If you want help with an alcohol or other drug problem, referred to as a Substance Use Disorder, you have come to the right place. I care about your life, family and your happiness.

I am a certified substance abuse counselor – with 38 years of sobriety. I’ve had no triggers, cravings or urges since my clean date. Some call this their Birthday.

Not your belly button birthday. Your “New You” clean and sober date. I’ve noticed that people who are serious about and successful with sobriety know their ‘clean date’ when asked. Even if they’ve never heard the term, they get it.

A clean and sober date is the day you committed to abstinence and maintained it. After 38 years I believe I have “Transcended” what was a deadly, progressive problem for me. I surely would have been dead by now. Nothing has killed more people than alcohol diseases, accidents and crimes.

If you are committed to sobriety, and you truly want to put the disease and harmful behavior behind you, Congratulations! You will find the truth here.

But remember, “Above all, to thine own self be true!” Remember that phrase. Why? That’s a fair question. Here’s the answer:

“The Man in the Glass”
By Peter Dale Wimbrow Sr.
When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.
For it isn’t your father, or mother, or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.
He’s the fellow to please – never mind all the rest
For he’s with you, clear to the end
And you’ve passed your most difficult, dangerous test
If the man in the glass is your friend.
You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.”

Digest that thought. You can copy this and tape it around your house, office, or anywhere that it will help you. Frame it and put it in a place of importance in your house. Put it where it will be a constant reminder.

You can bs me all you want. And get pats on the back by your bs slippery people user friends too. But..?

You’ll get a lot of that here. Here’s the deal. You have formed some very limiting, permission-granting beliefs about alcohol and other drug use. We need to undo those limiting, harmful beliefs first.

Then we will replace them with new, healthy, empowering beliefs that will get you what you truly want?

Let me ask you: 1. What do you really want? 2. How will you know when you get it? 3. What is stopping you?

Whether you are looking for help with AOD, alcohol and other drug problems, or you are a counselor who needs CEUs, continuing education units, you will find it here under the classes tab above. Click on classes and get the information to meet your goals.

If you want help with a drug or alcohol problems, you can call me at 808 385 4550. Feel free to read the post in this blog. They were all written with you in mind.

MI, Motivational Interviewing skills are useful in treatment for drug court clients. So is knowing ‘tells’ and baseline cues.

You might use a MI question like, “if you could picture yourself successfully completing drug court, what would that look like?”

You might notice that your right-handed client looks ‘up to the right’. This is a visual construct. It’s a normal response for a right-handed person.

A leftie would be the opposite, usually.

Some say you can tell if a person is telling the truth or lying by watching their eye movements, skin tone and body language. These are called sensory acuity skills. They are next level skills.

There will be no long-term behavior changes for criminal offenders unless you first address and change permission-granting core beliefs and values. This is part of that change process.

That means there will be no reduction in relapse or costs of crime and treatment if you don’t change the clients’ belief systems first.

This is another skill level regarding meeting your clients where they are. You are establishing a baseline for how clients respond.

These concepts are covered in detail in the “Criminal Justice and Addictions Counseling” CEU/CLE classes at standokmanus.com.

You can take the class on Udemy also. “Criminal Justice and Addictions Counseling.”

The CBT map image below helps to explain the criminal-addict behavior cycle to clients. You can visually show them and discuss where they got tripped up in the cognitive behavior cycle.

Beliefs lead to behavior according to Albert Ellis, ABC-DE Theory. This is true for us too. The map image is from Drug Court Treatment: The Verdict. Amazon.com

If you would like to discuss your problems with alcohol and other drugs you can call me now at 808 385 4550.

Imagination and perception are extremely interesting phenomena in the substance abuse field. And they are effective.

Psychology of change creates open windows to (y)our beliefs, values, and behavior change possibilities. It’s the Psychology of Behavior Change. For more information or CEU click the classes button. Or go to this link. https://lnkd.in/g9JUVuVr

Whether you are a counselor seeking CEU or a person in need of recovery from alcohol or other drugs, this class will work for you. It can be the first step on the Trail to Transcendence from your problem.

If you are an attorney, go to classes and choose the Judges’ and Attorney’s class. You can have up to 34 CLE.

Imagine the possibilities once you are clean and sober. Sign up now…

People with addiction or criminal behavior problems have one priority when it comes to behavior change.

We need to address permission-granting beliefs about AOD/CTC, alcohol and other drugs/criminal thinking and conduct, ASAP in treatment. This is a basic CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) principle according to Judith S. Beck, author and therapist.

Then we can address REBT-DE (Ellis) and belief change events and processes. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) points out the need to address irrational beliefs. Why? They lead to irrational behavior.

We need to learn how to dispute (D) those beliefs and replace them (E) with empowering beliefs.

There will be no long-term behavior changes without changing AOD/CTC core beliefs first. (Wanberg/Milkman)

Belief change is covered extensively in my criminal justice and addictions counseling class. CEUs available. https://lnkd.in/g9JUVuVr.

Call me now at 808 385 4550 if you need help with permission-granting beliefs that you would like to change.

Substance abuse treatment, counselors and therapists deal with the beliefs and values of clients throughout their careers. Why is this so important?

“There will be no long-term behavior changes unless core beliefs and values are changed first”, according to Wanberg and Milkman.”

Paraphrasing Beck, “Permission-granting limiting beliefs about alcohol and other drug use and criminal thinking and conduct must be addressed as soon as possible,” according to Judith S. Beck. This is a specific topic and skill set for practitioners.

We all have belief clutches. These are beliefs we clutch to even in the face of death. Clients, criminal offenders and addicts hold dear to these to rationalize their criminal addict behavior.

Attorneys also have belief clutches. So do therapists and counselors.

Criminal and addict beliefs are critical. So are the beliefs of attorneys.

Due process depends on the beliefs and values of society, judges and attorneys.

To paraphrase Miller and Rollnick, “Beliefs of the counselor…are as important as beliefs of the clients.”

Belief change skills are taught in my CEU and CLE classes. Clients can benefit from these classes as well.

These topics are discussed in Drug Court Treatment: The Verdict. Amazon.com

I offer confidential Zoom meetings to discuss issues important to you. Call me now, 808 385 4550.

We all need to feel okay and accepted. Parenting plays the major part in this process.

“You’re no good.” “You’ll never amount to anything.” “You don’t deserve…, X.” You fill in the blank.

This could be an example of traumatized parents acting out on and traumatizing their children because that’s all they know. This type of verbal and emotional abuse is unvalidating.

If you bought all that junk from parents or peers, you will, find help here getting “unstuck.”

Call me now at 808 385 4550. Take the class for counselors and you can get a head start on the change process.

The cognitive process is the same for all of us. Offenders and criminal justice and addictions professionals too. We all have a similar operating system.

CBT map image from Drug Court Treatment: The Verdict, p.15, Amazon.com explains how the process works in detail.

The CLE and CEU classes, above, describe this in detail.

Do you have grounds for appeal as a mandated drug court treatment client?

“Substance abuse treatment focuses on negative beliefs about self and facilitating or permission-granting beliefs about substance abuse” said Judy Beck, a Cognitive Theory expert.

For the drug court substance abuse treatment programs, I would add ‘permission-granting beliefs about AOD/alcohol and other drugs abuse and criminal thinking and conduct/CTC.

As most drug courts have been abstinence based, this would include limiting beliefs and values about any use of any mind-altering substance while in treatment.

If specific belief change work was not done for and with the client, it could be grounds for appeal. One might question if it is also malpractice.

NADCP, The National Association of Drug Court Professionals, addresses medically assisted treatment, MAT, and provides webinar training at the time of this writing that could be useful to the reader. NADCP has great online courses.

A CBT map image (p.15) explains the whole process. It is from Drug Court Treatment: The Verdict, Amazon.com

Attorneys, jurists and clinicians should be aware of the CBT process illustrated by that image. The image is shown, described and illustrated in the CLE classes for judges, attorneys and therapists’ CEU classes. Click on classes, above, to get started now.

Do you need help with alcohol or other drug problems? Call me now at 808 385 4550. It confidential.

Help with substance abuse treatment and criminal thinking and conduct is addressed at length in this program. The goals of drug courts are to reduce recidivism and lower the cost of treatment and crime.

Why do so many clients fail in mandated programs? Does this create grounds for appeal?

Do you need CLEs? If so, you now have a choice:

1. a Zoom meeting with me for your law firm.

2. A bar association group Zoom meeting.

3.A private one-on-one Zoom meeting with me.

The choice is yours. Pick one. You may simply choose to do the class online at your own pace.

Not your ordinary CLE. Participants will understand why clients and offenders fail in mandated treatment. Has the drug court treatment promise been broken? If so, how has it been broken? Is it as simple as E&O?

The Sine qua non, of SUD treatment. There will be no long-term behavior changes if this is not done first. You will learn what that is in my CLE class.

You will understand why Substance Use Disorder, SUD is more common among the legal profession than general public.

It’s simple. The same things that hold back mandated clients limit all of us. You will be able to recognize these issues. Help with drugs, alcohol and addiction is available here, with me, for you as well.

More important, you will understand how these all work and be able to change them working together.

Making it rain. To be extraordinary is to be free of restraints of the past. See how to get past issues that limit professional excellence. We already have the strengths and resources to resolve our issues according to Carl Rogers.

Here’s how to make it rain in the criminal justice and addictions (Drug Court) field, click on classes.

Or,You can call me now at 808 385 4550 if you have questions or would like to schedule a Zoom meeting for yourself or your firm. California State Bar Association Approved Provider #19867

” In the legal context, a rainmaker can be a lawyer who brings many clients to a law firm. In other words, a rainmaker is a lawyer who generates a large amount of business for a law firm usually through wide contacts within the business community” according to uslegal.com. Click on classes on the home page for rain maker ideas and MCLE.

It is good to be a rainmaker. Here’s how to make it rain in the criminal justice and addictions (Drug Court) field, click on classes. Learn why drug court and other mandated clients fail in the program. This could be good grounds for appeals and good verdicts to come.

Alcohol, drug and other addictions treatment ideas are included in this program. Substance Use Disorder treatment should have specific goals for behavior change. Errors and omissions: mistakes are common or there would not be insurance to cover the risks involved.

You can call me at 808 385 4550 if you have questions or would like to schedule a Zoom meeting for yourself or your firm. A flat rate is available for your firm to cover all professionals who need CLE.