You don’t have to journey alone
Meet The Team
With more than 100 years of combined experience guiding advisors, clinicians and families through the journey to long-term independence from addiction, our team can help you move in the right direction.
Douglas Lyons, C.A.D.C. II
CO-FOUNDER
Doug Lyons has more than 25 years of experience as a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor and holds a Certificate in Family Business Advising from the Family Firm Institute.
Giving to heirs is meant to bring richness and resources to their lives. It can be difficult to come to terms with the fact that in doing so we may be inadvertently harming them.
Douglas Lyons, C.A.D.C. II
Co-Founder
Doug Lyons has more than 25 years of experience as a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor and holds a Certificate in Family Business Advising from the Family Firm Institute. His expertise is in the design of complex solutions for individuals, families and family businesses struggling with substance abuse and/or family business dysfunction. Doug has a history of working effectively in collaborative settings with multi-family offices and wealth advisors. He is a highly sought-after lecturer and speaker, having presented to the Family Firm Institute in Europe and the United States as well as the Northwest Institute of Addiction Studies, The Dallas-Fort Worth Behavioral Health Symposium, The Axis CORE Conferences, The Mississippi Heroin and Opioid Summit, and the Hazelden Foundation’s continuing education programs to name a few.
In his 15 years with Hazelden, Doug chaired the Clinical Leadership Team at Hazelden’s Oregon facility, co-chaired the National Chemical Dependency Team and served as the Director of Clinical Services. In an earlier role as Chemical Dependency Evaluation Director, he conducted or supervised more than 2,400 chemical dependency evaluations for celebrities and high-profile public figures as well as airline pilots, CPAs, lawyers and physicians.
Before helping to found Clere Consulting, Doug worked for a wealth management firm as a family wealth advisor, assisting client families with the complexities of addiction and other dysfunctions.
Doug served as Vice President and Executive Board member for the Oregon Prevention, Education and Recovery Association, a consortium of all major chemical dependency treatment providers in Oregon.
Doug also served for over 10 years on the Executive Board of Lines for Life, a nationally recognized, nonprofit organization whose mission is to end substance abuse and prevent suicide.
Doug has a Bachelor’s degree in Management and Organizational Leadership from George Fox University. He has been sober since November 18, 1989.
Samuel Dresser, M.B.A.
CO-FOUNDER
Sam Dresser has 18+ years experience as a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor. With his business background, Sam has emerged as an in-demand resource where addiction, affluence and business intersect.
Through our professional, recovery and personal lives we know many beneficiaries who struggle to abstain and find meaningful lives without alcohol and drugs. You, as trustee, have the power to collaborate with professionals and insist your beneficiaries start down the path to recovery.
Samuel Dresser, M.B.A.
Co-Founder
Sam Dresser has over 18 years experience as a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor and also holds a Masters in Business Administration. His areas of expertise are: addiction education and awareness, the clinical needs of the affluent/prominent demographic (as well as high-level professionals), family dynamics generated by addiction, effectual leverage techniques to encourage addicts and alcoholics to seek help, reintegrating addicts into family systems and tailoring strategies for post-treatment recovery.
Sam is a well-recognized and solicited presenter/writer in the field*. His wide array of clinical skills, business acumen and demonstrated leadership ensure that Clere Consulting consistently delivers durable results.
Prior to founding Clere Consulting with Judson Bemis and Doug Lyons, Sam served as a counselor, clinical supervisor and clinical director at the Hazelden Foundation. As clinical director, he led the design and implementation of post-treatment services, a pioneering aftercare model called The MORE Program, the main tenets of which are outcome-based clinical strategies for long-term recovery and relapse prevention.
With his business background, Sam has emerged as an in-demand resource where addiction, affluence and business intersect, primarily in family business settings. He provides expert advice to addicts and their families, as well as their advisors and trustees, on the complexities that arise when family enterprises are affected by addiction treatment and recovery. He has a proven understanding of the connection between addiction and affluence and the challenge of sustainable recovery for those who experience a different set of consequences as a result of such privilege.
In this particular segment of his work, Sam specializes in collaborating with single/multifamily offices, attorneys and advisors to family businesses to create tailored, long-term, effective strategies to positively promote change in addicted family members and employees. He is also proficient in facilitating/moderating conflict among ownership groups, collaboration and consultation with other advisors on succession planning, and coaching recovering executives. His family business consulting does include circumstances where addiction is a non-factor, but conflicts and behavioral issues are affecting the family and business.
Sam attended St. Olaf College and Bethel University and received his MBA from the University of St. Thomas. He has been sober since December 11, 1989.
Recent Presentations & Articles
Presentations
1) Family Office Exchange (FOX) – Family Businesses, Client Managers and Beneficiaries: A Practical and Results- Oriented Approach to Addiction in Client Families
2) Society for Trust and Estate Planners (STEP) – Addiction in the Family Business (London, UK)
Articles
1) Financial Managers and Dysfunctional Clients: Addiction’s Effect on Staff Morale and Fiduciary Responsibilities in the Family and Wealth Management Offices
2) The Demise of Trustee Discretion and Ascertainable Standards as Effective Controls on Dysfunctional and Underperforming Beneficiaries: Solutions for Trustees
Amy Prouty, MSW, C.A.D.C.
PARTNER
Amy Prouty is a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor with extensive experience in treating addiction and expertise in parent/child dynamics, including assessing and eliminating enabling behaviors.
I am not afraid to guide a family into new territories in their communication and belief systems.
Amy Prouty, MSW, C.A.D.C.
PARTNER
Amy Prouty is a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor with extensive experience in treating addiction and expertise in parent/child dynamics. She prides herself in “walking through the fire with families,” helping families restore, or develop for the first time, age appropriate and functional family roles — moving people from policing to parenting, over-dependence or over-functioning to independence and integrity. She has served two – and sometimes three – generations of the same family, which is indicative of the level of trust and longevity of relationships with her clients.
Her role with Clere Consulting calls upon her specific skills in assessing and eliminating enabling behaviors, facilitating relationships (especially defining expectations and reintegrating recovering addicts into the family) and developing and executing working contracts between parents and young adults – a linchpin in the Clere Process. Prouty is known to bring levity to the process when appropriate, because as she explains, “When a family is ready to call us and take action, that’s the good news! The years of suffering and deal-making it took to get to that place of readiness — that was the hard part, that was the tragedy. When the work begins that’s where hope and liberation are found.”
Before joining Clere Consulting, Prouty was in private practice for three years in Lake Oswego, OR. Her areas of focus included group facilitation, family education, invitational and Johnson Model interventions, recovery coaching, treatment center matching and liaison, and case management. She was the exclusive continuing care referral source for graduates of Hazelden’s Springbrook Treatment Center, facilitating four weekly continuing care groups for Hazelden graduates. She had to increase the number of groups offered to accommodate the clients wanting to continue attending after the customary twelve weeks.
Prior to launching Strategic Intervention and Recovery Services, Prouty served as a focal therapist and family counselor at Hazelden Springbrook. Prouty began her work in the field of addiction as a counselor at a boys’ residential treatment center, then managed a non-profit organization championing the importance of early literacy as a foundation for academic success and emotional wellbeing. Prior to entering the field of addiction she was an advertising executive at a large Portland agency. “I had to change careers once I found recovery because copy deadlines and campaign strategies no longer held the same level of importance for me they once did. Prior to recovery, meeting a print deadline felt like a matter of life and death. After recovery, real life and death matters became important.”
That foundation in childhood education plays out in how she deals with families. “I relish really getting in there and clearing issues out with a family but doing it from a very human and humble place where we’re working together. I’m not dictating to the family what’s right or what’s wrong. We’re trying to solve problems together.”
Prouty received her Bachelor’s from the University of Portland and her Master’s in Social Work from Portland State University. She has been in recovery since 1999.
Eve M. Ruff, MS, S.U.D.P.
Senior Consultant
Eve has 14+ years of diverse experience in the field, including CEO of a residential facility, Executive Director of an outpatient facility and inaugural director of an Alternatives to Addiction Program.
My relational skills, my clinical skills, and my sheer longevity and leadership in the field resonate with clients.
Eve M. Ruff, MS, S.U.D.P.
Senior Consultant
Eve’s relational skills, clinical expertise, and longevity and leadership – she has 17 years of diversified experiences in the substance use and behavioral health field – set her apart. Additionally, she has 25 years of education, commitment, and service as a biomedical research librarian and director.
Eve is a consultant with Clere Consulting working with families presenting with a constellation of complex behavioral health, addiction, and business-related issues requiring experienced and creative solutions. She has developed customized family workshops, created individualized intervention and treatment strategies, and offered treatment and ancillary provider recommendations. Her experience is varied in the field of Chemical Dependency, having worked as a consultant, in residential care, and hospital based and outpatient programs. She has held positions as Chief Executive Officer of a Seattle residential facility, founder and executive director of an outpatient agency, and inaugural director of a not-for-profit comprehensive addictions program. She excels at engaging with the entire family system to comprehensively understand where work needs to take place and to chart a course for a successful outcome.
Eve also serves as a Senior Consultant with C-4 Consulting, a distinguished dedicated team of industry leaders who provide their expertise to help secure the missions and advance the visions of behavioral health organizations.
Prior to her current career, Eve worked for 25 years as a biomedical research librarian including tenures as a fellow at the National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine and as Executive Director of Library and Information Services at a premier comprehensive cancer research center. Her scientific and medical information literacy, data analysis, grant writing, and leadership skills are hallmarks of this time of her life and carry well to her later work.
She earned her B.A. with departmental honors at Union College in Schenectady, NY and her M.S. in Library and Information Science from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. Eve also is certified as a Substance Use Disorder Professional with education from Seattle Central College, WA.
Eve’s passion lies in her commitment to reducing the human suffering attributed to chemical dependency and mental health disorders for both individuals and their families. As such, she combines her vast skills and her personal commitment to strategizing on the institutional and the individual level to ameliorate obstacles to healing. She understands both the human capital and the technical aspects of business and the access barriers for those seeking help. She has learned first-hand through client work the value of designing systems sensitive to people rather than the other way around.
Eve is committed to the field not only through her career but has served on a number of non-profit boards and written and presented evidence based, peer reviewed papers at a regional Fundamentals of Addiction Medicine Conference and a National NAADAC conference.
Eve enjoys her long-term sobriety and appreciates appropriate opportunities to share the benefits of this aspect of her life with others. A native New Yorker, she resides in Seattle, Washington where she raised her children and now enjoys the circle of family life. She is an avid hiker, cyclist, amateur photographer, and knitter.
Neely Carlton Lyons, JD.
Consultant
“Being a good listener.” is how Neely Carlton Lyons describes her successful career in the law and politics that includes serving as an executive at the highest levels in all three branches of state government.
I want clients to know I have been on the other side of the conversation. There is hope for their loved one and family.
Neely Carlton Lyons JD
Consultant
“Being a good listener.” is how Neely Carlton Lyons describes her successful career in the law and politics. “Lawyers are also referred to as counselors for a reason. I meet people where they are and help find solutions tailored to their individual needs.”
Neely’s work includes serving as an executive at the highest levels in all three branches of state government: in the Legislative Branch when she made history at age 25 and became the youngest ever-elected Mississippi State Senator; in the Judicial Branch as a Law Clerk to State Supreme Court Justice Edwin Pittman; in the Executive Branch as Chief of Staff for Stephen Simpson, Commissioner of the MS Dept. of Public Safety and as Counsel and Legislative Liaison to Governor Haley Barbour. Her senate policy initiatives focused on the convergence of public health and public safety issues such as drug control, mental health, addiction, domestic violence, and child protective services policies. In her legal practice, Neely represented behavioral health and treatment providers as well as impaired licensees seeking to re-establish their practices and relationships with their licensing boards.
While achieving professional success, Neely’s family has been touched by addiction and mental health issues. Her unique 360-degree perspective – political life, professional engagement, and personal experiences – complements the collective depth of Clere’s team. “I want clients to know I have been on the other side of the conversation. There is hope for their loved one and family.”
Neely is a Certified ARISE Interventionist and Certified Recovery Specialist. In addition to helping families recover, Neely works with executive management teams and law firms to bring addiction, mental health, and intervention resources to their employees. “Success in business often means hiring experts to bridge an knowledge gap. If you are struggling to ask a colleague to get help, that’s where Clere comes in.” Neely strategizes with executive teams to create return-to-work arrangements that reflect best practices in recovery.
Neely is a writer and national speaker who volunteers with several recovery community organizations including the Recovery Housing Operators Association of Mississippi and the MS Opioid and Heroin Summit. She received the Mississippi Business Journal’s Healthcare Hero Award for 2017 for her volunteer work in support of recovery organizations.
Cassidy Miller, MA, L.M.F.T.
SENIOR CONSULTANT
Cassidy Miller is a licensed marriage and family therapist with both undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology. In her role as a Clere Consultant Cassidy gets to utilize an eclectic skill set to encourage individuals and families in developing a depth of understanding for themselves, their circumstances, and their choices.
When people are suffering and really going through it, the right question in those situations is any question that sparks curiosity.
Cassidy Miller
SENIOR CONSULTANT
Cassidy Miller is a licensed marriage and family therapist with both undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology. Having been introduced to family systems theory in her undergraduate work, Cassidy sought a graduate level program with a reputation for expertise in that area. The University of San Francisco awarded her M.A. in counseling psychology (2012).
Cassidy excels in her abilities to communicate and establish shared understanding among multiple members of complex relationship dynamics and among teams of collaborating colleagues. She is known to be illustrative, relatable, direct, and kind. Her motivation to do this work is rooted in knowing that growth can happen throughout our entire lifespan. Cassidy believes, that regardless of how we may have been socialized to think about mental health, everyone struggles and in relation to that hardship there is something more and better with access to the right information and support. In her role as a Clere Consultant Cassidy gets to utilize an eclectic skill set to encourage individuals and families in developing a depth of understanding for themselves, their circumstances, and their choices.
Cassidy engages people with a baseline belief that no matter how destructive a dynamic or behavior has become, when viewed within the full and fair context, there are likely some knowable reasons for its existence. Learning about these specific reasons— distinct from justifications or excuses— is an important part of generating greater self-awareness and lasting change. It is important to Cassidy that she approach families with a clear intention to lead by example with the concept of “holding both”. This approach makes room for honest and at times painful self-evaluation while reinforcing inherent worth; thorough inventory of the circumstance and the part one plays in it, while acknowledging the brave and different actions that are being taken to move forward. Shame is not only not the goal it is counterproductive for healing any relationship with oneself or anyone else.
Cassidy applies her training in systems and strategic thinking to every part of the process. Through the years Cassidy has experienced that in many instances nuanced observation and assessment must come from outside of the system if it is to be of any substantive use moving forward. There comes a point when living—surviving—in dysfunction, when one’s ability to discern what is real and true becomes less vivid, sometimes to the extent of being no longer being visible. Cassidy understands that this level of process can feel overwhelming. “Some of this process is bound to be uncomfortable—but from a place of honesty so much becomes possible that otherwise remains not possible at all.”
Known for her curious and inquisitive nature Cassidy’s style of observation strives to see from the many perspectives in a family. In her role as a consultant she believes that introducing the right question can be as valuable as providing new information. She says, “When people are suffering and really going through it, the right question in those situations is any question that sparks curiosity. It’s remarkable how powerful and important a little bit of curiosity can be when you have been feeling helpless and hopeless.” She also understands when there is hesitation to engage from this illuminating and confronting place. “Curiosity is fuel for learning how to see with more clarity what is real in contrast to the story you have been telling yourself to survive your circumstances. Curiosity allows for new information and accumulates that into knowledge—the more you understand the harder it becomes to live as if you don’t. Ultimately, sustained curiosity asks for your courage to feel, to be afraid, to do something different and become free.”
Cassidy’s B.A. was awarded by Prescott College (2010), where, along side the head of psychology department, she co-created the Peer Support Network, a program that continues to this day. She later was selected to present her research and the program in a baccalaureate presentation where she represented the psychology department and her graduating class. She has background in the mental health field, providing clinical services to children and families, in a wide range of settings. She worked as a therapist at San Francisco General Hospital in the adolescent psychiatric department. She has held parent support specialist position for residential program and for several years as a wilderness therapist. Throughout this time she has also facilitated several types of process and support groups and workshops. For the past 4 years she has been in private practice virtually and locally in Santa Monica, CA.
Tamara Tinkham, PSY. D. L.P.
Psychologist
Since 2000, Dr. Tinkham has led a very successful private practice in which she blends best practices and empirically validated approaches with the warmth and creativity needed for positive outcomes.
Since 2000, Dr. Tinkham has led a very successful private practice where she blends best practices and empirically validated approaches with the warmth and creativity needed for positive outcomes.
Tamara Tinkham, PSY. D., L.P.
Consulting Psychologist
Dr. Tinkham, Psy.D. LP. is a seasoned licensed psychologist with 20 years of successful private practice. Early in her career, she spent time working in both primary and extended care treatment at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. Tamara works with clients at all stages of recovery from helping families and individuals make the first terrifying steps into treatment, through renewing and reawakening a program of recovery after 20 years sober.
Tamara consults with families and coaches parents struggling with their children’s substance use. She works with individuals experiencing mood disorders and anxiety, trauma, burnout, body image/eating disorder issues, and addictive disorders. Assessing for these and other co-occurring mental health issues and risks has been extremely beneficial to Clere’s clients. Nuanced assessment and diagnostic testing are essential to effectively coordinating treatment and recovery for complex journeys.
Tamara has spent years providing clinical supervision within universities, nonprofits, and treatment settings, where she blends best practices and empirically validated approaches with the warmth and creativity needed for positive outcomes.
Her academic Interests are in prevention and how early struggles in school, especially dyslexia, can affect the trajectory of an individual’s life and relationship with substances. Early academic intervention may be one of the most protective factors along with delaying first use.
In addition to her professional life, Tamara enjoys gardening, flower design and designing Christmas trees her family thinks are too unconventional, socializing, and traveling. When she’s not attempting to keep up with twin teenagers, she’s walking the prairie and meditating on the beautiful changing seasons with her dog.
Jason Woodrum
SENIOR Consultant
Jason Woodrum is a Clinical Social Worker who believes in the transformational power of recovery. His professional journey is largely informed by his own personal recovery journey, and the joy that came with seeing the miraculous way in which it changed his relationship to himself and his family.
"Under my care, you can rest assured that you have an engaged ally in achieving the necessary changes in your family. The hard part is over, and now the transformative part can begin."
Jason Woodrum
Senior Consultant
Jason Woodrum is a Clinical Social Worker who believes in the transformational power of recovery. His professional journey is largely informed by his own personal recovery journey, and the joy that came with seeing the miraculous way in which it changed his relationship to himself and his family. Jason works to empower families to begin the life changing work of letting go of thoughts, behaviors, and beliefs that are no longer serving them.
Jason’s role with Clere Consulting calls upon his proven track record of connecting with individuals and families to assess, address and manage thoughts and behaviors that inform and underly the problem at hand. Jason is an ally, advisor and dance partner to individuals and families he knows have the capacity to achieve amazing things. From the early stages of boundary formation, all the way through to maintenance and the beautiful gradual return to a new normal that comes with long term recovery.
Jason has provided services in a host of different environments, serving as a clinician and case manager in both public and private settings. He has served in clinical roles for both Los Angeles County and Orange County, and was employed as a Therapist for treatment centers around Southern California. In all of these environments, Jason has crafted long lasting and personal relationships with the clients and families that he has come into contact with. He delivers prompt feedback in order to assist families in navigating toward living in accordance with their true values. Jason leads with a level of empathy and warmth that allows him to connect with those he works with.
Prior to joining Clere Consulting, Jason was in private practice for two years serving as an addiction counselor and coach for families throughout the country. He brings an eclectic host of evidence based interventions into focus when working with the entire system around the client. Jason always crafts an approach to treatment that allows for individuals and families to feel like they are the leader in their own care. Jason’s years of experience allows for him to identify and select the intervention strategy that is best tailored to meet the needs of the family system in that moment.
Jason received his Masters of Social Work from the University of Southern California with distinction in 2017. A life long resident of Southern California, Jason possesses a passion for volunteering to serve underrepresented communities in the region. He remains deeply involved within his own recovery, and celebrates continuous sobriety since 2013. In his spare time, Jason enjoys spending time with his wife and practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, Yoga and Surfing.
Leah Randi
CONSULTANT
Leah Randi has more than 10 years of experience as an addiction specialist, and is a CAADAC (UCLA) Certified Drug And Alcohol counselor in addition to having Interventionist training, Sober Companion training, and membership in NARCAN.
Personal growth always results when we allow ourselves to expand beyond the farthest borders of what our lives have been so far.
Leah Randi
Consultant
Leah Randi has more than 10 years of experience as an addiction specialist, and is a CAADAC (UCLA) Certified Drug And Alcohol counselor in addition to having Interventionist training, Sober Companion training, and membership in NARCAN.
Focusing primarily on interventions and recovery coaching, her lived experience and education have prepared her to address a variety of addictive behaviors. As she explains: “I’m grateful for my life experience as it has sharpened my intuition, and allowed me to connect with compassion and ease, and to meet others with a full awareness of where they are in the moment.”
Leah excels at working with high-profile clients, executives and celebrities in a multitude of settings and has assisted in a variety of transitional and crisis situations here in the United States and abroad. She has served as both a “coach” and an immediate and comprehensive emergency resource.
Leah has accompanied clients from intervention through to treatment, and well into long-term aftercare. She assists clients in making an effective transition back into their home environment and helps them establish connections within their local recovery support network, while providing lifestyle instruction and training that is tailor-made for each individual. Once she has an understanding of a client’s unique mindset, she collaborates with them to establish achievable goals aimed toward developing a daily, maintainable, structure that is conducive to their specific lifestyle and fosters sustained recovery. Leah also believes in the efficacy of collaborating with a treatment team consisting of interventionists, case-managers, therapists and psychiatrists, to assist in the successful accomplishment of each client’s established goals.
Leah’s capacity for awareness and her ability to work intimately with clients stems from her personal experience in recovery. Overcoming her own addiction and self-destructive behavior has taken her far beyond where she had imagined. Restoring self-esteem, personal power and personal identity is what has allowed her to rediscover meaning and gratitude. For Leah, the drive to achieve true freedom has meant carving a path that encompasses self-love, personal growth and evolution, and purposeful living. Meditation and exercise are typically key components of the holistic recovery that she helps clients achieve.
Leah is a California native and has also lived New York and Canada. As a professional bass player and vocalist, she has travelled extensively on various world tours and is a continuing recording artist. Because of her longstanding affiliation with MusiCares Grammy Foundation as a musician and a member, she understands the necessity for privacy and confidentiality, and applies this with committed sensitivity and integrity.
Leah has been clean and sober since April of 2003. Her connections and referrals with top tier treatment facilities and specialists have become invaluable to her clients and to her personal growth.
