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Bio
My upbringing was very typical of a blue-collar middle class home in the 50’s and 60’s. My Dad worked for the Southern California Gas Co. and Mom stayed at home and provided a clean, warm, and nurturing home. Dad was loved and respected in our home and extended family. Mom was the heart of our home. She was the nurturer and instructor, and most always patient with my sisters Deonn, Darlene and myself. Mom and Dad seemed to be ideal parents, and I believe to this day, in this regard, I was blessed more than most.From age sixteen to forty-four I struggled with addiction, primarily heroin and alcohol with other drugs as part of my history. I have experienced failed marriages, arrests, a police raid on my home, suicide attempts, hepatitis episodes, drug overdoses, and thirty-eight treatment attempts. This was a twenty-eight year process. I have been clean and sober as of February 6, 1997.I have worked with others as a part of my own recovery process. This has included leading, directing, and developing First Step Recovery and currently Next Step Recovery, programs with a variety of support groups offered ranging from Anger Management to Sexual Addiction. I have also held the positions of Counselor, House Manager, Head of Staff, and Program Coordinator in other recovery programs. I currently serve as Recovery Pastor in my home church and direct the recovery efforts there. The home in which I grew up.
