Jeff Georgi

MAH, LCAS, LCMHC, CCS, CGP

Jeff has worked in the addiction field and practiced psychotherapy with a focus on families and group counseling for more than 40 years. He holds licenses as a Clinical Addiction Specialist, a Certified Clinical Supervisor, a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, and a Certified Group Psychotherapist by the American Association of Group Psychotherapy. He remains a consulting faculty member in the Department of Behavioral Medicine, Division of Addiction Research and Translation, as well as a faculty member of the Duke University School of Nursing. He earned his BA from Duke University and his M.Div. in Pastoral Psychology from the Duke Divinity School and The Philadelphia Divinity School. Jeff completed an Internship and Residency program in Pastoral Counseling at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Medical Center and earned a Master’s in Allied Health at Duke University.

Jeff has been affiliated with Duke University Medical Center for over three decades. During these years, he served as the clinical director of the Duke Addictions Program and held clinical appointments in the Departments of Surgery, Obstetrics, and Psychiatry. Working closely with Roy Mathew, M.D., Jeff developed a substance use disorder consult service that met the needs of patients throughout Duke Medical Center. This effort included involving addiction professionals throughout all areas of the hospital and outpatient clinics, which included involvement in the liver transplant team and the Department of Obstetrics. As an outgrowth of the latter, Jeff worked with Karen O’Donnell, PhD, to develop the Family Care Program, which was a unique treatment intervention that addressed the clinical needs of pregnant women and/or women with young children who were struggling with severe substance use disorders. This mother/child approach became a model for the state of North Carolina and was used as the foundation for the development of other programs treating this population such as the Horizon Program at the University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill. He has also worked as the Director of Psychological Services for the Rice Diet Program in Durham, North Carolina.

Jeff has served as the Consensus Panel Co-chair for the Treatment Improvement Protocol, Substance Abuse Treatment: Group Psychotherapy, published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2005. He was also a panel member for the Treatment Improvement Protocol, Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Abuse Treatment, 2001, and a contributing author for the Treatment  Improvement Protocol, Brief Interventions and Brief Therapies for Substance Abuse 2001, published by SAMHSA.

A sought-after public speaker, he is also a national trainer and respected author in the areas of clinical spirituality, group psychotherapy, adolescent development, shame, grief, and loss as well as a number of other topics. In response to the needs of the treatment field, Jeff developed The Biological, Psychological, Social, Spiritual and Experiential Model (BPSSEM), a multi-dimensional approach to understanding addiction and recovery, which provides a clinical response to what can be a challenging concept for patients and clinicians to put into practice. This teachable model will be further outlined in Jeff Georgi’s forthcoming book, slated for release in early 2022 and geared toward clinicians as well as the general public. If you are interested in Jeff’s counseling services, please see his website jeffgeorgi.com.