Garry Cowles LPCC

When I started working in the New Mexico Prison System I was tasked initially with working with substance abusers. In the 1970's you received a five-year prison sentence for having one marijuana joint. Therapists were tasked with helping clients get out of prison at their first six-month parole board hearing because the state did not want to pay for their incarceration. Eric Berne's books of I am Ok and Your OK and Games People Play was the basis for our individual and group therapy sessions and the basis for the type of therapy that I provide now.

My specialization of working with individuals who have been incarcerated or who have been in the Military has caused me to develop a better understanding of the issues that they have reintegrating back into society. Many of these individuals experience a condition called anomie. This is a situation where the individuals cannot go back to their old culture/friends and are not accepted by the new culture. This creates a situation where they have no acceptable friends and no support system and often no employment. These individuals often experience severe suicidal ideation and severe substance abuse problems.

I was involved in cleaning of the mess of the 1980 New Mexico Prison Riot. One of the foster children I had taken care was killed and I was tasked with providing trauma therapy for the staff that had been taken hostage and tortured. We did not really know how to deal with trauma back then and we still have a lot to learn about how to deal with the consequences of serious trauma..

• New Mexico, Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, 0568

I was in the Navy after graduating from college. The Navy tasked me with assisting the enlisted men with getting their GED's and getting into training schools. I also assisted the enlisted men who were leaving the service with getting into schools and training programs and finding employment opportunities, The Navy paid for my master's degree in counseling and my first job was being the Director of the New Mexico Children's Psychiatric Unit where I worked with a population of mentally challenged children and children who had committed capital offenses. I then worked in the New Mexico Prison system as a psychologist where I provided individual and family therapy and flew my plan to the different prisons to do psychological evaluations for the parole board and the Courts. When I retired I worked as a juvenile probation officer and Children's Detention Facility therapist. When I retired the second time I began working as a contract therapist providing therapy to individuals, couples, and foster homes.