Serving the greater Baltimore community’s mental health needs for over forty years
Our History – from the first outpatient clinic in Maryland to a best-selling self-help book and the longest running DBT program in the greater Baltimore area
From 1984 to 2024
The Resource Group was founded in 1984 in Towson, MD as a partnership between John E Davis, PhD, Gloria Uhl, and Charles Whitfield, MD. The organization was created in Towson, Maryland to do more than simply treat the physical consequences of addiction and substance use disorders. Instead, the founders dedicated themselves to creating a program that involved early intervention, resulting in the foundation of the first and only outpatient program in Maryland at the time.
One of the founders, Dr. Whitfield, wrote the seminal self-help book, Healing The Child Within: Discovery and Recovery for Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families. Published in 1987, it became an international best-seller, going on to sell over 1.3 million copies. Dr. Davis was also one of the original authors of the ACE (Adverse Child Experiences) Study, conducted in the 1990’s.
After Dr. Whitfield’s departure from the clinic, the work to reduce suffering was continued by his partner, Dr. John Davis. A Jungian in terms of training, he expanded the Substance Use Disorder program to 18 groups in 1995 and introduced one of the first Dialectical Behavior Therapy programs on the East Coast, establishing the modality in the clinic in 2000. It is the longest running DBT program in Baltimore.
The current Director, Elliott Driscoll, joined the practice in 2011 – since then, the SUD program has increased threefold and tens of thousands of people have been helped. As of 2024, we serve some 2500 individuals in the greater Baltimore area and further afield.
