About

Clayton J. Lessor, PhD, LPC

Creator of The Quest Project® | Licensed Professional Counselor | Author | Speaker

For over thirty years, Clayton Lessor has worked with boys and families navigating the damage caused by absent, disengaged, or destructive fathers. As a Licensed Professional Counselor in private practice in St. Louis, he has treated over 2,000 boys and their families—developing a clinical framework that identifies five distinct patterns of father wounding, each producing predictable behaviors, each requiring different interventions.

Clayton created The Quest Project®, a trademarked 10-week intensive group therapy program that has been validated through a controlled doctoral study (N=77, p=.015) and recognized as a model for adolescent intervention. The program has been applied with over 2,000 boys across three decades and is now available as an online program for families nationwide.

He is the author of Generation of Men: How to Raise Your Son to Be a Healthy Man Among Men (Gold Recipient, Mom’s Choice Award) and Saving Our Sons: A Parent’s Guide to Preparing Boys for Success. His third book, THE FATHER WOUND: Healing the Hidden Injury Behind Your Son’s Struggle, is a prescriptive parenting guide based on his clinical taxonomy of five father wound patterns and the Quest Path healing model. A companion memoir, No Ashes, traces his own journey from surviving a father wound to spending a career treating them.

Clayton served on the White House Fatherhood & Mentoring Initiative Council steering committee (2019–2022), connecting him to national fatherhood policy and research networks. He is a retired Captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve (29 years of service) and served as a Military Family Life Counselor (2010–2020), working with military families across multiple installations.

He holds a PhD in Education and delivers workshops and speaking engagements for both professional and parent audiences, including the Untangling the Web couples workshop. He is co-founder of Charity Patch, a community garden program in St. Louis.

Jeannette Cooperman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch calls his work “the most hopeful thing happening for boys in St. Louis.”

Credentials: PhD, Education | Licensed Professional Counselor (Missouri) | USAF Captain (Ret.) | Military Family Life Counselor | White House Fatherhood Council (2019–2022)