I received both my B.S. degree in business management and my Master of Professional Studies in Counseling Psychology from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. I am a Certified, Level IV, Addictions Counselor ( CAADE #155970-IV ) a Licensed Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor (LR01700815) and an Internationally Certified Clinical Supervisor. I am also a Certified Hypnotherapist and a Certified Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming.
I have had a private practice as a Counselor and Coach since the middle 1980s. Currently, my practice focuses on coaching and advising business and professional clients, who are recovering from alcoholism and addictions to work and live at their exquisite best. I also consult with Sober Living and Drug and Alcohol Treatment facilities, writing the license proposal, designing the elements of a successful program, guiding the start-up process including the hiring of staff, and advising on general business start-up concerns and ongoing operations.
In my private practice, Over the years I have assisted countless clients to walk through the trials, tribulations, and joys of their lives. I have worked with Hollywood celebs who needed assistance with stage fright and with the fears and hassles that quick success and fame can bring along with their ill-fated attempts to cope with alcoholism and addictions. I coached executives on how to better work and communicate with their employees and bosses. I, also have coached Parents of Teens and Young Adults,, teaching and coaching effective parenting. Many clients, including parents of teenagers, have credited my coaching with being the critical factor that allowed them to successfully walk through difficult personal relationships and transitional times in their lives. I have the ability to intuitively know the “rest of the story,” and combining that with my skill as a certified hypnotherapist and Neuro-Linguistic Practitioner, I have been able to serve my clients well. Because of my skills in coaching the “inner game,” I am regularly called on to assist clients who are having problems with getting their insides in sync with their aspirations.
I am a pioneer in the recovery field. My career started in 1971, while still a grad student in counseling psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. when I founded and ran as executive director and resident therapist, Alpha House, a residential therapeutic community for drug addicts and alcoholics. I have been counseling and coaching people in varying stages of recovery and in many different therapeutic settings, ever since.
Through the years, I have done many interesting things. I am a trained community drum circle facilitator and a percussionist. I am a press, commercial, and fine art photographer. I was an Air Force officer, including a tour in Vietnam. As a Fuels Management Officer, I was responsible for all the petroleum products used on an Air Force base. In my off-duty time, I raced motorcycles in the Mid-West and had the largest live collection of poisonous and non-poisonous reptiles in Vietnam. I have been a private pilot; a progressive-rock disc jockey; an actor, a singer, an ice hockey player; a licensed, single-parent foster parent and raised 13 foster teens and an adopted son; a practitioner of Tai Chi Chuan; an urban farmer; a welding sculptor, an author of a biographical novel, “The Street Shrink Chronicles” based on my years working, on the streets with at-risk teens and young adults, and most recently, the author of “Designing Your Great Life `~ Time Tested Prescriptions for a Geat Life,” I have had other work experiences including being a farm hand, a car salesman; an undercover narcotics investigator, a private detective, an owner/operator of a mobile business and a facilities manager of a manufacturing plant. Other than that, I have led a pretty dull life.
My Resume can be viewed HERE.