The Long Good-Bye: 19 Years of Addiction Counseling
I've been an Addiction Counselor for 19 years, and 19 years is an awfully long time for me to do anything. Until 2006, when I became a certified counselor, the longest I’d done anything was about 3 years. It's been the worst experience of my life, seasoned with just enough awesome sauce to make it the best.
To say it's been 19 years of contradiction and clinical oxymorons is an understatement.
The Long Good-bye
I've been grappling with impending retirement for three years, and this is our third iteration of what's ultimately become LeeBella Coaching and Counseling. It's taken three years and three tries to get to this point, and I plan on writing about that journey a little later.
When Julie and I first started this thing, I was in deep need of therapy. I'd just left my stint as a Program Director at a local methadone clinic, where I suffered what I can only call "moral injury." While on the surface that may seem dramatic, I assure you that clinic was a War Zone, with multiple episodes of violence involving guns, knives, threats of violence, and verbal abuse directed towards patients and staff alike. The lines between perpetrator and victim got blurry, and even trained counselors turned on each other regularly.
Private Practice
I was in no shape to start my own business, but it was the only logical choice. Equipped with a few months of Psychodynamic Therapy (which truly worked), desperation, and a startling amount of naivete, I dove into the wonderful world of private practice.
I had no clue about what I was doing, and during that first year I had a total of 2 clients. I did another part-time stint at a local abstinence-based clinic that reaffirmed my commitment to never working for unqualified people again, and improved things to a nearly sustainable level in year 2.
Today, things look remarkably different. I have a small-but-mighty caseload, a few clinical supervisees that inspire me every day, and a Coaching practice that continually amazes me. Providing professional coaching for counselors and for Exam Prep is the most rewarding thing I've done in my career so far.
My Parting Words
Look, I'm not leaving quite yet. But it's going to take a while to say everything there is to say about being a Substance Abuse Professional. It's been both the best, and worst thing I've ever done, and I'd like to tell you about it.
I hope to have blogs and videos of substance: evidence-based obervations that push back at the inaccurate narratives surrounding both addiction and it's treatment. And to come clean about my own mistakes as I tried to navigate the intersection of being a person in long-term recovery, and addiction professional and a business person.
It's been a trip. I hope you join me as I get near the end of it. Whatever it is...
If you'd like more information on my services, check out the following links:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/983516
And for substance abuse treatment in North Carolina:
