Therapy is not recovery: how Noel places the Twelve Steps

The About page on Noel’s own site ends with a sentence that is easy to treat as decoration: Therapy is not recovery; it is a tool for one to more fully embrace and enjoy one’s recovery. This article takes that sentence as the subject. It is the most specific recovery claim the practice publishes.

Noel started as an alcoholism counselor after he enlisted in the Air Force a year out of high school. The reason he gives is personal and published: he witnessed a change in his recently sobered-up father. That path later included fourteen years as a counselor and program administrator and twenty years as an educational consultant helping schools respond to substance use disorder.

What the practice actually offers

He facilitates a group process for clients engaged in early recovery who want the growth and support of a group therapy setting. That is a group. It is not a meeting. He also strongly supports the role of the Twelve Steps and encourages active participation in Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Alanon.

If you are looking for a counselor who will tell you that weekly therapy is enough recovery, this is the wrong office. If you are looking for a counselor who will treat the hour as a tool beside the meetings, this is the published stance. Call (713) 447-5989 and say that out loud so he can tell you whether the group still has a chair.

Psychology Today lists addiction, alcohol use, drug abuse, chronic relapse, dual diagnosis, and substance use among his expertise. The NPI taxonomy on file is Counselor / Addiction (substance use disorder). LCDC 12849 is the additional Texas chemical-dependency credential. Those are verify-able facts. They are not a promise that every relapse story belongs in this room.

How the other modalities show up

Recovery work in this office is not only a group. Individual counseling, couples counseling, and family therapy are all listed. EMDR is listed for trauma-related work. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and family systems sit in the same integration paragraph on the About page.

A family that is living with a teen’s substance use already has a Google review on this practice. Catherine Stoll wrote that her son would come home smelling like marijuana and would not talk, and that after a few sessions she could have a conversation again. That is her review. It is not a treatment plan for your household.

Motivational interviewing and intervention appear on the Psychology Today types-of-therapy list. The About page says Noel has conducted hundreds of interventions for families across the nation. If you are calling about an intervention, say that. Do not send a relative’s history through the website chat.

Practical facts for the first week

The office is 1100 Nasa Parkway #211b in Houston’s Clear Lake area. Hours on the Google listing run Monday through Wednesday 9 to 7, Thursday 9 to 3, Friday 9 to 5, Saturday 9 to 12, Sunday closed. A related site publishes a shorter Monday through Thursday window. Call to confirm.

Individual Sessions $125. Couple Sessions $125. Insurance names include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, Cigna, Oscar, Oxford, and United Healthcare. Superbill available. LGBTQ friendly. Telehealth is offered.

In 2010 Noel published Stop in the Name of Love, a book on positive and solution-focused behavioral interventions for parents, educators, and counselors. That book is not a substitute for a meeting or for an hour in this office. It is a published artifact you can look up on Amazon or Barnes and Noble if you want to know how he writes about behavior before you sit down.

If you are in early recovery and you want both the group and a private hour, say so on the first call. If you only want meetings, you do not need this website. If you only want therapy and you want the meetings treated as optional color, read the sentence again: therapy is not recovery.

The same About page says he works with depression, PTSD, affective disorders, anxiety, family distress, grief and loss, codependency, and substance use disorders. That list is why a person in early recovery often arrives with more than one problem. The group is for early recovery. The private hour can be CBT, EMDR, or family systems. He will tell you which name belongs on the first wipe. You do not have to guess it from a service menu designed for a contractor.

• Group process for early recovery is published.
• AA, NA, and Alanon are encouraged, not replaced.
• LCDC 12849 and NPI 1669026548 are public.
• Call (713) 447-5989. Do not send clinical histories through the form.