Patty Baret

Co-Founder of CiR

Patty Baret, CAI, is a certified ARISE interventionist who has helped hundreds of chemically dependent individuals enter recovery. An advocate for recovering women, and with over three decades of personal recovery herself, Patty has facilitated groups on self-empowerment, relapse prevention and a wide breadth of gender-specific issues. Patty’s expertise in substance use disorders, process addictions, psychiatric decompensation and emotional dysregulation has led to her recognition as an expert in recovery and aftercare support, as well as the highest respect from the international recovery community. Originally from Nice, France, Patty’s international experience (including her years living in Morocco) as well as professional visits to investigate rehabilitation resources worldwide, have provided her the rare ability to align with, and relate to, individuals from virtually any cultural, communal or familial experience.

Lauren Arborio

Co-Founder of CiR

With over 16 years of professional experience as a substance use disorder counselor with UCLA training, Lauren Arborio, CADAC II, has worked with, and received training from, leading specialists in addiction recovery, psychiatry, and pain management. A graduate of New York University, with a BA in International Relations, Lauren is passionate about working with different cultures and and helping others struggling with addiction and co-occurring disorders. Utilizing her vast depth of professional resources in behavioral and mental health, addiction medicine, treatment providers, holistic therapies, alternative healing modalities, and sober living communities, she ensures that each client and family with whom she works with receives a customized recovery plan designed to support optimal outcome success.

Marilee Walker

Executive Assistant & Operations

Motivated by a passion for fostering wellness and resilience, Marilee excels in her dual roles, leveraging her diverse skill set and compassionate approach to support individuals in their journey toward mental health and holistic well-being.
Marilee Walker is a seasoned Executive Assistant and Operations Specialist with a robust background in acute mental health interventions and executive support. With four years of experience in both the mental health and recovery sector, she has been pivotal in providing personalized care, orchestrating interventions, and ensuring individuals receive tailored support on their mental health journeys. Marilee excels in streamlining processes, managing priorities, and facilitating seamless communication within high-pressure environments.
Known for her efficiency and attention to detail, she is a trusted resource among colleagues and superiors. Her collaborative spirit and dedication to fostering wellness and resilience drive her continued success in supporting holistic well-being.

Georgina Smith, PhD

Clinical Consultant

Dr. Georgina Smith is a licensed Clinical Psychologist, EMDR clinician, addiction specialist, case management consultant, public speaker and educator.

Dr. Smith’s treatment specialties include addiction, trauma, relationship issues, borderline personality disorder, self-injury, impulse regulation issues, and eating disorders. Dr. Smith also has extensive experience treating depression, mood and anxiety disorders, personality disorders, domestic violence-related trauma, grief and loss, codependency, and phase-of-life difficulties.

Bringing a warm, supportive and direct approach to her work, Dr. Smith treats individuals (adult, adolescent and child), couples, and their families. She is an EMDR (eye movement desensitization reprocessing) clinician trained through EMDR Consulting and utilizes this tool to treat trauma, reduce distress, and adapt negative core beliefs. Dr. Smith also utilizes an eclectic blend of relational, narrative, cognitive-behavioral, dialectical behavioral, psychodynamic, systems and interpersonal neurobiology based therapeutic interventions to assist individuals in stabilizing distressing symptoms and building coping resources to self-regulate. She also works with individuals to address underlying issues contributing to current symptoms, while identifying and adapting negative core beliefs, life patterns and internalized stories from the past, which a focus on integration of core self, working to heal from traumas, and learning to assert and meet needs in healthy and empowered ways.

Afrodite Chimarios, AMFT

Associate Marriage and Family Therapist

Afrodite Chimarios, AMFT, is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. She completed her master’s program at Antioch University Los Angeles. She has extensive experience in the behavioral health field including at the detox, residential treatment, IOP, and sober living levels of care. She has also worked extensively as a professional Mental Health and Sober Coach. Afrodite is passionate about working with the mental health and recovery community, she appropriates her experience to guide and motivate clients and families. She believes in an integrative approach that cultivates safety, trust, and autonomy. Her multidisciplinary strategy interlaces Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention, CBT, DBT, Family Systems, and other evidence-based practices to promote healing, foster growth, and partner with individuals as they realize their recovery and therapeutic goals.

Ryan Crowley, MA, LMFT

Clinical Recovery Coach

Ryan Crowley is an independent scholar and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, holding graduate degrees in both philosophy and counseling psychology. The marriage of these two fields informs his work as a clinician and lecturer. As someone who “grew up” in psychotherapy as an adolescent and young adult, Ryan has held a definitive interest in the fields of treatment and mental health throughout most of his life. This has entailed trying to learn from his own heartache and pain, wondering what responsibility he may or may not hold for those experiences, and living a particular life of self-examination. Special areas of his practice include psychological assessment and family therapy.

As a clinician, Ryan has been working in the field since 2010. Positions have included: recovery coach; interventionist; case manager; psychotherapist; psychometrist. He has worked in residential treatment, outpatient treatment, at-home care, student health, non-profit family service, and private practice. He currently also serves in the doctoral program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Publications include On the Beginning of Philosophy: Heidegger’s Conversation with Plato and Aristotle (2015) and Making Life Beautiful: The Power of Phantasia in and for Psychotherapy (2018). Ryan is co-author of a forthcoming trilogy of books; the first, Philosophic Psychology: Counseling for the Cultural Crisis, is due for publication in early 2020.

Francesca Adair, MA, MFT, LPCC

Francesca Adair has been working as a clinician and administrator in acute mental health and substance use disorder treatment since 2004.

A native New Yorker, Francesca Adair moved to Los Angeles in 1998 with plans to stay one year. Eighteen years later, after building a wonderful career launching and overseeing treatment centers for some of the most reputable programs in the business, she decided to return “home” to find new growth opportunities. Having worked alongside the founders of CIR as they launched their business and became one of the premier coaching companies in the country, she is very excited to partner with them on the east coast to provide clinical oversight and supervision.

Francesca Adair’s work leaves her continually awed by the courage and passion of recovering clients, their families and the providers who facilitate this amazing process.

Dufflyn Lammers,
CRS, CPC, RADT I

Dufflyn Lammers is a Certified Professional Coach with a passion for empowering individuals and families in recovery. She is a Certified Arise Interventionist and a Certified Recovery Specialist. Lammers specializes in codependency and sex and love addiction. In her sixteen years of personal recovery, she has been a regular contributor at TheFix.com, the world’s leading resource for addiction and recovery. She has published essays in the L.A Times, Adelaide, Santa Fe Writers Project, Iowa Woman, and more. She is now at work on a memoir. Lammers has worked with the Los Angeles Police Department and with at-risk youth in schools and community centers to facilitate recovery in traumatized and underserved populations. She presents workshops on resilience, identity and attachment at treatment centers and conferences internationally. Her workshops use improv games and creative writing to teach emotional intelligence, communication skills, and recovery skills through the power of play. Originally from Palo Alto, California, she now lives in Paris.

Lauren Casey, PhD

Dr. Lauren Casey has over 20 years’ experience working with individuals and their families, providing senior case management and international coaching services. She utilizes a strengths-based approach in her work, recognizing the inherent potential, capabilities and resiliency of individuals and their families in order to facilitate recovery and empowerment. Dr. Casey delivers crisis management training at professional organizations worldwide, and she is the recipient of several awards including the Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia and the Integrated Mentorship Program in Addictions Research Training (IMPART). She is also a published author and speaker.

Timothy W. Fong MD

Dr. Fong is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. He is board certified in adult and addiction psychiatry.

He is the co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies Program. The purpose of this program is to examine the clinical characteristics of gambling disorder in order to develop effective, evidence-based prevention and treatment strategies.

Dr. Fong is also a member of the Steering Committee of the UCLA Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids whose mission is to address the most pressing questions related to the impact of cannabis legalization through rigorous scientific study and discourse across disciplines.

He is the Director of the UCLA Addiction Psychiatry Consultation Service and an an attending physician in the UCLA Addiction Psychiatry Clinic.

Don Grant, Ph.D., MA, MFA, DAC, SUDCC IV

Device Management & Media Technology Addiction Expert

Dr. Grant is an internationally recognized and award-winning media psychologist, author, published researcher, Doctoral Addictions Counselor, and educator with specific expertise in technology’s impact on mental health. He was the 2022 President of the American Psychological Association, Division 46 (The Society for Media Psychology & Technology), currently chairs the APA (Division 46) “Device Management & Intelligence” committee, co-chairs the APA (Division 46) “Strategic Planning” committee, is an APA Advocacy Division Partner Liaison, and serves as Secretary of the California Psychological Association Division VI (Media Technology and Communication). He is also the National Advisor for Healthy Device Management for Newport Healthcare.

He designs, presents, and facilitates “Healthy Device Management” and “Good Digital Citizenship” treatment strategy and educational training workshops for clinicians, educators, parents, and academic communities. He is a globally respected and popular conference keynote speaker, podcast and onscreen interview guest, and print content contributor in the field of device related behaviors, addiction, and media psychology.

Dr. Grant was invited to join the APA Coalition for Psychology in Schools & Education, which was commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control on behalf of the DASH funded APA Safe and Supportive Schools Primers Project to create a series of adolescent psychology focused support manuals for distribution by the CDC to schools, administrators, and educators nationwide. He and his colleagues completed the printed series in late 2022 and audio recordings of each manual to provide optimal access to their content are currently in production.

His current research includes a large-scale study in partnership with the Newport Healthcare Center for Research and Innovation and Drexel University investigating his theories surrounding the potential impact of a caregiver’s device use behaviors on attachment bonds. He is also engaged in explorations of the identity construct effects of social media, parasocial media relationships, and cyberaggression targeted towards adolescents, teens, young adults, families, and our culture/relationships-at-large.

Other current projects include an international publisher commissioned “Healthy Device Management and Practices of Good Digital Citizenship” guidebook and companion curriculum/group process workbook, serving as Section Leader/Co-Editor/Contributing Author for a special Pediatrics “Children and Digital Media” international issue supplement in partnership with Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, and as a chapter author contributor for two media psychology topic focused textbooks