Being Sober and Becoming Happy: The Best Ideas from The Director of Spiritual Guidance at Hazelden Paperback - 2013

John MacDougall is the Director of Spiritual Guidance at Hazelden, the world famous alcohol and addiction treatment center in Center City, Minnesota. He has been with Hazelden, as leader of their Spiritual Care Department, since 1994. He is also the Director of Hazelden's Family Program, for family members and friends of alcoholics and addicts. John was born in New York City in 1949. He graduated from Rutgers College, a division of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1972. He graduated with a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1976. He graduated from the Drew University Theological School in Madison, New Jersey, in 1985, with a doctor of ministry degree with a focus in family therapy. He is the coauthor, with Bowen White, MD, of Clinician's Guide to Spirituality, published in 2001 by McGraw-Hill and Hazelden. John was ordained as a minister in the United Methodist Church in 1976 in Ocean City, New Jersey, and served as the pastor of churches in Riverside and Paulsboro, New Jersey; in the Mascoma Valley Parish in and near Enfield, New Hampshire; and in Everett, Massachusetts, for eighteen years before beginning his specialized ministry at Hazelden in 1994. John married Priscilla in 1976, and they have two daughters, Priscilla Anderson and Chris Lopez. They have three grandchildren, Sawyer Anderson, Ana Lopez, and Macky Lopez. They are grateful for happy family relationships with their daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren. John enjoys speaking at A.A. events and has spoken at regional A.A. Roundups in Aspen, Colorado, and Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada. He has spoken to Hazelden alumni groups around the country, to the International Doctors in A.A., and to many other groups interested in recovery. John is a popular lecturer with Hazelden's patients, and this book is an attempt to capture in one place many of the ideas that Hazelden's patients have found helpful over the years.