Last fall it started to be clear that the next stage of my professional life meant concentrating on my writing and work. Part of this insight was the realization that for the task-centered approach to be documented, it had to be applied across a number of programs. The logic of this shift of emphasis was difficult in some ways to accept because it inevitably meant I would have to leave my friends and colleagues at the Meadows. For a man who sometimes gets sentimental turning in his rental car, such change is wrenching. Yet the idea of building a network of private practices, community programs, and residential programs was the next logical extension of the evolving CSAT (Certified Sex Addiction Therapist) program.

The new network that is emerging is based on the task methodology we have been teaching in the CSAT program. It will take years to unfold, yet it is the fulfillment of a long-held dream. Part of this process is to use the name Gentle Path as a way to specify this process. The first Gentle Path residential program is located at the Pine Grove campus in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

The materials and processes we will develop will be designed so that private practitioners, local programs, and residential programs can use them. Gentle Path at Pine Grove is one of the key programs in this network.

This program opened in early July. There is that classic moment when you throw a party and you fear no one will come, yet seven patients showed up the first week. As I sat down with my first patient, I asked how he came to realize that he needed help. He started to tell me about the nightmare of a daily pattern of downloading over six hundred megabytes of pornography every day. The rest of the week was filled with the usual tales of compulsive affairs, high drama, legal problems, conquest sex, sexual abuse, as well
as co-dependency. At the end of the week, whatever that nagging fear was all about, it
had evaporated.

Many have asked about Pine Grove as a treatment facility. I have a colleague who calls Pine Grove the greatest mental health secret in the country. Without a lot of fanfare it has built significant programs in addiction treatment, eating disorders, and dual diagnosis issues. Their program for treating disruptive physicians is nationally recognized. Pine Grove is a subsidiary of Forest General, one of the major medical facilities located in the Deep South.

I was attracted to the medical and research expertise embedded in the Forrest General system, to the fact that Pine Grove as a not-for-profit can provide very high quality at reasonable rates, and to the culture of the hospital.

These factors create real options in our network. Patients who need more time can take it before moving on to extended care. Further, it means those patients who are multi-addicted can take advantage of Pine Grove’s expertise in alcohol, drugs, eating disorders, and collateral mental health issues. We will have other programs in the network and already have wonderful programs using the tasks in treatment. I could not be more pleased about this new cornerstone program.

In some ways being on campus is like old home week for me. Joe Pack and Joy Arnold, formerly at the Meadows, are now at Pine Grove, as are Caroline Kruse and Thomas Tullos. From CSAT some of you will remember Ken McGill, who is now admintering Pine Grove’s federal multimillion dollar addiction grant developing treatment for the homeless (one of the benefits of being in a progressive non-profit environment). Also, Tom Barrett retired from the Air Force and left his CSAT-based program in North Carolina to take a major leadership role in the Pine Grove system.

So when I walk in the door, there are many familiar, smiling faces, which is great in a new program.

Then there is my daughter, Stefanie Carnes, who left her faculty position at the University of San Diego and her private practice to move to Hattiesburg, where she is now director of family services and research at Pine Grove as well as clinical director of the Gentle Path program. It has been quite a learning curve for me to watch one of my offspring establish her own competence and work out her professional relationship with me. Fun, too. Although I do wonder about the role reversal when I draw assignments from her.

Another program strength is our medical director, Dr. Alexis Polles. She is well known in ASAM and state medical program for her work with difficult physicians. She is also in the process of completing her CSAT certification. Dr. Polles is a very experienced, strong clinician with deep recovery roots.

Gentle Path patients are currently sharing resources with other programs in the Pine Grove complex.
In the near future, we will be opening a new building dedicated to Gentle Path patients. This Gentle Path campus will be a wonderful environment for us, and we look forward to our next space.

This has been a year of extraordinary transition for me, as well as a period of personal growth coupled with reflection and I look forward to the changes to come, as well as being thankful for the circumstances that brought us here. As the plans for the Gentle Path programs continue to grow and develop, my staff and I are most grateful for the commencement of this long-awaited dream.

Patrick J. Carnes, PhD, is a nationally known speaker on addiction and recovery issues and author of several books on the subject. He pioneered the founding of the Certified Sex Addiction Therapist program, which has evolved into a network of local, regional, and residential programs that specialize in this work.

This article is published in Counselor,The Magazine for Addiction Professionals, February 2005, v.6, n.1, pp. 35-36

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