Robert Barnes completed his doctorate in Psychology and Counseling at the University of Georgia. He became the founding director of the University Counseling Center at West Texas A&M University. He later became Chairman of the Department of Counseling and Human Development at another university in Texas. During his tenure, he and his wife, Dr. Dorothy Barnes, and other Department faculty members established an unprecedent legacy of having more than 600 hundred students complete their master’s degree in Counseling and Human Development. Of these graduates, more than 50 went on to earn their doctoral degrees in distinguished universities in the United States and Canada.

            In addition to presenting numerous weekend Logotherapy workshops, Dr. Barnes’ international speaking engagements have included representing the American Psychological Association with the British and European Psychological Associations in London. At the 1993 World Congress in Toronto, Ontario, Dr. Barnes was elected president of the International Board of Director of the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy and has served the Institute in that capacity since that time. In addition to his presidential responsibilities for the VFIL Board Director, Dr. Barnes has served as the General Chairman of the biennial World Congress held in Dallas. He is the primary author of the original Foundations course of the Institute’s Distance Learning program that is taught in more than 40 nations.

Before Viktor Frankl’s death in 1997, he wrote: “It comforts me to know that, at this time in my life, a significant part of my legacy is passed into the hands and entrusted to the leadership of Dr. Robert Barnes. He represents Logotherapy at its best.”