Testimonial
I met Ernie in 1994 at Doctor’s Hospital in Pinole, California when I
was applying for admittance to the internship program there for Alcohol
and Drug Counseling. He was the supervisor of the internship program
and later, I came to realize, in many ways, he really ran the whole
show. He struck me as “too calm” (must be stupid I thought). Boy
howdy was I Oh so wrong. What I took as “too calm” was simply,
controlled genius.
I was a couple years sober, 34
years old, and pretty much riddled with co-dependency issues (in other
words insane). I was also a few months away from giving up and going
back to living in a cardboard box with my bag and my bottle.
Fortunately, by a series of “divine events” I ended up with Ernie as my
supervisor for 3 years at the hospital and still after another 10 years
call on him often for supervision and support.
I
believe he had assessed my issues after our first meeting. He knew
“what was in the cage” and still bravely agreed to allow me into his
program. Thank God he was a master at what he did. Co-Dependency was
his first line of attack. One of the requirements of interns is to
design and give a lecture for the patients. He calmly said that I
should create my lecture on Co-Dependency. Interesting. I thought to
myself, ”the others had to do their lecture on alcohol, hummmm?” I
guess it wasn’t brain surgery but it sure felt like it to me. Ernie
patiently educated me, thru books at me, guided me, and constantly took
me into the “DeBriefing Room” to work on stuff that seemed to be
bubbling up all over the place. We worked on the 12 steps of AA
differently than I had ever heard in the programs. Later I came to
find out that they were still the same 12 Steps just without
Co-Dependency flushed into them. My God, it was a miracle, they really
work!!! Ernie also taught me a lot about Grief Recovery and how
unresolved grief bleeds into all facets of life. He taught me about
letting go of my beliefs that were not based on reality, (of which I
was full of) and adopting new realistic beliefs and identifying my
values. Most importantly he taught me and worked tirelessly to help me
identify “what was in the cage” with others. This allowed me to
depersonalize people’s behaviors and not be soooo surprised when they
acted in accordance with their nature. In other words, he shot down my
grandiose belief that everything was always about me. He had infinite
information about drugs and alcohol addiction stored in his brain. He
has done surveys on why addicts relapse all over the country. With his
knowledge on personalities and mental illness he was able to assess
patients (and interns) almost immediately and gently guide in the
direction they needed to go.
I consider Ernie Hooker
to be a master of life, a walking and talking wealth of knowledge, a
gentle guide to our inner self, and a beam of light in the sometimes
very dark places recovery can go. Today I’m self-employed as a
Certified Addiction Treatment Counselor and a Life Coach, live in the
beautiful city of Mt. Shasta, have a wonderful life, and I truly owe
most of it to that “too calm” of a man, Ernie Hooker.
Sincerely,
Kimberly Lahar, CATC. |
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