Guiding Others Through Experience and Expertise
First and foremost I am a person with over 16 years of abstinence and long term recovery from sex addiction, substance use & food addiction. I have done the impossible and know what it takes to recover from addiction and live a healthy happy life…
Over the past 16 years I have worked in the field of addiction and mental health as a clinician, therapist, supervisor, clinical consultant and clinical director. As a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC) and Certified Sex Addiction Therapist (CSAT) I have extensive experience treating individuals who suffer form addiction and co-occurring issues.
Russell believes strongly that “total wellness” in mind, body, and spirit is the key to long term recovery. And that this unfolds differently for each person. Recovery begins with commitment, willingness and honesty.
“My mission is to help men struggling with sex addiction realize that they can reach a state where the “obsession” to act out goes away and maintaining sexual sobriety becomes easy”
Where I Came From
I grew up in Massachusetts and from a very young age started playing the French Horn. My life plan was to play in the Boston Symphony. I went to music school and even played professionally for a while. But life had different plans for me. I ended up having addiction issues and went to treatment. After experiencing recovery and true wellness for the first time in my life, I fell in love with helping others do the same.
So I went back to school and received a masters degree in counseling. And here we are! Sex addiction therapist, wellness enthusiast, and addiction expert!
I have also held several clinical director positions in treatment programs where I have had the privilege of managing and supervising other therapists helping individuals in early recovery.
The Turning Point In My Life
I struggled for many years, feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. Not really understanding why. So it was a natural progression for me to seek comfort in my addictive behavior (sex, food, drugs/alcohol).
My turning point came when I learned that I used these addictive behaviors as a means to cope with my real problem, my “life problem”.
The inner turmoil.
For many years I thought that if I just stopped my behavior then everything would be ok. But that never worked long term.
Eventually I learned that the key to overcoming addiction was to heal the person that needed the compulsive behavior to feel better. When this was done my uncontrollable urges subsided. AND because I was treating my “life problem” LIFE GOT BETTER. I no longer felt uncomfortable in my own skin. Win win!
What I Do When I Am Not Doing Coaching
I am married and have 2 boys (17 & 12). Much of my free time is spent with my family. But I have many personal interests and try to fit as many of them into my busy life as possible. We live right on the edge of both the Ossipee Mountains and the White Mountains of New Hampshire so hiking is one of my all time favorite things to do. I hike whenever possible and absolutely love it. We also love the ocean so we spend a lot of time at a family beach house down in Charlestown RI. I am obsessed with the band Phish and have seen them almost 200 time since 1993. Don’t judge LOL, it’s just an obsession of mine. I have traveled to see this band all over the country with my friends for the past 3o years.
I love meditation, spiritual growth, nutrition and physical activity (running, hiking, yoga). One of my favorite ways unwind is to do hot Yoga. The type of yoga you do in a 105 degree room for 90 minutes. It’s an amazing experience!
Many of these personal wellness activities are part of what I help my clients discover for themselves. The key to overcoming addiction is to become “interested” in health and personal growth so that it becomes automatic and enjoyable. I am a big proponent of mind, body, spirit wellness AND I practice what I preach…
