Background

Post-graduate medical training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic.

Co-authored, with Salvador Minuchin, the book Family Therapy Techniques, Harvard University Press. This book continues to be a standard text in the field and has been translated into 8 languages.

Charles served as the director of training, preparing new psychologists for the field and the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic.

He was involved with establishing an innovative, family therapy based adolescent inpatient unit at York (PA) General Hospital. During this period Dr. Fishman published 2 books: Treating Troubled Adolescents (Basic Books (1989) translated into 4 languages), and Evolving Models of Family Change (Guilford Press (1986) with Dr. Bernice Rosman).

This clinic trained professionals, and provided community based mental health services to children and their families. The Institute for the Family received a yearly grant from 1989-1994 from the NJ Department of Health to train administrators and clinicians, as well as to provide direct service to adults and children with substance abuse problems, and to develop demonstration projects.

Published Intensive Structural Therapy (Basic Books), which has been translated into 4 languages.

During this fellowship, he obtained extensive leadership training provided by the Wagner School. During his first field Placement he worked with Robert Cole, Ph.D. and Mary Jane England, M.D. at the Washington Business Group on Health. The focus was consulting with states to design Medicaid managed care systems, specializing in systems of care for severely emotionally disturbed children.

Founding Medical Director of Community Behavioral Health, a managed care company that is a component of the Philadelphia Health Department. It provides behavioral managed care to over 450,000 Medicaid recipients. In 1999, Dr. Fishman, changed position within CBH to Senior Psychiatric Consultant. In this position, he developed innovative programs for severely emotionally disturbed children.

A physical health Medicaid and Medicare HMO that has 150,000 members. In this role, he is responsible for the overseeing and enhancement of integration of care between Primary care physicians and behavioral healthcare providers. In addition, he oversees population-based initiatives in areas such as the care of depression in the physical health care network and improving prescribing patterns to children.

In that capacity, he provides direct clinical care as well as working to develop programs with the goal of providing a comprehensive system of care to the Maori population of West and North Auckland.

Published the book Enduring Change in Eating Disorders which presents qualitative data from his treatment of cases of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa with follow-up interviews from up to 20 years post therapy.

NZ Eating Disorder Specialists - a private clinic in Auckland to help people and their families overcome eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Clinical Director, Youthlink Family Trust, Auckland.

Published the book You Can Fix Your Family which introduces the tenets and principles of Intensive Structural Therapy (IST), a powerful transformative approach for radically improving family life.

Clinical Director, Reconnect Family Services, Manukau, Auckland.

Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Hawai'i John A. Burns School of Medicine.