Dr. Teller was born and raised in Northeast Philadelphia and grew up in the Rhawnhurst neighborhood. His early years were a struggle, being diagnosed with a learning disability and autism. He overcame it. He won the academic plus award and the Alfred Oppenheim Award for academics and sportsmanship at Solis-Cohen Elementary School. At Northeast, he excelled academically and was inducted into the National Honor Society and won the perfect attendance award twice. He was on the track team and won the Presidential Academic Fitness Award and a partial academic scholarship to Temple University. Dr. Teller was on the Dean’s List multiple semesters, and he was inducted into the Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity, the Psi Chi National Honor Fraternity and Psi Chi, the National Honor Society in psychology. He graduated with honors in 1993, and was a Dean’s Scholar. He was awarded the Distinguished Russell
Conwell Center Award as an outstanding alumnus in May 2002. He attended Fairfield University for his Master’s degree. Dr. Teller graduated with an M.A. in Applied Psychology in 1996. That year he was asked to present his Master’s paper at a multicultural diversity conference at Fairfield University which was greatly received. The title of the paper was The Effects of Culture on Learning Disabilities. Dr. Teller then attended Walden University where he formed the first ever virtual psychology club which evolved into the Walden University chapter of Psi Chi. His dissertation is entitled, “The Effects of Jewish Religious Identity and Age on Levels of Perceived Academic Stress”. During the graduation he was asked to present his dissertation at a summer symposium, and it was considered one of the best dissertations. Dr. Teller graduated in 2010 with a Ph.D. in Academic/Health Psychology with a specialization in Counseling Psychology. He received his Licensed Professional Counseling Licensed. Dr. Teller currently has a private
practice in Holland, PA and consults with Better Help. He was written up in the London UK Daily Mail newspaper based on his help of British author, Jan Lane, aka Jan Greenman’s son who has autism. She credited him with saving her son’s life. He was also written up in the Jewish Exponent about that story, and ASERT magazine for autism published an article about his work with autistic clients in 2018. Dr. Teller has an international reputation where he helps clients all over the world. He has aided the police in catching criminals also.Dr. Teller enjoys music and photography especially of birds, farms and weather vanes, bird watching, theatre, traveling, and collecting sports cards and memorabilia. He loves the Phillies and was written up in the book For Phillies Fans Only by Rich Wolfe. He has sports memorabilia from around the world from countries like Australia, Israel, England, Japan, Canada, etc.Dr. Teller’s kindergarten teacher told his mother that he would never do well in school. In middle school, his math teacher did not think he should take algebra because she thought that he would never get into college, and he insisted on taking the course. He passed algebra with flying colors. He was elected president of the Northeast High School Alumni Association. He enjoys giving the speeches at the assembly for graduating seniors on Alumni Day. The seniors cheered loudly when he said that he overcame his autism to earn his Ph.D. He encouraged all seniors to strive for the best and work hard to prove the nay sayers wrong, as he did. The path to success is often by perseverance.