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.
There was a recent article in the Washington Post which caught my eye. The report was about county prosecutor candidates competing for votes in Virginia. The article discussed the layered nuances of criminality and drug use.
When we look at significant illnesses like cancer, diabetes, MS, heart conditions, dementia, Alzheimer’s, and so on, our hearts go out to those who struggle with such illnesses. We feel strongly for them and for the struggles they inevitably face.
It’s no small task to measure the addiction potential of a substance. But researchers still put in the effort do this in order to furnish us with valuable information about different drugs. That information can help us greatly in addressing the drug crisis that our nation is mired in.
One of the biggest fears that anyone in recovery has is the fear of relapse. And we get that. Life as a newly-sober individual is challenging. Going through an addiction treatment center can do a lot for helping an individual turn their life around, but it won’t solve all of their problems for them.
The U.S. struggles in the grip of an opioid crisis—perhaps the worst addiction epidemic that our nation has ever seen. And in the last few years, a new strain of opioids has entered the scene, creating a surge in the addiction crisis and a resulting spike in the death toll.
A recent analysis of drug overdose deaths shows a shocking increase in the number of older American women who are lost to overdoses of prescription opioids or even heroin and fentanyl. It’s vital to understand how this happens so these losses can be prevented.
Drug use and excessive alcohol consumption cause and worsen a very long list of physical and mental illnesses. To maintain a healthy life, avoiding drug use, or recovering from addiction, are vital first steps.
Most of the time, when someone overdoses on drugs, they are taken to a hospital which treats the overdose. Of course, this is what happens when the addict is around someone who can call 911. But what happens when the patient recovers from the overdose?
Excessive alcohol consumption is killing more people than drug overdoses, but you see almost nothing about this problem in the headlines. We take a closer look at the depth of this challenge to social and individual health.
The unique struggle that a parent of a drug user faces should not be wished on anyone. When a mother and father have a son or daughter who falls prey to drug addiction or an alcohol habit, this becomes a cruel and entrapping, even devastating, problem for them.
Wouldn’t it be incredible if a parent could look their child in the eye and know, just know , exactly what was going to become a problem for that child in the future? Every parent wants to set their kids up for a successful and happy life just as much as they can.
Overcoming the opioid crisis will only be accomplished with the “blood, toil, tears and sweat“ (to quote Winston Churchill) of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people just like you. Learn how you can help.
Some pregnant women continue to use drugs or drink during pregnancy because they can’t stop themselves. Others don’t yet know they are pregnant or have never been educated on the risks. Learn what risks a pregnant woman using opioids, marijuana, alcohol or other drugs is really taking.
New research indicates that, when a dentist prescribes opioid painkillers to teens and young adults following wisdom teeth surgery, they are also putting those same teens and young adults at risk for addiction.
It’s no longer a news story that our nation is struggling with an opioid addiction epidemic. It’s been going on for some time. This is an epidemic that started out with opioid pain relievers, and even though other opioid addictions have cropped up since then, a decent piece of the pie chart that is the American opioid addiction crisis is still comprised of pain reliever addiction.
As the addiction crisis seems to grow and grow, surging forward no matter what we try to do to stop it, we’ve had to get a creative in our methodology for tackling the problem.
Some employers are scrapping pre-employment or workplace drug tests because of the difficulty of finding or retaining employees who can pass them. Is this a sound move? If tests are abandoned, are there any other actions an employer can take to create a drug-free workplace? This is a defeatist, apathetic and scary reason. It sounds like they are scrapping testing for qualified employees, because they can’t find enough qualified employees so they will hire unqualified employees.
Researchers may have found a medication that might alleviate the withdrawal symptoms resulting from marijuana addiction. Is this a useful medication? We break down the answer point by point.
We’ve had the opioid pitch shoved down our throats (literally) for two decades now, and not only are we finding that these drugs are highly addictive and potentially lethal but now we’re finding that they don’t even work that well in their intended role.
