Chief Clinical Editor for Narconon, Claire Pinelli
Claire Pinelli has been a teacher and counselor for over 45 years. Claire has always been interested in helping others, even while working on her degree in mathematics. Eventually, Claire took a year off to follow her passion, then returned to finish her degree graduating Cum Laude for Brooklyn College, CUNY.
Throughout the 1970s Claire continued to counsel others, moving to Los Angeles before eventually settling in New York City where she married. While in New York Claire began a new chapter in her life by teaching in the New York City School System, where she helped establish the first computer science curriculum for the New York City School System. Despite her busy schedule, Claire found the time to earn her Master of Science Degree, Cum Laude, in Computer Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York (now New York University).
In 1985 she left New York with her husband and moved to Los Angeles finding herself managing a multi-specialty medical clinic in Los Angeles. As time went on, Claire’s family grew to 3 children and with her husband, they made the decision to move to Northern California for her children to have a quality education. It was here that Claire began one of the most fulfilling chapters in her life when a local Narconon drug and alcohol rehab center asked for her help. She agreed, and it was there she realized her passion and ability to use her counseling skills to help those addicted to drugs and alcohol as well as their families. While there, she was able to put in a standard withdrawal protocol and double the program enrollment.
In 2004 she moved on to work at a larger Narconon facility in Oklahoma. Here she was met with a new challenge. Over the course of her 2-year tenure, Claire saw the enrollment double as she supervised treatment for over 200 clients at a time. Her skills as an administrator as well as a counselor were put to good use as she helped thousands of addicts discover how to live life free from drugs and alcohol. After ensuring a smooth transition, in 2007 she decided to move to Houston, Texas, where she and her family live today. In Houston, she and her husband founded Q.U.A.D. Consultants of Texas, Inc. A Texas corporation whose goal is to help people Quit Using Alcohol and Drugs by treating and educating not only the addict, but the counselors, the family and the facility as well.
Over the years, she never stopped learning and advancing her knowledge and certification to increase her expertise and skill to help others. She became an LADC with Clinical Supervision Certification from the Oklahoma Board of Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselors; an Internationally Certified Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor (ICAADC) and a Certified Clinical Supervisor (CCS) from the International Certification and Reciprocity Consortium; a Registered Addiction Specialist (RAS) from the Breining Institute in California; and a Master’s Level Certified Addiction Professional and Certified Addiction Professional (MCAP) from the state of Florida.
Claire has been doing talks and lectures on drug addiction and treatment as well as classes for professionals since 2005.
She currently is living in Houston with her family and consulting for several facilities and creating and delivering Board Approved Continuing Education training for professional and lay people alike.
Find more information about synthetic drugs and synthetic drug addiction with professionally reviewed up-to-date articles. Getting informed is the first step in overcoming synthetic drug addiction.
Find more information about hallucinogens and hallucinogen addiction with professionally reviewed up-to-date articles. Getting informed is the first step in overcoming hallucinogens addiction.
Find more information about prescription drugs and prescription drug addiction with professionally reviewed up-to-date articles. Getting informed is the first step in overcoming prescription drug addiction.
One of the most significant risks of using drugs is the possibility that an addict will unknowingly use a completely different drug from what they were expecting. This risk has been particularly evident with the recent surge in fatal fentanyl overdoses.
Methadone is used in both the treatment of pain and the treatment of addiction. But many people misuse this long-lasting drug and wind up addicted to it, with a threat of overdose hanging over their heads every day.
While it's a valuable pain reliever for those suffering post-surgical or end-of-life pain, oxycodone must be carefully administered. Already, this drug has contributed to the ruin of millions of lives, starting with the overprescribing of the pain reliever OxyContin.
Oxymorphone is one of the drugs on a long list of medical opioids abused by those in the throes of addiction. While it is not one of the most powerful ones, it is still capable of ruining a person's life and causing a fatal overdose.
Synthetic drugs are among the most dangerous drugs in the world, but some of their worst effects are on the minds of the users. This makes them no less deadly, however.
In recent years, there have been growing reports of fentanyl being laced into batches of marijuana, posing a severe risk to people who think they are using “just marijuana.”
Hydrocodone is often sold as Vicodin or Lortab and is the prescription drug most frequently abused by those who have chosen opioids as their drugs of choice. While it eases pain for some injured or sick people, hydrocodone also contributes greatly to the addiction problems of millions of Americans.
Cough medicine sounds like a pretty innocent and harmless thing to have around the house. But many formulas contain dextromethorphan, an abusable and addictive drug that can put a person in the hospital if too much is consumed.
People who use cannabis sometimes say that they feel okay to drive after an hour or two has passed. But are they really okay to drive? A new study shows they are not.
A common view shared by many people who consume alcohol is that limited, conservative alcohol consumption poses zero risks to one’s physical health. However, a new study indicates that even just one alcoholic beverage per day can reduce brain size over time.
Some people who abuse Ambien, a sleep aid, begin using it just as directed by their physicians. It is prescription-only as it is meant to only be used for the short term - there is a problem with Ambien creating addiction if it is used for the long-term.
Some people may think that it's safe to misuse benzodiazepines but it is anything but safe. Not only is addiction possible, but death by overdose from these drugs may also occur. Withdrawal from these drugs offers its own life-threatening dangers.
What are prescription depressants? These are drugs that depress the function of the central nervous system (CNS). In general, they are used to reduce anxiety or bring about sleep.
Fentanyl and its analogs are deadly, powerful synthetic opioids that are not only found in supplies of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. Fatal doses are also being pressed into several types of counterfeit pills. It's never been more dangerous to be addicted to any drug.
Morphine has been around for hundreds of years but it is just as much of an abused and addictive drug as any other opioid. It comes with the same dangers of overdose and the same severe symptoms of withdrawal.
