avid J. Powell is president and chief executive officer for Education and Training Programs (ETP). D Powell is an internationally recognized trainer, educator, and consultant who has designed and developed employee assistance and training programs in a broad range of business and health care professions. A renowned authority in the supervision of addictions counselors and the originator of the blended clinical supervision model, he has authored three books on the subject which have become standard texts for many in the addictions and supervision fields. The following interview of Powell by the past president of the International Association of Addictions and Offender Counseling (IAAOC), Kevin Warwick, occurred on Wednesday, July 17,1996, at Powell's office in Wmdsor, Connecticut. This is a condensed version of the actual interview. We trust JAOC readers will find the interview both informative and refreshing. KW: How did you begin work in the substance abuse treatmentjeld? DP I started in 1965, at Rockland State Hospital in Orangeburg, New York. This
was back in the difficult times when mental health had huge residential programs. I worked with Nathan Klein, the originator of Thorazine. He was my first supervisor. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn about mental health and substance abuse. We were doing experimental drug research with approximately 20 wards of the state. That was my first introduction to criminal justice. I was doing an internship with persons we then called "the criminally insane." It was an interesting experience working in a very large, traditional, state psychiatric hospital. I worked there for a year and completed my master's degree at Princeton. I also had a chance to work at the New Jersey Neuro-Pyschiatric Hospital, which was another large state hospital. That experience really got me involved in substance abuse as an intern. When I graduated I went to work as a social worker in a state hospital. I started working in the substance abuse unit by accident, and I was working with addicts