A team of experienced professionals
We are a highly-trained team with a deep passion for helping people with Substance Use and Mental Health issues. We love those who can't love themselves.
We are a highly-trained team with a deep passion for helping people with Substance Use and Mental Health issues. We love those who can't love themselves.
Alex's passion for interventions and helping those struggling with Substance Use and Mental Health Disorders comes from years of dealing with it himself. After struggling with addiction, his path to recovery began after a successful intervention. Inspired by the positive impact that occurred, it became obvious that helping others the same way was his calling.
Over the last 7 years, he has dedicated himself to the field of addiction. He has served in a variety of settings from publicly funded detox facilities, supporting admissions and alumni services at nationally renowned treatment centers, and working closely with the NFL. Alex currently holds certifications as a Life Coach, Recovery Coach, Fitness in Recovery Coach, and Interventionist, which put him in the best place to help families struggling with addiction.
Griffin has been working in the recovery field since 2013. Holding positions in almost every level-of-care ranging from detox, drug court, inpatient and outpatient care, sober living, and most recently intervention and extended companionship. His personal experience in living with chronic addiction has allowed him to understand the nature of the illness and its impact on individuals and their families.
Griffin holds licensure as a Certified Addiction Specialist, has accrued 15,000+ clinically supervised hours, helped develop outpatient programming at a nationally recognized treatment center, and has been trained by the world-renowned interventionist Earl Hightower.
Griffin credits his own recovery as his main source of passion to live life to the fullest and continue helping as many people and families as possible.
Kelsey obtained her master’s in addiction counseling from Hazelden with additional training in mental health counseling. Having experience in a variety of roles and settings ranging from Counselor to Clinical Director at nationally known substance treatment facilities, her holistic approach assesses each client to determine what will be most helpful for them.
As a passionate advocate of gender-specific treatment, particularly for women, she has helped to improve and develop both programs and clinicians alike. Working directly with clients, helping them to overcome life’s challenges and discover their own inner wisdom and resources is what she enjoys most.
Kelsey considers it a true privilege to support her clients as they move through the difficulties they are facing in their lives. Having had her own struggles in life, she considers herself to be a wounded healer who can provide great empathy and guidance.
Chris Gates has been a major presence in the Austin, Texas recovery community for over 23 years and is a game changer on many levels. Chris started working professionally as a peer coach in 2010, shortly before the State of Texas officially created the certification program for peer coaches. Chris was one of the first certified peer coaches in the entire state and has since been coaching clients for over a decade. He specializes in the blending of the principals of 12-Step recovery, practical lived experience and traditional clinical models of care. He has held a number of positions working in Addiction Treatment Industry, most notably Director of Adult Recovery Services for the Austin Recovery Network. He has also created a simple, effective 12-Step curriculum featuring video lessons, assignments and a workbook for treatment providers to include in their clinical programming.
He has worked with dozens of people in all stages of recovery, meeting each client where they are at, and providing guidance and coaching based on lived experience in recovery. He is a Certified Recovery Support Peer Specialist and Peer Specialist Supervisor. Chris will be “boots on the ground” for us in Austin and an extension of Surrender Consulting for our clients and trusted service providers in Texas.
Chris’s band, the “Big Boys” were one of the first generation of DIY punk rock acts in the United States. They are credited with pioneering the “skate punk” sound and influencing hundreds of bands that followed in their footsteps, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Chris still plays music these days but mostly for the pure joy of it.
Dr. Anderson has worked in the Addiction and Mental Health field for over 20 years. While pursuing her doctorate, she worked and collaborated with addiction specialists from UCLA, Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. Dr. Anderson has worked at Caron Treatment Center in both their Pennsylvania and Texas locations. In this work she combined assessment, crisis intervention, and consultation in the treatment of addiction and co-occurring disorders.
Through her work during the onset of the Opioid Epidemic she recognized the need to come up with innovative and individualized ways to help clients. Dr. Anderson developed a combination of reliable and validated assessments, gathering collateral information from stakeholders, and client interaction to help create a blueprint for recovery.
Ramsey’s own struggles with drug and alcohol addiction have given her a deep understanding of the disease. Being a semi-pro snowboarder showed her how to be committed and to strive for greatness, but her career was marred by alcoholism and drug abuse, and she was never able to compete on a larger scale. In her recovery Ramsey has found strength, insight and respect for the journey that is recovery.
She believes that everyone has the ability to live a full and beautiful sober life, and strives daily to exemplify this ethos, showing others how life without mind altering substances can be better than anything they thought possible. Ramsey also believes in alternative recovery programs as a supplement to 12-step groups, including Refuge in Recovery, Mindfulness in Recovery and Recovery Dharma. Fellowship is a fundamental piece of Ramsey’s journey in sobriety, and sharing her experience has helped her strengthen her own recovery. She has performed interventions and 12-step calls on many people.
Receiving her Bachelors degree in Sustainability Studies in 2018 showed her how unsustainable the current rehab, intervention and sober companion world is. She believes in building a more sustainable solution to the insurmountable pandemic of addiction and mental illness that we are currently in. She is excited to help others embark on their journey into sobriety in her role at Surrender Consulting.
Alex’s own path to recovery came through intervention. By witnessing how it helped him and his family, he developed a passion for helping others the same way. He has gained a wealth of industry experience the last 7 years by working at various treatment centers, serving on the board of an addiction-focused non-profit, working with the NFL and its players, and gaining industry-recognized certifications in life coaching, recovery coaching, fitness in recovery coaching and interventions. This experience puts Alex in the perfect place to help families and individuals battling substance and mental health issues.
Experienced in roles ranging from counselor to clinical director at nationally known substance treatment facilities, Kelsey has improved and developed both treatment programs and clinicians alike. Kelsey is a passionate advocate of gender-specific treatment, particularly for women. She loves working directly with clients, considering it a privilege be able to help them overcome life’s challenges. She strongly believes in nurturing each client’s individual wisdom and inner resources.
Ramsey’s own struggles with drug and alcohol addiction have given her a deep understanding of the disease. Her semi-pro snowboarding career was marred by alcoholism and drug abuse, but in her recovery she has gained insight and respect for the journey. She believes that everyone has the ability to live a full and beautiful sober life, and she strives daily to exemplify this ethos, showing others how life without substances can be better than anything they thought possible. Ramsey also believes in alternative recovery programs as a supplement to 12-Step groups, including Refuge in Recovery, Mindfulness in Recovery and Recovery Dharma. Fellowship is a fundamental piece of Ramsey’s journey in sobriety, and sharing her experience has helped her strengthen her own recovery. She has performed interventions and 12-step calls on many people.
