PRPress Online Courses

Emmett Velten, PhD, has a private practice in Phoenix where he sees people in person and by phone.   He was, for many years, Clinical Director at Assisted Recovery Centers of America, a private program in Phoenix, AZ using cognitive-behavioral therapy together with anti-craving and other medications, to treat people with alcohol and/or opioid problems.  Dr. Velten is a long-time practitioner and trainer in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy.  He was a founding member of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Self-Help Network, and was a long-time member of the Board of Trustees of the Albert Ellis Institute in New York City.  With Ellis, he co-authored two books, When AA Doesn’t Work for You, and Optimal Aging.  He edited Under the Influence: Reflections of Albert Ellis in the Work of Others, and Albert Ellis: American Revolutionary (in press).  He has held a variety of posts, including Clinical Development Director at Bay Area Addiction Research & Treatment (BAART), a nationwide substance abuse treatment and primary healthcare organization headquartered in San Francisco, where he left his heart and lives part-time.Patricia E. Penn, PhD, is a psychologist and the Director of Research and Evaluation at La Frontera Center in Tucson, Arizona.  She has been the principal investigator or evaluation director for projects funded by federal and state grants, including NIDA, SAMHSA’s National Child Traumatic Stress Network, the NIDA Clinical Trials Network, the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission, CSAT, and CSAP.  These were primarily to develop and study treatments for co-occurring conditions.  She was an invited member of the American Society for Addiction Medicine’s work group to revise their Patient Placement Criteria to include co-occurring conditions, the Arizona Integrated Treatment Consensus Panel (SAMHSA funded), and an expert panel on improving treatment for co-occurring conditions sponsored by SAMHSA. She led the development of ADMIRE Plus, an integrated treatment program for co-occurring conditions, which received an Award of Excellence from the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare in 2000.  In 2003, she received a leadership award from the Arizona Practice Improvement Collaborative.  She also directs La Frontera’s comprehensive program evaluations and is faculty in their psychology doctoral internship program.  In addition, she teaches meditation and mindfulness at Miraval Resort.