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..