Meet Dr. Hollist
I grew up very poor in a small Montana town. My father was a carpenter and sometimes logger who was killed in an accident when I was fourteen. From then on I was raised by a remarkable single mother. That start taught me to work hard. Somehow, from there, I became a first-generation college graduate, a doctor and professor, an Air Force lieutenant colonel and chaplain, and a man whose life is grounded in his faith. But at the center of it all is the most important part: more than twenty-five years married to an extraordinary woman, father to five amazing children, and grandfather to four.
How I See This Work
Most people don’t come to therapy for a diagnosis. They come because something that matters to them isn’t working the way they want, and what they’ve tried on their own hasn’t fixed it. Underneath, I’ve seen a common thread: I don’t like how I feel or how I act, and it’s affecting the people and the life that matter most to me. When we get stuck, the past and the reactions that come with it show up everywhere — in our marriages, our bodies, our faith, and the way we move through the world. What I offer, first, is a way to understand what’s actually happening — and then, together, we’ll build the tools to change it.
I don’t believe people are broken. I believe they’re carrying protective patterns that once made sense and no longer serve them — patterns that can be understood, and rebuilt.
I’ve spent more than twenty-five years as a marriage and family therapist, with much of that time simultaneously training therapists. I’ve trained graduate therapists in assessment, diagnosis, and interventions of individual and couples therapy, in trauma and EMDR, in sex therapy, in working across faith and cultural difference, and in the ethics and theory beneath all of it. I’ve supervised clinicians through their hardest cases and helped shape the next generation of marriage and family therapists. When you sit down with me, you’re working with someone who has not only practiced for decades, but has helped teach the field how it’s done.
These concerns overlap more than they appear to. I don’t treat them as separate specialties — they’re four expressions of the same understanding. Wherever you’re starting, that’s where we’ll begin.
Education
PhD, Marriage and Family Therapy — Brigham Young University
MS, Marriage and Family Therapy — University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Licensure
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (Arkansas)
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (Nebraska)
Licensed Independent Mental Health Practitioner (Nebraska)
Training & Certification
EMDR Certified - Certified in Discernment Counseling (Doherty Relationship Institute) - Gottman Method, Level 1
Service - Lt Col & Wing Chaplain, Air National Guard
Professional - 25+ years clinical practice - Tenured Professor, University of Nebraska–Lincoln (2004–2026) - Director, accredited MFT program at UNL (7 years) - Past President, Nebraska Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
A little more about me
Home for me growing up was Drummond, Montana, a small farming and ranching town. My father was a carpenter, but when work ran out he worked as a logger. Money was tight — my father made about twenty-five thousand dollars in a good year — and after he was killed when I was fourteen, my mother raised us on her own. She is an inspiration of hard work and determination; nothing stops her drive to be and do better. Growing up that way taught me two things I’ve never let go of: the value of hard work, and the power of leaning on the people around you. I learned woodworking from my father, and I still build things today, especially furniture. There’s something about making and repairing with your hands that has never left me — and, if I’m honest, it’s not so different from the work I do now.
Family is the center of my life. My wife and I have been happily married since 1998, and there is no one else on this earth I would rather spend time with. We have five children, two sons-in-law, and four grandchildren, and they inspire me every day.
Our middle son joined our family through adoption from Brazil — a country embedded in our family’s DNA. I lived there for two years in my late teens and early twenties, and later my wife and I lived there for a year with our two oldest while I was in graduate school. Those years shaped all of us in ways we’re still discovering. Our lifelong connection to Brazil has let me spend much of my career working alongside Brazilian colleagues to strengthen the quality of life for couples and families there.
To say that family strength is the heart of my life would be an understatement. It’s why I do this work. I’ve built a life around the belief that our closest relationships are where we’re most wounded, but also where we find the greatest healing. I count it an honor to help people build themselves and their relationships into something stronger and more fulfilling.