My name is Paul Wolanin. For the past eighteen years I have worked in the field of addiction treatment. I teach, guide, support, and encourage clients to understand and find solutions to their problems, but I’m not responsible for fixing anyone. When people ask what I do for a living, I just say “I help people figure out how to help themselves.” That’s about it.
In 2005 I began my career working for a counseling agency in Kalamazoo, providing services to clients recently paroled from prison. I transitioned to a ten year stint working as a counselor in residential drug and alcohol treatment, then worked for one of the largest human services agencies in Michigan, designing, implementing, and overseeing substance use disorder programming across the entire state. I have acted as a subject matter expert on addiction treatment for The Department of Health and Human Services, colleges and universities, and various law enforcement agencies and correctional facilities. I have trained, consulted, and advised everyone from judges, probation officers, college professors, CPS and foster care workers and everyone in between. I have lectured to groups of parents seeking answers about their children’s drug use and to hundreds of professionals in an auditorium. Regardless of my audience, my message is the same:
We can all be better versions of ourselves, but we first need to overcome the barriers that keep us from realizing our full potentials.
I currently work as a full time clinical site manager and counselor at a residential drug and alcohol treatment facility in Michigan, teach psychology courses at a local college, and lecture as a faculty member for an online addiction counseling program at Beal University in Bangor, Maine.
Wolanin Training and Consultation, or WOLTAC, represents nearly two decades of my experience in addition treatment, teaching, and training. I believe that anyone can succumb to unhealthy patterns of behavior and that most folks are not living the lives they want to be living, but few people understand how to begin changing. We all fall into ruts – you, me, your business, or organizations with hundreds of employees. It doesn’t so much matter what got us where we are today, it’s what we do about where we want to go.
Take a look around, and thanks for stopping by.
Paul J. Wolanin MA, MACMHC, CADC, CCS
