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.
As cannabis legalization efforts have increased across the U.S. more youth begin to see marijuana as non-threatening and usage rates have begun to climb, creating serious problems for this nation's young people.
Drug addiction is growing in the United States, and it's growing across the world, too. Every year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime releases a world report, a document that highlights drug-related issues across the planet.
Addiction can crop up among any set of people. No one is safe from the risk of addiction. Even highly trained medical experts still fall prey to the very substances that they sometimes must prescribe.
Without much doubt, raising a healthy baby depends to some degree on both parents maintaining healthy lifestyles. When it comes to alcohol, new data suggests that BOTH the mother-to-be AND the father-to-be should abstain from alcohol in order to have a healthy baby.
While much attention has been put on the use of mind-altering substances during pregnancy, new information shows that use of these substances, by either parent, before conception can impact brain development.
A new study indicates that clinicians need to look beyond opioid addiction, mainly because the vast majority of addicts are now using more than one substance. When someone is addicted to more than one drug, the stakes are much higher, the risks much more significant, and the need to get help far more pressing.
According to new data, not only was the overall number of positive drug tests at a 16-year high in 2019, but the rate of positive tests (percentage of drug tests administrated that came out positive) was also at an all-time high. What does this data tell us?
Treatment of classroom and behavior problems with stimulants has had a very widespread and dangerous side effect: the diversion of these stimulants to illicit use. This is mostly due to the myth that they enhance a person's ability to succeed academically.
If you’ve never struggled with drug and alcohol addiction before, you may be at a loss for how to help an addicted loved one. What words should you use to help a loved one see that they need to get help? What words should you avoid?
The office of the Surgeon General is responsible for assessing and addressing the serious health problems that the American people face every year. With that in mind, it is no surprise that the Surgeon General has released several reports on the state of addiction in America.
While alcohol is a problem everywhere, it does not affect all states equally. As the drug epidemic has swept across America, so too has alcohol addiction become more severe.—and it seems to touch down with particular severity in certain regions.
While there is no question that the United States is struggling with an addiction crisis of epic proportions, some of the more telling details of the crisis are not broadly discussed. For example, what could we learn by examining what age range of Americans is most likely to die from drug abuse?
Loss of life skills is part and parcel of being addicted. So it stands to reason that regaining those skills is an essential part of recovery. The more thoroughly these skills are rebuilt (or built for the first time), the more likely it is that sobriety will last.
It’s known that drug and alcohol abuse has a harmful effect on one’s cardiovascular system. However, new data suggests that the real threat of drugs on one's heart may have been entirely underestimated.
It may seem unrealistic to consider a world where addiction to drugs and alcohol does not exist. Is it even possible? Or is addiction too much an intrinsic part of human nature?
In September 2019, I wrote a perhaps overly optimistic piece about the fact that America was finally seeing a downturn in overdose deaths. In the more than ten years I’d been writing about this topic, I had only seen the steadiest of climbs in these numbers. I had no idea—and neither did anyone else—how much worse things would get.
Why not just say no to alcohol completely? It’s a serious question that many Americans are considering. As it becomes more apparent how harmful drinking can be, many might want to consider swearing off the substance for good. Just because alcohol is legal does not mean it’s safe.
How has COVID-19 affected Americans seeking drug or alcohol rehab? This pandemic has made life difficult for ALL Americans. But for those who need drug rehab to protect their very existence, it has been far worse.
What happens when a city experiences a massive surge in drug overdose deaths? What resources do residents have to help addicts before they overdose? One Canadian city is forced to find out.
