Psychologist Corie Hickson dances through life
Shane Hickson holding four year old Makenna, Cori Hickson, sever year old Tanner and Splash.
Dr. Hickson is smiling, tall and slender with blond hair tucked into a ponytail. Her office is filled with cushy sofas and the scent of cinnamon. Despite her professional demeanor she hasn’t lost an ounce of her cheerleader glamour.
A recent family photo shows a foursome with such sunny smiles and blond good looks it could be the picture that came with the frame. It’s hard to believe Corie’s early life got off to a rocky start. Her parents were sweethearts at Palos Verdes High. But as her father dealt with the rigors of dental school, he found the stresses of marriage and parenthood too great, and when Corie was only two her parents divorced.
Soon her mother, Claudia, married movie theater owner George Krikorian. Business and family went together then. From the age of two through third grade Corie attended Peninsula Montessori School, founded by her mother. In seventh grade Corie spent weekends working the refreshment counter at the Krikorian Theater located where the Regal now stands.
But Corie had an entrepreneurial spirit of her own. She took to dance with a passion since her first ballet lesson at age two. She began practicing four hours a day. By seventh grade she was under contract as a performer with the South Bay Ballet in Torrance. In high school she formed her own business teaching dance in private schools.
“I like to have a ton of things going on,” Corie says. At Miraleste High, while teaching dance and serving as president of Girls’ League and cheerleading captain, she flew around the country as a debater. She counts speech and psychology teacher Dixie Stevens as one of her inspirations.
Stevens was not the only one who sparked her interest in psychology. Since middle school, friends sought Corie’s advice. “I was always a therapist,” she says. When she was eight, a 10-year-old stepbrother entered her life. Concern for him during his difficult teen years pushed her toward learning how to help young people in distress.
Corie got a tempting offer when she graduated from Miraleste. The Joffrey Ballet wanted her to train at their New York school. But there was a catch: if she entered the program she couldn’t go to college. She said no. Even though she knew dance would always be a part of her life, so would a career in psychology.
Fortunately, U.C. Irvine was second only to Julliard in U.S. dance programs, Corie says. There, while pursuing a double major in psychology and fine arts, she studied with dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet and Donald McKayle, choreographer for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. As an undergraduate in the Honors program in psychology she was able to conduct research and present a paper at the American Psychological Association meeting.
But that wasn’t enough. While at UCI she also volunteered at the Montessori school and taught an aerobics class from 5-6 a.m.
One of her teachers asked her if she wanted to dance for the Anaheim Splash professional soccer team. Corie declined. But in a scene lifted from an old movie, one of the cheerleaders broke her leg, Corie jumped in to replace her and — A Star is Born. (Actually, the plot more closely resembles “42nd Street,” but you get the idea.) Besides cheering for the Splash, Corie danced for the Mighty Ducks during hockey season, which was a little trickier. It meant donning cleats to do her leaps and high kicks on ice.
The movie didn’t end there. While dancing for the Splash she caught the eye of a certain good-looking soccer player, Shane Hickson. The attraction was mutual and the pair was like-minded; Shane planned to study for a master’s degree in psychology.
After graduation, Corie moved to San Diego where Shane was in grad school. They married and she went on to complete a PhD at the California School of Professional Psychology.
But she didn’t stop dancing. In San Diego, she alternated between calming patients and whipping football players and fans into a frenzy as a high-stepping Charger Girl.
Being a Charger Girl meant more than dancing. “We did a lot of charity work with kids,” Corie says. “I did public relations for the Chargers.” The PR work expanded beyond the team’s expectations when Corie participated in a panel on a TV talk show called “What Price Beauty?” She told girls to be themselves and not conform to phony expectations about sexuality and beauty. For example, in order to fill out their uniforms, Charger Girls were encouraged to use certain tricks, she explained, whipping pairs of socks out of her bra on live TV. The cameraman dropped his camera. Luckily the Chargers officials had a sense of humor about the incident.
When Corie completed her studies she set up her counseling practice, Complete Family Services, in Torrance with her friend from grad school Christine Lawson. With 14 on staff, the center offers brain-training programs as well as psychotherapy, assessment, divorce mediation and custody evaluations. Seeing kids get better is the best part of her job. It’s particularly gratifying to get letters from people she counseled as adolescents saying that they are graduating or getting married and thanking her for the difference she made in their lives.
Corie and Shane found a home in Rancho Palos Verdes where once again career and family go hand in hand. Shane became Director of Peninsula Montessori School, working with his mother-in-law. The couple’s son, Tanner, 7, and daughter, Makenna, 4, attend the school. Tanner dances in a hip-hop class taught by his mother, who is also Room Mother in her daughter’s class.
But, as if running a busy counseling center while teaching dance and raising a couple of kids isn’t enough, Corie has added another line to her resume: children’s author.
When Corie and Dr. Lawson were looking for books to help parents discuss issues with their children, they found existing materials either too technical or not clinical enough. So the two psychologists teamed up with illustrator Anjale Perrault to produce the kind of books they would like to see.
The idea for the first book, Eli’s Surprise, came to Corie when she was pregnant with Makenna and thinking about preparing Tanner to be a big brother. In the whimsically illustrated rhyming story, Eli the Elephant’s mother prepares him for his new role as an older sibling. The book ends with discussion questions and suggestions for caregivers on applying the lessons of the story, plus a recipe for a treat mentioned in the story, peanut pie. Eleven more books are in the works – five more for children in pre-kindergarten through elementary and the other six for upper elementary and middle school children – designed to guide them and their families through difficult changes such as loss of a loved one, divorce or separation anxiety. Eli’s Surprise is available at peanutpiepress.com.
On second thought, maybe Corie has lost an ounce of her cheerleader glamour. How much does a pair of socks weigh? PEN