In the Spotlight: Shelley Hughes, Clinical Counselor/Substance Abuse Specialist

by Anne Strader, Editor

We are pleased to introduce Shelley Hughes, Clinical Counselor and Substance Abuse Specialist. Shelley joined the ASR staff about a year ago and quickly became a strong member of the clinical team. She brings a wealth of varied experience along with a rich background to her work with ASR students.

Born and raised in Columbia County, NY, in the area of Old Chatham, Shelley is the middle child of eight. Her parents are deceased, and her four brothers and three sisters are now scattered up and down the East Coast, from North Carolina to New Hampshire. Faith and spirituality were always a vital part of her family life, and Shelley was naturally surrounded by and immersed in lively discussions involving theology as she grew up. Also, there is some history of alcoholism in her family background, contributing to her interest in addiction issues—what causes it, how it is most effectively treated, and so forth. Given this combination of factors, her continuing interest in the psychology of spirituality and addiction is not surprising. It became her quest to find ways to "marry" these vitally important interests somehow as she pursued her education and career.

After earning her bachelor's degree at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Shelley taught religion in middle school for a time before beginning her family. Though she chose to be at home with her two children during the years they were growing up, Shelley remained very active outside the home as well, particularly in her church. She led youth groups, taught religious education, and became a lay minister and spiritual director through the Catholic Diocese of Albany, NY. Later she returned to school and obtained her master's degree in education-counseling at the College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY. After receiving her master's, Shelley returned to school once more and earned certification in chemical dependency counseling. Her work experience includes six years as school counselor/residential life curriculum coordinator/director of community services at an independent boarding school.

While working toward her master's, Shelley sought an internship that would allow her to explore the connection between spirituality and psychology. No such internship existed, so the college created one in pastoral counseling for her at Albany Medical Center. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, Shelley was required to become a hospital chaplain. She had received training in both grief counseling and college counseling, and as a chaplain at the Medical Center she was part of the heart transplant team and worked in various parts of the hospital during her internship, including the emergency room. In her role there, she became very familiar with what parents go through when their children are involved in the tragedies that so often accompany various forms of substance abuse. As a parent herself, she could easily relate to them.

Shelley's pride in her own children is easily perceived in her voice as she speaks of them. Her son Gregory is a senior at Purchase College in the Conservatory of Dramatic Writing. A short film on which he and a friend who hails from London collaborated (he wrote the screenplay and his friend did the filming) has just been accepted for the International Film Festival at Edinburgh. He will be going to London during the summer to stay for a time with his friend and likely will be able to attend the Film Festival. Daughter Noelle, 25, lives in Washington, DC, where she is Supervisor of Group Sales at the Fairmont Hotel. Though quite young for such a responsible position, Noelle has done an excellent job of increasing the hotel's sales since obtaining her position.

Shelley describes Noelle, a recovering addict, as a great help in her work with ASR students. Noelle has graciously given her mom permission to share her story with those who may benefit from it. Students can relate more easily to the experience of someone near their own age, and it is extremely helpful to students to hear they can get through college without using substances.

In describing how her pastoral counseling skills come into play in her work at ASR, Shelley says, "Everyone has a spiritual language, even if they have no formal belief system or church background or affiliation. People who, given the choice, would refuse to see a psychiatrist or counselor of any kind and would refuse to have anything to do with a church will still talk about their own belief system, whatever that may be. My pastoral counseling training helps enable me to listen carefully and discern where the students are spiritually so that I can talk to them that way in working with them. Spiritual language is metaphoric, and kids understand it. They want to speak that language and are usually eager to talk about their own spiritual feelings and experiences."

Her faith is also a great help to Shelley personally. Asked about the greatest challenge of her job at ASR, Shelley responds, "Taking care of myself, remembering not to fall back into the "helper" routine. It is necessary to find a balance and remember that the Higher Power is there for me, too."

Shelley continues to educate herself on the latest research involving addiction and how to treat it. Some of the most interesting recent brain research describes a "pleasure pathway" that bypasses the frontal lobes of the brain where our reasoning power resides. This pathway, which leads directly to the mid-brain where creativity and spirituality reside, is also the one used by addictive substances, so that the brain perceives them as pleasure-giving and keeps desiring more and more. It follows then, that it may help overcome addictions to teach students, once their systems are clear of substances and their reasoning power has returned, that there are healthy activities that can also produce pleasure.

Shelley's lifelong theme has been finding bridges to link together her interests, experience, training, skills and abilities. At ASR she is able to use all of who she is to the benefit of our students, and we are very grateful that those bridges ultimately led her here.

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