Speaker's Profile

Claudia Black Ph.D. is a renowned addiction author, speaker and trainer, internationally recognized for her pioneering and contemporary work with family systems and addictive disorders. Claudia designs and presents training workshops and seminars to professional audiences in the field of family service, mental health, addiction and correctional services as well as speaking in public forums about addiction and recovery.

Since the 1970’s Claudia’s work has encompassed the impact of addiction on young and adult children. She was the first to name and coin the dysfunctional family rules, Don’t Talk, Don’t Trust, Don’t Feel. She broke the barrier and openly discussed physical and sexual abuse in the context of addictive families. She utilized art therapy in the context of group work with young children that has offered a model for children’s programs for the past three plus decades. She described the phenomena of delayed stress, emotional trauma, the child’s denial process, the phenomena of ‘looking good’ kids as they relate to growing up with addiction, and hence the meaning and phraseology of “Adult Children of Addiction.”

Her work and her passion has been ageless and offers a foundation for those impacted by addiction to recover, and gives the professional field a library of depth and breadth. Her library of books, audios and videos is available through Central Recovery Press.

Today, she offers models of intervention and treatment related to family violence, multi-addictions, relapse, anger, depression and women’s issues. Her writings and teachings have become a standard in the field of addictions.

Claudia holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Social Psychology from Columbia Pacific University, and a Masters Degree in Social Work and Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Welfare from the University of Washington. Claudia is the Clinical Architect of the Claudia Black Center for Young Adults, a Senior Fellow, and Addiction and Trauma Program Specialist at The Meadows Treatment Center in Arizona. She is one of the original founders and serves on the Advisory Board for the National Association of Children of Addiction and the Advisory Council of the Eluna Foundation and its development of Camp Mariposa, a camp for children impacted by addiction.

Her workshops have been presented to an extraordinarily wide array of audiences including military academies, prison systems, medical schools, and extensive mental health and addiction programs. Claudia has extensive multi-cultural experiences working with agencies and audiences in Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Scotland, Iceland, Germany, England and Canada. Many of her books and videos have been translated and published abroad.

She is the recipient of a number of national awards including the Marty Mann Award, the SECAD Award, the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Addiction Educator of the Year Award, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Washington School of Social Work, the Robert Rehmar Addiction Professional Award, the Father Martin Professional Excellence Award, the NAADAC Lifetime Achievement Award, the American Society of Addiction Medicine Media Award, and the Conway Hunter Award for excellence in the field of addiction. She has written articles for many professional magazines and journals, among them Paradigm, Recovery Today, Counselor Magazine, and has appeared on national television and radio programs.

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