Terry Gorski

I first met Terry at one of the early 6-day trainings in the early to mid 1980's. I had anticipated a training of watching videos & listening to lectures, but I sensed after the 1st morning session it was going to be an "experiential training." All the other "professionals" in attendance seemed to have no idea that, if you wanted to become able to use Terry's amzing therapy techniques & his relapse therapy process, you would basically have to go through the therapy yourself. I was sober approximately 10 years then & the training not only made me a much better clinican & therapist but also enhanced my own recovery in a major way. Upon my return from that training, I immediately started the process to become certified as a ACRPS & later went through the 3-day training & became a BCRPS. I also intergrated Terry's education model & his problem-solving group therapy model & everything else Terry developed. Even though I went through Terry's training to be a CENAPS trainer, I only conducted a few trainings myself but every treatment agency I was in charge of would end up integrating Terry's work. He was the best trainer I have ever seen & I always considered myself to be so fortunate to have been able to go through so many of Terry's tainings, & especially to be trained to use his powerful relapse therpy model throughout my career. Although I'm now retired, I have tried to pass along all of Terry's many gifts he gave me to the recovering community & always urged other professionals to attend the many trainings Terry put together. Terry was truely an amazing individual whom I always spoke highly of & included so much of his model & adaptations while teaching classes at Boise State University or running various treatment centers over the course of my career. Terry put together the only fully intergrated therapy model that I've ever come across & I always respected the way he would include new information & new therapies into his model to "transcend" & improve what he had spent a lifetime sharing. I always looked forward to the next revisions when he would add to his incredible work. There's no doubt that Terry's dedication to addressing relapse & addiction saved the lives of thousands of individuals who had previously been seen as "hopeless." When I was completing my case study to become a certified relapse prevention specialist, I had picked an individual who had been labeled as "totally hopeless" by many clinicians & Tx agencies. Three weeks ago, that individual called me to inform me that he was celebrating 33 years of sobriety! I have so many stories like his & I still get calls regualrly from previous clients whom I had worked with using Terry's relapse therapy model & all of their successes are a direct result of Terry's work. There is not anyone I respected more than Terry. I can see Terry now training the angels above in new techniques to better spread God's love to those in need! Dave Josephson