About Dr. Kolm

I graduated from University of Colorado, Boulder with a PhD in Research Psychology in 2008 at the age of 26.  I was a high functioning alcoholic during my grad school years, and well before with isolated incidents even back to high school.  I was able to separate enough of my own addiction from my education and other priorities in my life and hide it well enough to be a success in most of what I did.  I graduated at the top of my class in both undergrad and grad schools.  At night and on weekends I was a raging alcoholic and frequent pot user, but alcohol was my real demon.  I could take or leave the pot, but not the alcohol.  I played with controlling it by drinking small bottles and trying to cut myself off, by hiding bottles and so on but would usually just drive drunk to buy more once my inhibitions were lowered.   And I was able to earn a PhD with a 4.0 through grad school and had the full respect of my professors and fellow students while hiding my own personal demon.  If they had known what I was doing, and how often, that would have been a different story and I’d have been exiled into the loser category where I probably should have been and where I personally relegated others in my own mind who weren’t able to maintain as well as I was.  Shortly after getting my PhD, I was drunk and in a major auto accident that severely injured someone I love and nearly took his life.  That was my wake up call, and my rock bottom.

I tried Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) at the instance of the person I loved, and who loved me, but honestly after attending four meetings, decided that suicide might be the best option for me. I thought there was really no way out of this hopelessness ever, and it would be better for everyone, including myself, if I was just gone.  AA meetings drove me into a despair thinking there was never going to be a solution for my disease and I was bound to an unending cycle of relapse and self-humiliation, and that as much as I wanted to change during the thoughtful hours, the demon would always come back to destroy me.   I actually went as far as looking up the laws in Colorado to determine the process of purchasing a gun.  Thankfully, it didn’t go that far, and someone who cared about me stepped into my life.

The religious/addictive disease model of AA drove me into a greater despair and I think the 12 step program would have killed me. It was very much on the way to that.  A 1999 study of alcoholics who have undergone the standard treatment model actually shows a 25% suicide rate (multiple other earlier studies place the number between 21% and 27%) within a year from treatment starting, so my despair at starting 12 step was not novel or unique.  Among the general population, suicide claims 11.8 people out of 100,000 in the population according to suicide.org.  For those of you who are not versed in statistics that means that about 1 out of 10,000 deaths result from suicide within the total US population.  Among alcoholics attempting to recover through AA or other conventional treatment programs, the number is a sobering 1 out of 4. Of course this may mean only that there is a high correlation between alcoholism and suicide, but many outside of the AA and disease treatment models think differently.  Yet courts, and often spouses or lovers still mandate AA as the only viable option.

Another trick of statistics is that AA claims that 55% of participants remain sober after 5 years.  This ignores the fact that only 5% of those who enter the program remain in the program for that period, so the success rate for those entering is actually less than 1%.

At the bottom of my life, while still only 26 and actively planning my own suicide, I was introduced to the Rational Recovery, the AVRT method.  Luckily, while most of my friends and family were so disgusted as to not want to have anything to do with me, not everyone who cared for me left me alone at the most down time I’d known. My former advisor, himself a recovered alcoholic showed me the program.  For me, AVRT was eye opening and groundbreaking at the same time.  It was the first program I’d ever heard of that recognized what I saw as my own problem, and I embraced it.  I wasn’t healed.  I’m still an alcoholic.  I’m still an addict, but my life is so much better since I’ve chosen not to drink. I found the mindset, the method and the way to stop my addictive voice, and I’ve been completely alcohol free for 34 months (as of Nov 2012) . I specialize in helping others find what I found and the Rational AVRT model works for me and is working for thousands of others.  While AVRT is mainly focused on individual response it does work better with a coach, and in group discussion sessions.  So I’ve used some of those models to develop my own practice. I also incorporate social media into my program, and build the model that help through the despair is only an IM or email away.

I specialize in helping male professionals who are high functioning addicts.  I don’t  deny women clients or non-professionals or younger people, but I relate better to men who are well into their career. My personal belief is that addiction is gender and life place experience related as well.  By high functioning I mean that you are able to hold down a job for the most part, with some problems maybe, or maybe not severe enough to be noticed yet.  You may have a marriage or relationship that is marginally together, or maybe still good with occasional strains.  But you have realized you have a problem that is bigger than you and you need some help.  You might have hit your low point, or still be actively seeking it with all the dedication and gusto that led to your success in life.   I might be that coach you are looking for, and I want to explore that with you.

Alcohol is my demon.  When I was drinking, it was every single night after doing what I had to do to keep going in school, and hard binge drinking every single weekend. I’ve gotten over alcohol though. I realize that the standard disease treatment model says I’m only a drink away from being the raging bastard who almost killed the person who means the most to me in life, and at any given time I will be again. But with AVRT I know I will never be that person again, and I am not a moment away from failure or from losing everything. In my mind, 12 step encourages the fall and relapse and eventual death from the terminal disease. 

But I’ve found my way beyond that. I’m beyond that despair inducing disease model If you need help, I think I can help you too.

Dr. James Kolm