About Founder

Dr. Polly Vaughn Ed. D, C.A.D.C is President and CEO of the Institute for Social and Emotional Learning “I have experienced many wonderful years working with staff and consumers. My employment has included working with families in foster care, youth and adults in group homes. I have assisted families in court, with the goal of permanency for their children. I have worked with men, women, and youth in substance abuse treatment programs and dual disorder consumers in mental health rehabilitation programs. I have pursued my education while working full-time, being married, and raising two wonderful children and now a grandson. I received my Ed. D in 2007 from Nova Southeastern University. I have written many research papers and I am pleased to share with you some of what I have learned from my experiences.

My own personal view of the function of counseling is as a journey of self discovery by the consumer. I believe that it is the role of the counselor to provide a safe, non-judgmental environment that will allow the process to take place. 

Please keep in mind….. 

When we are working with consumers who are addicted to any substance it helps to remember

When you experience pleasure — like eating ice cream on a hot day, for example — your brain releases a chemical called dopamine. When people first use a drug such as nicotine, dopamine floods the brain.

If they keep using the drug, the brain senses that it's getting more than enough dopamine, so it stops producing as much on its own. That leads to depression, which leads people to keep using the drug — not to get high, but just to stop feeling awful.

We could help consumers replace their negative pleasure with positive pleasures because the brain cannot differentiate between drugs, day dreaming, jumping out of an airplane or playing with your children.