About Mason:
I’m Denver native and have been working in the mental health treatment filed since 1992. From locked forensic psychiatric facilities to private practice, I’ve worked at all levels of the treatment continuum. Prior to moving into private practice, I was the executive director of a large agency that served at-risk youth and their families. After 13 years in the non-profit world, I now have the privilege of working with a variety of people in my private practice in Downtown Littleton but specialize in work with teens, young adults, and their families. One of my earliest memories is watching Rick Upchurch return a punt for a touchdown against the Chiefs in 1976. I’ve been hooked on Broncos football, through all four Super Bowl loses and all three glorious wins, ever since. I ride my longboard, backpack as often as possible and have made it up and down sixteen of Colorado’s 14ers. Outside of that, I stay busy keeping my life as boring and calm as possible.
About MJM Psychological Services
No matter how old or young, every person who has ever walked into a therapist’s office has done so for the same reason: Something has to change. And that’s what I’m here for. I help people make difficult changes. In addition to direct work with my clients in my office, I teach a number of classes required for substance abuse therapists in-training and provide clinical and administrative consultation to a number of treatment centers across the Denver metro area.
Credentials
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC – #3719)
Licensed Addictions Counselor (LAC – #206)
SOMB Full Operating Juvenile Provider and Evaluator
SOMB Supervisor Level Provider and Evaluator
AASI-2 Licensed Clinician
Office of Behavioral Health Approved Trainer
Bachelor’s degree in Counseling and Educational Psychology from the University of Missouri
Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Colorado.
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How long have you been an addiction counselor and what about the career drew you in?
I have been working in the addictions profession since 1992 and was drawn to this work due to a personal and family connection to substance use. Addictions, how they impact the brain and the interplay between our behavior and our psychology is a fascinating field of study, as well. While it was personal and family factors that drew me in, the science of how we think and behave has kept me interested all this time.
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What advice do you have for someone who is either training to become a counselor or is just starting their first job?
Be professional, take this job seriously, and invest in your professional development. Part of being a professional isn’t just how you speak and relate people but also how you handled the business of being a counselor. That goes for everything from how you handle the financial land to your professionalism when it comes to writing reports.
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What is important to you about training CAC classes and what do you enjoy about training at Odyssey?
First and foremost, you will never learn more about the subject than when you’re responsible for teaching it. So, one of the things that I love most about teaching these classes is that it gives me an opportunity to really invest and learn about the subjects. On a more basic level, these classes offer me a really nice break from the day-to-day grind private practice. I love my interactions with students and teaching these classes is energizing. It really keeps me fresh and sharp for the in-session work that I do a regular basis.
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Given that Colorado is a state which has medicinal and recreational marijuana use, what do you think about addicts using marijuana during the recovery process?
For me, I think the issue isn’t really any different from somebody who’s trying to decide whether cigarettes or tobacco in any form are a reasonable part of their recovery. The so-called marijuana maintenance program is something individuals with the substance use disorder have been trying to pull off for decades. Sometimes it works well and we can see marijuana used as a form of harm reduction. Other times we find people unable to modulate their use of a psychoactive substances of any kind.
For a certain percentage of individuals, treatment for a substance use disorder will require abstinence from all psychoactive substances and this obviously includes marijuana. For others, it may not be so clear-cut. I do believe that people who are struggling with cannabis related substance use problems require a very specialized type of treatment that differs in some fundamental ways from an individual who may be treated, for example, for an opiate addiction.
Lastly, and this may not be a popular perspective, but access to marijuana wasn’t a problem for most people in Colorado before legalization. It’s not yet clear that legalization has or will result in any increase in use. Of greater concern to access is the changing perception of teens with respect to the potential harm of marijuana. We don’t know if this is the result of legalization directly or just a correlative side-effect, but when teens perceive a drug as less harmful, they are more likely to use that drug. There is a growing perception, particularly among youth, that marijuana is completely safe, and that’s just not true. I’m hoping that the marijuana industry will do what it took litigation to get the tobacco industry to do: provide truthful information. If the marijuana industry will see that it’s in its best interest to join forces with treatment providers and direct funding toward useful education and treatment resources, I think it’s a win-win.
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How has your perspective on addiction changed since you began counseling? Training?
It’s changed dramatically since I first began. In reality, as a new therapist I had very little concept of what this job truly entailed, what it meant to help people make difficult changes, and where the whole concept of recovery and healing came into the picture. Experience is the only true teacher to learning how we are a part of these processes as well as how we sometimes get in the way of our clients. I’ve also seen a change in how we as therapists are trained. We are in an age of outcomes, so there’s obviously more of an emphasis on using evidence-based practices than when I first began. However, in order for innovation to occur, we need people willing to operate at the vanguard of where techniques proven to be effective merge with techniques that may not yet have the data supporting their use. Maintaining this tension is tricky right now.
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What are some common traits you see in some of your most successful students?
If I had to settle on one trait, it would be openness to learn. Coming into CAC classes thinking you have nothing to learn is an easy way to waste your time and money. Those students who greet learning opportunities with a genuine openness to gain something from the experience are the ones who walk away from these classes having grown in a significant way.
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Is there anything a prospective student can do to prepare to become an addiction counselor?
The CAC training provides an excellent avenue for prospective students, especially those who aren’t enrolled in a graduate program. Prospective students should treat the CAC educational process as if it was a job. Come to classes prepared to learn and participate and come to class actively looking to find a way to grow professionally. I would also encourage prospective students to seek out as much of a variety of experience as possible. Don’t lock yourself into thinking you only want to work with one certain kind of client or specific client population. Get a varied experience and you will learn far more than you think you know now.
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There has been tremendous growth and changes in addiction field in the past several years.
As a clinician and trainer what do see as one of the most meaningful changes impacting you and your students? We are in the middle of a fascinating social experiment when it comes to cannabis. Surprisingly, the treatment field has been slow to recognize the unique clinical needs of the primary cannabis abuser. I am actively pushing for this to change. Also, the advances in our understanding of the brain and how it’s impacted by addiction is leading to more sophisticated and effective treatment. We know more about how, when and why treatment works (and doesn’t work) than ever before, and much of this is directly related to our improved understanding of that wonderful 3lb organ inside out skulls
