Christine Allen is a seasoned professional with over 35 years of experience working in various service provider roles with the City of New York. She worked for two decades with the most vulnerable client populations, to support their efforts to achieve sustained self-sufficiency and self-determination. She worked as an NYC Classroom Teacher, an Eligibility Specialist with the Social Services system, as a Case Manager for rehoused homeless families, as HIV/AIDS service coordinator and community advocate, as Program Director with parents of At-Risk students, as Recruitment and Training Director, and as a Performance Management Program Administrator with the NYC criminal justice system. Ms. Allen holds Master’s Degrees in Education and in Social Work and is a Licensed Master Social Worker. She has vast experience working with individuals and families affected by substance use, mental health challenges and other issues related to addiction. She consistently employs the strength-based approach to motivate, engage, and help others to pursue desired outcomes. With over 24 years of hands-on experience, she has facilitated the process of recovery for persons in or those seeking recovery from alcohol, drugs, and other addictions, using varied non-clinical approaches to engage individuals at all stages of recovery— from initiation to stabilization to sustained recovery maintenance. She has successfully educated families on the recovery process and provided varied methods, approaches, and evidence-based practices to equip them to more effectively deal with family members trapped in the cycle of active addiction or who are struggling to maintain ongoing recovery. Ms. Allen is committed to work that employs her skill, experience, expertise, and desire to help individuals to utilize the recovery process to attain abstinence from all drugs, re-engage with society (family, friends, job, home), create a new life based on hope, health, and wellness, and gain a sense of purpose that leads to an improved way of life.
Christine J. Allen has been trained in Structured Family Recovery® *STRUCTURED FAMILY RECOVERY® is a specific, well-defined program for addiction recovery management leveraging family systems conducted by practitioners who have completed the Love First, Inc. STRUCTURED FAMILY RECOVERY® Counselor training program and are certified by Love First, Inc. to conduct the program.