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.
The truth about opioid pain reliever drugs and their stark similarities to heroin and other illegal street opioids is more than well known. But what about the common amphetamine drug Adderall?
Every year, thousands of veterans struggle with pain. According to Practical Pain Management, no less than fifty-five percent Between 2000 and 2011, approximately 5 million veterans (nearly 55% of VHA patients) were diagnosed with one or more musculoskeletal disorders of our twenty million veterans struggle with some form of chronic pain…
This morning I went online and typed into Google, “How can we address addiction in America?” As I viewed the results, the first thing that came to mind was how many different strategies different groups were talking about.
When we think of drug use, the first thing we think of is not inhalants. Some don’t even know what these drugs are. We usually think of heroin, opioid painkillers, cocaine, crack cocaine, meth, alcohol, marijuana, etc.
We’ve likely all heard more than once the story of the growing prevalence of drug and alcohol addiction in America. This is a problem that started becoming more severe around the turn of the century and which has doubled, tripled and even quadrupled itself since then.
How do we create our lives in such a way to be the best version of ourselves? This is a quest that everyone faces, whether they are recovering from addiction or not. But the truth is, recovering addicts do sometimes stumble and find hardship, even after they have kicked a drug habit for some time.
Our country is clearly struggling with a harsh drug addiction epidemic. From President Trump’s official declaration of a National Public Health Emergency in October 2017 to the constant CDC reports of highest-ever overdose death rates each year, we can be certain that the drug problem is growing.
It seems that every time I turn on the TV, check my social media, or open a news tab, I’m assailed with horror stories of our nation’s opioid epidemic. I’ve watched lives get torn apart from opioids…
All across the nation, our country has experienced increasing drug problems and addiction issues. But even though the entire nation as a whole has experienced growing drug problems and issues, the entire nation has not experienced this crisis equally.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, more than eleven million, five-hundred thousand people misused opioid prescription pain reliever medications in 2016.
The holidays can be a stressful time. We get it. Gifts, close family members, extended family, in-laws, work parties, church events, Christmas cards, decorations, emotions, memories, it all combines every year around December, and it tends to have mixed effects on all of us.
President Xi…has agreed to designate Fentanyl as a Controlled Substance, meaning that people selling Fentanyl to the United States will be subject to China’s maximum penalty under the law.
It’s not hard to see plenty of signs that alcohol consumption —even excessive consumption—among women is being normalized. Taken one at a time, these signs may not be startling. But step back and look at the bigger picture and things look a little more sinister.
Repeated acts of enabling actually prevent many people from going to rehab even when that is the only thing that will save their lives. Is there any way to get people to stop enabling? On a winter’s evening, a middle-aged woman plucked up her courage and walked into the backyard of her home.
We live in a society that makes drug use “cool” and “hip.” Marijuana is the “cool” thing to do now, and people who pop pills at parties are a part of the “in” crowd.
America is in a bloody battle to save the lives of their loved ones. Family members of anyone who is addicted tremble when the phone rings. Entire communities are ravaged by the deaths of people dear to them.
Ritalin is widely prescribed to both school children and adults, but some people abuse it non-medically for the cocaine-like high it produces. When they are later diagnosed with an early form of emphysema, they may realize that the thrill wasn’t worth the price.
We all know the story of addiction. If we haven’t seen this happen to ourselves or to someone else first-hand, we’ve certainly heard from a close family member or a loved what it’s like for them to watch one of their loved ones struggle with addiction.
No parent wants to find out that their teen has a drinking problem. Parents want the best for their kids. Parents want their kids to have healthy and rewarding lifestyles, to do well in school and in activities of their own choosing, and to experience adolescence and young adulthood in a way that sets them up for a rewarding and pleasant adult life. But teen drinking throws a monkey wrench into the best-laid plans…
Have you noticed that there seems to be more talk about addiction today than there was perhaps fifteen years ago? More than there was just ten years ago? Five years ago? The truth is, addiction is a growing problem in our nation, and we’re not going about addressing it in the right way.
