Rabbi Joel Dinnerstein of Deerfield Beach, Fla., has directed a Jewish 12-step counseling program, Ohr Ki Tov, since 1985. Inspired by Hasidic Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, this organization integrates prayer, song and storytelling with the 12 steps and Jewish learning, values and practice for recovery. Dinnerstein was the first rabbi to become a certified addiction counselor; he […]

David Whiters is a social worker and the executive director of Recovery Consultants of Atlanta, a faith-based, peer-led recovery community services program. Whiters is a doctoral student at the University of Georgia’s School of Social Work and recently co-authored a historical review of faith-based treatments for addiction in Counselor: The Magazine for Addiction Professionals.

Dr. Mark Gold is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville. He has conducted groundbreaking research into opiate addiction, its mechanism of action in the brain, and treatments.

Tonja Myles is a former addict and founder of the Set Free Indeed Ministry and Clinic in Baton Rouge, La., a faith-based addiction clinic. Myles was recognized by former President Bush at the 2003 State of the Union address. She and her husband, Darren, founded Set Free Indeed 14 years ago. They offer one-on-one counseling for people […]

Dr. Mary Holley is a doctor in Arab, Ala., who founded a Christian-based support group called Mothers Against Meth-Amphetamine, or MAMa, in 2002 after her brother died of methamphetamine addiction. The group now has 75 chapters around the country. She has produced several educational videos for drug education and prevention and speaks in schools and jails. The group […]

Dr. John Knight is the associate director for medical education in the division on addictions at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass., and a leader in pediatric education. He has studied spirituality and alcohol use in adolescents, and treatment and prevention of alcoholism in adolescents.

Howard Shaffer is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Division on Addictions. He has written extensively about the treatment of addictive behaviors and the nature of addictions.

Dr. Richard Saitz is a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Boston University’s School of Medicine, associate director of the Youth Alcohol Prevention Center and director of the Clinical Addiction Research and Education program. He studies the effectiveness of a brief, hospital-based tailored intervention for patients with alcohol problems.

Dr. Marc Galanter is director of the division of alcoholism and drug abuse in the department of psychiatry and a professor at the New York University School of Medicine. His books, Spirituality and the Healthy Mind: Science, Therapy and the Need for Personal Meaning (Oxford University Press, 2005) and Cults: Faith, Healing and Coercion (Oxford University Press, 1999), deal […]