I am a South African addictions specialist, philosophical practitioner, academic, author and publisher. I studied psychology at the University of South Africa and philosophy at the University of Cape Town, and was a visiting scholar at KU Leuven where I conducted research at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, and the Research Center for Phenomenology and Continental Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy. I am a registered psychological counsellor (Health Professions Council of South Africa), trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy (Loyola University Chicago), and a certified logic-based therapist and trainer (National Philosophical Counseling Association).
I have worked in the mental health field for over 25 years as a counselor, clinical and program director, and have developed and managed several inpatient addiction treatment programs. As an academic I have worked as an adjunct professor and researcher in the United States, and as a part-time and guest lecturer at South African Universities. I currently work as a researcher and instructor at the I-System Institute for Transdisciplinary Studies, Utah State University, and as a faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy, Loyola University Chicago. I am the director of the South African Logic-based Therapy and Consulting Institute, and the owner and editor-in-chief of Phronesis Publishing, an imprint that publishes academic and trade books on applied philosophy.
I am the developer of the Integrated Metatheoretical Model of Addiction, and am a co-developer of several resiliency-based interventions and programs developed at Utah State University, a co-developer of two programs that were listed as evidence-based by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the lead developer of the Recovery Resilience Program, to be published as a clinical manual by Cambridge University Press.
I am the author of " Integral Guide to Recovery: Twelve Steps and Beyond" (Integral Publishers), "An Integral Foundation for Addiction Treatment: Beyond the Biopsychosocial Model" (Integral Publishers), co-author of the "Mind-Body Workbook for Addiction: Effective Tools for Relapse Prevention and Recovery" (New Harbinger), "Social Unrest: Resolving the Dichotomies Between You/Me and Us/Them" (Utah State University), and "Resilient Mind Skills Workbook" (Utah State University), and a contributing author to "Current Approaches in Addiction Psychology" (Cambridge Scholars Publishing) and "Opioids in South Africa: Towards a Policy of Harm Reduction" (Human Sciences Research Council Press), and have published in various academic journals, including "Addiction" and "International Journal of Applied Philosophy," in the fields of addiction treatment and studies, theoretical psychology and applied philosophy. My latest book, "Building Recovery Resilience: Addiction Recovery and Relapse Prevention Workbook," was published by Cambridge University Press, and my next book "Recovery Resilience Program Facilitator's Guide" (Cambridge University Press) is forthcoming in 2025. I am currently working on a chapter for the "Oxford Handbook of Philosophy as a Way of Life" (Oxford University Press).
