boys learning to being aggressive through environmental experiences. Wachtel contends that mirroring emotional empathy can be a great starting point for parents who are raising boys. Wachtel also believes The One Rule for Boys can serve as a tool to help younger generations understand their emotions, potentially keeping more individuals out of legal trouble.

Hunted
Wacthel appeared as a profiler on Hunted, a television reality competition show, in 2017. Hunted follows a group of participants who are separated into teams of fugitives. These teams then attempt to become incognito while being "hunted" by intelligence agents, detectives, and Army veterans. Wachtel aided professionals on the show prior to filming. He created personalized characters and the logistical rationale (or a lack thereof) behind the choices that each of the show's participants made. Wachtel incorporates his knowledge about psychology to create profiles of individuals for entertainment.

Notable Works
 Papers and Books