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.
We hear on the news these days that the U.S. struggles with an “opioid epidemic,” “an addiction crisis,” or a “national public health emergency.” All of this is true. But what we don’t hear about are the addiction struggles of other countries.
An addict is a creature of habit, someone who tends to use drugs and alcohol in the same places, usually even at the same time of day. It’s called a habit for a reason.
Does marijuana use relieve nausea or cause it? For as many as 2.75 million people each year, it may cause not only nausea but also severe abdominal pain and intense vomiting. But the treatment is simple: Stop smoking pot.
“Addiction does not discriminate.” How many times have we heard that line? But what if I said to you that addiction does discriminate? What if I told you that discrimination in addiction is part of the fundamental reasons why we have such a cataclysmic addiction problem in the first place?
One of the most common questions I hear is, “How can I help my friend with their drug habit?“ To people who don’t use drugs and alcohol, a substance abuse addiction can seem strange and confusing. Why would your friend continue to use a substance that was harmful to them? Why would they keep putting that concoction of chemicals into their body when it might kill them?
I was surfing through U.S. News the other day when I came across a news story that really caught my eye. U.S. News posted an article titled, “Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Pregnant Women Abusing Drugs is Not Child Abuse.”Having worked in addiction treatment most of my adult life, this story hit close to home for me.
In light of what may be the country’s worst substance abuse epidemic, the American people look high and low for answers on how they can do their part to resolve the addiction crisis. This is especially true if they had addiction touch their own life or the life of someone they cared about.
Let’s talk about diplomacy, a word that gets lost in translation too many times to count. More specifically, let’s talk about diplomacy and how the U.S. could use a diplomatic methodology to reduce drug trafficking from foreign nations.
We’ve often heard the question “Can someone be predisposed to addiction?” The question indicates that there can be something inherently or genetically different about a person that makes him more likely to use drugs and alcohol.
When it comes to addiction and treatment, we see information all the time that acts as reminders of what we should do. But what about some advice on what we shouldn’t do?
In all of our advancements as a species, the human race still struggles with its shortcomings. We’re actively working on them, but they’re still there.
Your brother or sister struggles with drug addiction or alcoholism. You want to help them, but you don’t know how. Maybe you’ve approached them before and they’ve rebuked your efforts to help.
We’ve heard the story time and time again regarding drug overdoses and fatalities. We know that drug use is highly dangerous because it is highly fatal.
You are a parent, a spouse, or a son or daughter of an addict. You’re looking for help for your loved one. Or you are yourself struggling with drug addiction or alcoholism, and you need to find help. The first thing to know is that help is available. But maybe you already know that.
Any time our country is faced with a serious emergency of some kind, we all come together to do something about it. But at the same time, certain individuals will always try and find a way to profit from that fear and worry. Such characters have shown up throughout history.
New York Supreme Court In a breaking news announcement, the notorious drug kingpin, Joaquin Guzman (known as El Chapo) was found guilty on all ten counts at his trial in New York. Joaquin has been in prison for three years, with his trial only just recently coming to a close this February 2019.
When we as a nation face a significant problem or threat that we struggle to resolve, we tend to err in one of two ways. Either we become overwhelmed by the issue as a whole, feeling more or less incapable in addressing it, or we get too focused in on one or two facets of the problem, never able to solve all of its parts.
Because of a significant increase in painkiller prescriptions to pet owners, veterinarians are being warned to watch for some owners who might be consuming these drugs instead of giving them to their pets.
What do you think would be easier or would take less effort invested and time committed—helping someone kick an addiction, or preventing someone from ever falling prey to a substance abuse habit in the first place? Prevention is the clear winner.
“The opioid epidemic.” We hear this line on the news, on social media, in discussions within our communities, and so on. It is a well-known fact at this point that the United States is struggling with an opioid epidemic.
