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Biography(s):
Jeff VanVonderen, director of Damascus, Inc., is an internationally known speaker on addictions and church and family wellness. For over 25 years, individuals, families, and organizations have benefited from his skills and understanding in the areas of addiction, family systems, and recovery. He serves as a teaching pastor for Church of the Open Door in Minneapolis, MN, and is an instructor at Bethel College in St. Paul, MN. He is also co-founder and former director of Passages Counseling Center, a licensed Christian out-patient mental health clinic in Minneapolis, and is on the board of the National Association for Christian Recovery.
Jeff has a B.A. in Communications and has earned a Master of Divinity Degree in Pastoral Ministries. He has received advanced training from the University of Utah School on Alcoholism and Drug Dependencies, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the University of Minnesota, in such areas as incest, child abuse, assessment of mental health disorders, family systems, and church and school involvement in education/prevention of chemical dependency.
He has written several books, and many magazines and journals have featured his work. He has been the featured guest on many radio and television shows across the country.
"Quite often people try, with the best of intentions, to help themselves or their loved ones through a problem or crisis, only discover that the help is not helpful, or even harmful," Jeff says. "They find themselves supporting and helping to prolong on the outside, the very thing they do not support on the inside."
He goes on to say that "individuals and families become dysfunctional by accident. But they get well on purpose and this is what I'm about, helping them do that."
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