Passion For Helping People Drives Josh Burg

The 1970 Beatles love song “The Long and Winding Road” speaks of just that — a twisting, sometimes arduous journey that seems to have no end. But for Josh Burg, a love affair with people and helping them with life’s problems has at long last brought him to the finish line.

Burg will collect his doctoral degree, completed at DU’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology, at summer Commencement ceremonies on Aug. 19. “It’s a little surreal,” he says. “It’s actually the end of five years of grueling work.”

Not that the work is about to end. Burg next begins a postdoctoral fellowship at University of Colorado-Boulder, where he’ll do psychological assessments.

He and wife Christina (also graduating from DU with the same degree) credit the University of Denver with solidly preparing them for their careers.

“I just remember … in these group interviews with other students from different programs, I feel like I’m way better prepared for this than [they] are,” Burg says.

“I know when my wife and I came out here five years ago to interview, we were just blown away by the staff here at the GSPP. We were like, ‘Wow. We want to be here because this is a faculty that is just so smart. But they also like each other, and they work well together,’ and that really stayed true throughout the five years. The quality of education I got here … was just amazing.

“I like people, so having a job where I just sit and talk with people, in the technology age that we’re in, is a real privilege."