I was born in Indianapolis Indiana in 1956, which makes me 63 years old, but I certainly don’t feel like I am 63 years old. I moved here to California in 1996 so I have been here for quite some time. I think that would qualify me as an “official” native at this point. I am the only child and have no brothers or sisters. Interestingly I am an only child of two parents who are both only children as well. I have no uncles, aunts, cousins or pretty much any living relatives at this point besides my own family that I created. I have no family of origin that is still alive or left.
I enjoyed a relatively good upbringing. My biological father died in an automobile accident when I was about two (2) years old. I never really got to know him very well. However, I was given a strong sense of what my father was like through his parents, my grandparents. I grew up with my mother and my stepfather. My mother's mother also lived with us. I kind of consider my grandmother to be my mother because I probably spent more time with her than I did my own mother.
I lived at home until I graduated college at the age twenty-one. I moved out and got my own apartment after I graduated from college and started my first job.
About marriage; I married for the first time at the age of 22. Let’s just say, I’ve had more than one marriage and less than four.
When I originally began college, I began as a pre-med student, and after getting into the science, biology and math classes I decided that it wasn’t for me. I enjoyed my psychology classes much more; that’s when I decided to go into psychology. Then I was off to the races. I decided at that point that I wanted to work with people in mental health. Once I got into mental health, I realized that a lot of my clients were having substance use problems. I didn’t know much about that, so I went and got trained in substance abuse. I liked it so much I started working in the Substance Use Disorder (SUD) field. Early on in my career I realized there was such a thing as dual diagnosis or what we now call Co-Occurring Disorders. I became an expert in that area. In fact, when I finally got my doctoral degree, I did my thesis on Co-Occurring Disorders. That project ultimately turned into a book called
Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Disorders: A Practitioners Guide
, which is available on Amazon. That has been an area of expertise for me along with the treatment of emotional trauma.
I went to Indiana University for my undergraduate and graduate studies, and then received my doctorate from International University for Graduate Studies. It has been a long career for me, and I certainly have enjoyed it. I am looking forward to doing still more.
I worked in the field professionally, but I also wanted to pass along what I had learned.
About 20 years ago I was presented with an opportunity to teach. Now, and for the past 20 years I have been a professor for the Alcohol and Drug Studies Program at Mt. San Antonio College.
I’ve also maintained a private clinical practice. Recently I started working at Social Model Recovery Systems as their new Director of Education and Training which is directly aligned with my experience and training. I’m still going!
