Claudia Black, PhD, is the clinical architect at the Claudia Black Young Adult Center at The Meadows. She serves as a Senior Fellow and has been a clinical consultant at The Meadows Treatment Center in Arizona since 1998.
Claudia Black’s seminal work with children impacted by substance abuse in the late 1970s created the foundation for the adult child movement. Today Claudia is a renowned author and trainer internationally recognized for her pioneering and contemporary work with family systems and addictive disorders.
Claudia’ pioneering contributions are many:
- She was the first to name and coin the dysfunctional family rules, “Don’t Talk. Don’t Trust. Don’t Feel.”
- She described the phenomena of delayed stress, emotional trauma, the child’s denial process, and “looking good” kids, as they relate to growing up with addiction, hence the meaning and phraseology of “Adult Children of Alcoholics.”
- She utilized art therapy in the context of group work with young children that offered a model for children’s programs for the past four plus decades.
- She broke the barrier and openly discussed physical and sexual abuse in the context of addictive families.
Her work and passion has been ageless and offers a foundation for those impacted by addiction and trauma to recover, and gives our professional field a library of both depth and breadth.
She is one of the original founders and serves on the Advisory Board of the National Association of Children of Addiction and serves on the Advisory Committee for Camp Mariposa®, The Moyer Foundation’s national addiction prevention and mentoring program. Dr. Black is the recipient of numerous national awards including the 2004 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Washington School of Social Work, the 2010 Conway Hunter Award for excellence in the field of addictions, the 2012 Robert Rehmar Addiction Professional Award, the 2014 Father Joseph C. Martin Professional Excellence Award, and the NAADAC 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Claudia Black is the author of numerous books, CDs, and DVDs available through Central Recovery Press.
