BIOGRAPHY
ACADEMIC PREPARATION
Dr. Mike Barnes received his BA in Psychology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He received his Masters of Education degree in Rehabilitation Counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy at Florida State University. Dr. Barnes is a Licensed Addiction Counselor and a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado. He is a Diplomate in the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. He is a member of NAADAC: The Association for Addiction Professionals and the International Association of Family Addiction Professionals.
EARLY WORK
Dr. Barnes accepted his first full-time counseling position in 1982, as an addiction counselor at First Step of Sarasota, in Sarasota, Florida. Since that time he has worked as an addiction counselor, EAP (Employee Assistance) Counselor and couple and family therapist in a number of clinical settings. He has also worked as an administrator and clinical supervisor in an adolescent residential treatment program, a crisis stabilization unit, and an acute care psychiatric hospital. Most recently Dr. Barnes served as the Clinical Program Manager for Residential Services at CeDAR (The Center for Dependency, Addiction, and Rehabilitation), a nationally recognized addiction treatment center at the University of Colorado Hospital, in Aurora, Colorado.
CURRENT WORK
Dr. Barnes is the Chief Clinical Officer at Foundry Treatment Center in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He is the Founder and Director of the Michael Barnes Family Institute. He has worked with his clinical team at Foundry, to develop a family centered, trauma-integrated addiction treatment process. His areas of responsibility included clinical oversight of all clinical programs, new program development, clinical supervision, and oversight of clinical record keeping. Dr. Barnes continues to present at national conferences, on the subjects of trauma, addiction, and the impact of trauma and addiction on family systems.
ACADEMIC WORK
'As a counselor educator, Dr. Barnes served as an adjunct professor at Florida State University, Penn State-Altoona College, and the University of South Florida before accepting a full-time faculty position in 2006 as Assistant Professor and Training Coordinator at Argosy University in Sarasota, Florida. In 2010 he moved to the University of Colorado Denver, where he served as an Assistant Clinical Professor and Training Coordinator in the Masters in Counseling Program. Dr. Barnes now serves as a trainer for the University of Baltimore, and as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado Denver and Rocky Mountain University in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
CLINICAL AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
Dr. Barnes' area of clinical and research interest has been on the impact of traumatic events on family system functioning. At Florida State, he completed his dissertation on the "Secondary Trauma of Parents of Children Who Experienced an Injury that Required Critical Care Treatment on a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)." He has written numerous scholarly articles and chapters in academic textbooks to expand counselor understanding of family trauma and how best to treat this issue. Over the years, Dr. Barnes has recognized that the family members of addicted individuals are required to live through a number of traumatic and life-threatening situations that are so often a part of active addiction. His book, published in late 2023, is titled "When the Solution Becomes the Problem: Helping Families Struggling with Addiction and Trauma.