David M. Fawcett PhD, LCSW

David Fawcett, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., is a substance abuse expert, certified sex therapist, and clinical psychotherapist in private practice in Ft. Lauderdale specializing in gay men’s health. He has worked in the areas of mental health and substance abuse for more than 30 years in numerous settings, including inpatient and outpatient programs. He currently maintains a private psychotherapy practice and consults numerous agencies, including the Broward County Health Department and Sunserve, an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) social services agency. He frequently presents workshops on issues concerning substance abuse, mental health, and chronic illness both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Fawcett received a B.A. in anthropology from Miami University of Ohio and worked as Registrar at New York’s Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, which became part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. While in New York, he received an M.A. in anthropology from Hunter College and an M.Phil. degree, also in anthropology, from the City University of New York Graduate Center. During that time, he did fieldwork among the Hopi Tribe in Arizona and the Zuni in New Mexico and authored several catalogs, including one for a touring project on Native American painting, as well as a study of Brazilian Indian featherwork, which was part of a larger exhibition that he accompanied to Beijing and Shanghai in the People’s Republic of China after it was displayed at the U.S. Custom House in New York.

He became interested in behavioral health and relocated to Florida in 1986, working in clinical settings treating both substance abuse and eating disorders. He received an M.S.W. from Florida International University and spent the next decade in a community mental health agency working with serious and persistent mental illness. After being diagnosed HIV positive in 1988, he took a special interest in mental health issues and HIV, particularly among gay men. This ultimately led to his becoming Director of the Pride Institute in Ft. Lauderdale, and eventually opening his private practice. In 2004, he received his Ph.D. in Clinical Sexology through a program of the American Academy of Clinical Sexologists. His dissertation on methamphetamine and sexual risk received a research award.