Chris McDuffie

Chris McDuffie is a licensed clinical social worker, addiction counselor and mindfulness coach based in Carlsbad, California. A retired high school principal, he spent 11 years on the clinical team at AToN Center, a 30-day medical detox and residential treatment center for co-occurring disorders.

His work brings Buddhist psychology into established approaches including DBT, ACT, CBT and MBRP, alongside spiritual, mindfulness-based and secular Western methods. He is well versed in 12 Step and SMART approaches to recovery and is a SMART trained facilitator. He works with people facing mental health and substance use challenges, and with those who want help managing emotions, relationships and personal goals, offering individualized care and goal setting. His site says he brings a lifetime of personal experience, compassion and respect to this work.

Chris holds a Master of Social Work from Fordham University and a CADC-II for Chemical Dependency Counseling. He has also trained in Compassion-Based Psychotherapy and Embodied Transformation through Nalanda Institute's Contemplative Psychotherapy Program. He has lectured at national and international programs to coach therapists in applying Buddhist psychology, including Pulsus Forums Mental Health Conferences, the California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals, and APA-approved CEU trainings held at AToN Center.

He hosts the podcast "Spiritual Sobriety" on the Insight Timer app, which explores how to incorporate Buddhist psychology with the 12 Steps for mindful recovery.