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.
One study found that veterans who cut back on their drinking also suffered less pain shortly thereafter. Is there a proven cause and effect relationship behind this? It is possible that relief from chronic pain may be yet another health benefit of quitting alcohol?
Someone you care about just completed a drug and alcohol rehab program and is about to come back home. What do you do to support them? What shouldn’t you do?
Perhaps from the outside looking in, it seems odd that a liquid, mostly water with some chemistry added in, could have such a significant impact on human behavior, thought, emotion, and reaction. Why does drinking change the way a person behaves?
Every year, the United Nations issues a report on the state of drug use around the globe. What does this year’s report tell us? It’s predictably grim news.
The alcohol industry spends close to $500 million annually on alcohol advertising. Many would not think twice about this. But what about when alcohol advertising encourages teenagers and underage young adults to drink?
The majority of doctors practice medicine with ethics, morality, and the intention to help. But when doctors do become immoral, people get hurt. This is the story of one such doctor.
For decades, the American people have implemented strategies to prevent drunk driving. But more recently, drugged driving, a different but very real threat, has soared. How can we effectively address this new problem?
Though alcohol offers zero health benefits and presents an array of risks in its consumption, the alcohol industry in the United States is still a $252 billion industry and $1.47 trillion globally.
Philadelphia has recently seen a surge in overdose fatalities that involve heroin or fentanyl mixed with an animal tranquilizer called xylazine. Is this drug crisis in Philadelphia a unique case? Or is it common practice to combine drugs to create dangerous drug “cocktails”?
More young adults are using marijuana after states legalize and the fact that marijuana is quite harmful to people in their late teens and early 20s is a very real problem that’s made worse by continued legalization.
With Oregon being the first state to decriminalize all drugs, it’s time to look at how decriminalization can—or can’t—be done in a way that does NOT increase deaths resulting from drug abuse.
If three Boeing 737 planes crashed every week from 1999 to the present, the entire country would sit up and take notice. Drastic actions would be taken to prevent further crashes. But that’s how many people we’ve lost to overdoses and our efforts seem half-hearted.
In the beginning stages of addiction recovery, a lifestyle of long-term sobriety may feel out of reach. Thankfully, a sober lifestyle is not only possible; it is also very achievable when a person takes the necessary steps to create a better life for themselves.
Forty-seven U.S. States have filed lawsuits against Purdue Pharma, requesting a total of $2.2 trillion dollars as compensation for Purdue’s contributions to the opioid epidemic. Is this a fair number?
A dozen states are suing a drug manufacturer and three drug distributors for more than $26 billion. Why? So they can restore the lives and mop up the wreckage left by the opioid epidemic.
