The post Meet The Staff: Addiction Specialist Butch Warner appeared first on Pasadena Recovery Center.
]]>
Butch Warner, MA, MFT, CADC-II, LAADC (Psychotherapist/Addiction Specialist)PRC employee since: 2004
Quote to live by: “Don’t complain and don’t explain.”
Bio: George “Butch” Warner is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a licensed CAADAC drug and alcohol specialist. A multi-instrumentalist and composer, Butch runs the Music Therapy group for PRC clients and teaches communication skills. He is also a feature writer, with a host of articles published on addiction, music, penology, religion and pharmacology. Butch has been in recovery since August 23, 1998, and has been a PRC Case Manager since 2004.
He is also the successful player/coach for the Pasadena Recovery Center softball team.
In his spare time, Butch writes for many local newspapers on a wide-range of subjects including addiction, drugs, music, public policy and incarceration.
Finally, Butch is working towards his license in Marriage and Family Therapy which he expects to obtain by the end of 2012.
Quotes about Butch:
“Thank you for being the best counselor I’ve ever had. I honestly don’t know if I’d still be here without you. You have no idea how much I appreciate all you have done for me. Thank you!” – Katie
“Just wanted to say thank you again for being such a great counselor and making it comfortable and easy to talk and to keep up the GREAT WORK!! Help the newcomer! Love you” – Patrick S.
The post Meet The Staff: Addiction Specialist Butch Warner appeared first on Pasadena Recovery Center.
]]>The post August Newsletter appeared first on Pasadena Recovery Center.
]]>
The Pasadena Recovery Center August newsletter – which has a ton of great content – is out. Read it now! In case you missed last month’s newsletter you can view July here.
Sign up for our newsletter here.
The post August Newsletter appeared first on Pasadena Recovery Center.
]]>The post The Value of Running: natural endorphins appeared first on Pasadena Recovery Center.
]]>
In yesterday’s post we highlighted some articles written by Pasadena Recovery Center Addiction Specialist, Butch Warner, himself an avid runner and four time L.A. Marathoner. In one VC Reporter piece, Butch evidences how running can be a “good” addiction:
Researchers, therapists and counselors have customarily confined their use of the term “addiction” to drugs that foster physical and psychological dependence. But new knowledge suggests that, as far as the brain is concerned, a reward is a reward, whether it comes from a chemical or an event.
Butch also discusses how continuous exercise can lead to increased production and release of endorphins – neurotransmitters found in the brain – that creates a sense of euphoria or “runner’s high.”
Similarly, people are more likely to have epiphanies - moments of sudden revelation or insight – “while running because our sensory systems are hyper-aware and flooded with endorphins.”
And the great American author Joyce Carol Oates felt that running and creativity went hand in hand:
Running! If there’s any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can’t think what it might be. In running the mind flies with the body; the mysterious efflorescence of language seems to pulse in the brain, in rhythm with our feet and the swinging of our arms. Ideally, the runner who’s a writer is running through the land and cityscapes of her fiction, like a ghost in a real setting.
So whether one is battling addiction, searching for clarity or insight, or pursuing creativity, running just might be the answer.
NOTE: The author of this post is a dedicated runner who does some of his best thinking racking up miles near his home in West Los Angeles.
The post The Value of Running: natural endorphins appeared first on Pasadena Recovery Center.
]]>The post Pasadena Recovery Center Counselor Butch Warner’s Writings appeared first on Pasadena Recovery Center.
]]>
Pasadena Recovery Center Addiction Specialist, George “Butch” Warner, who works four days a week at PRC as a psychotherapist and group facilitator, doubles as a writer on a wide-range of topics for many local newspapers. His boundless knowledge, openness, and vast experience make him a must-read columnist as well as a well-liked and much appreciated PRC staffer. Residents rave about Butch’s ability to connect with them one-on-one and find his methods life changing.
The below represent a sampling of Butch’s articles over the years:
“Got a new drug?” (March 1, 2012) – humans have been finding ways to chemically alter their consciousness since the beginning of time and here Butch explores some newer drugs like Bath Salts, Opana, Suboxone, GHB, Ketamine, and Spice.
“The Magic of music” (May 6, 2010) – takes a comprehensive look at the rhyme, rhythm and love of the universal language and evidences that Butch’s expertise goes beyond addiction.
“How my addiction saved my life” (July 23, 2009) – looks at potentially good addictions, like running. “As far as the brain is concerned, a reward is a reward, whether it comes from a chemical or an event.”
“Bad Medicine” (November 26, 2008) – takes on Big Pharma, which wants to put as many drugs in as many households as possible, whether they’re needed or not.
“Cellies, survivors and knuckleheads” (April 17, 2008) – a must-read autobiographical piece about his road to recovery after doing a stint in jail for “crimes associated with addiction to Xanax and speed”. Butch recalls, “I made many mistakes, but one of the things I did right was join a 12-step support group immediately after my release.”
The post Pasadena Recovery Center Counselor Butch Warner’s Writings appeared first on Pasadena Recovery Center.
]]>