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 United States of America is suffering from a drug addiction epidemic, a state of national crisis quite unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes.
Recently, I was editing an article about the opioid epidemic and I read a statistic that seemed quite salient to the discussion at hand. It seemed to illustrate the problem in a clear easy to understand fashion that anyone could understand.
The subject of drug and alcohol abuse is one that we don’t like to talk about much, probably because it always feels like the “Unsolvable Problem“ of human nature. Case in point, there is the general datum that just about everyone knows that they shouldn’t use drugs and misuse alcohol, yet millions of Americans still do so. Why is this?
There is this very common, very dangerous misconception on the drug use scene, that drugs which occur naturally (i.e. organic drugs) are okay, safe, or are in some way “acceptable” to use. This is a misconception, and a dangerous one at that, because natural drugs are very dangerous.
One of the most misunderstood factors of drug and alcohol addiction recovery is that getting off of drugs and alcohol is a journey, it is an ongoing quest, a lifetime adventure that one will continuously work on.
The American people face a new threat in the drug scene, yet another development in the constantly growing and expanding drug problem of the 21st-century. After decades of contending with illegal drug trafficking from Mexico and other South and Central American countries, the U.S. must now address drug trafficking from overseas as well.
Here’s a news story that we can all get behind, a news story that focuses on good things and good news, instead of bad. And not only is this a news story, but this is a story that we can learn from.
Parents worry about their kids constantly. It’s just a part of being a parent. No matter their kids’ age, parents seem to worry, showing concern for their kids from birth into childhood, to adolescence, to their teen years, and even through adulthood.
We live in a very peculiar, very unique time in society right now. Let’s look at this. In the United States, our medicine and our approaches to health are more incredibly advanced than they have ever been in our history. Yet in that same token, the problems that we face and the threats to our health are also possibly more severe than they have been in many decades. And at the end of the day, the American people do not have nearly as high of a health ranking as they should, given our technology and medical prowess. Why is this?
If you or someone you know is addicted to drugs, you are probably no stranger to feelings of loneliness, hopelessness, and overall feelings of total misery and despair. These feelings are totally normal, as addiction is itself akin to the physical universe manifestation of despair.
It would seem that year after year, the U.S. drug and alcohol addiction problem has only grown more complicated and more difficult. It always seems like every time we approach a position where we might be able to overcome this problem, another drug comes on the scene, or another issue makes itself apparent to us. There is almost this feeling that we can't win when it comes to drugs and alcohol.
One of the problems that we are seeing now more so than perhaps ever before is the problem of poly-substance abuse. This is also called poly-addiction, or poly-drug addiction. What it means is simply to have multiple addictions at once.
At this point, it is pretty clear to me that the United States of America is suffering from a crippling and extremely derisive opioid addiction epidemic. Sometimes, we have a hard time swallowing this bitter truth.
Drug and alcohol addiction is a growing problem, a crippling health epidemic that has expanded across all aspects and areas of American health and life.
Heroin addiction can be easy to overlook if you are not familiar with the signs. You might notice that something is wrong with your friend or family member, but you could just as easily mistake the problem for a bout of the flu or a bad mood that passes.
In some ways, it’s the toughest environment ever in which to raise children. Sure, there were more deadly diseases before antibiotics and clean water. But in earlier times, there weren’t as many ways to lose your children to drugs or alcohol.
Do you have a son or daughter or maybe a friend who spends a lot of time going to nightclubs or dance clubs? Then the chances are very good that they are using drugs as well. Probably a combination of drugs which increases their risk of harm or even death.
