The Recovery Academy has a staff of highly trained addiction counselors, peer-support specialists, and mental health professionals. Our staff uses a person-centered, strengths-based model that focuses on positive attributes versus prior failures.
Drew Horowitz brings a vast range of expertise working with and overseeing our clinical team. He gained a wealth of knowledge through his own recovery, extensive training, and a master’s level education from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s Graduate School of Addiction Studies. Drew did his undergraduate degree at Hofstra University in NY, where he focused on psychology and human development. Most recently, Drew became an Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor with the capability to diagnose and provide mental health treatment.
Within his decade plus of experience in the field, he has worked with a multitude of populations providing consultation, intervention, sober coaching, and counseling.
Drew is most well known for his mastery in conducting clinical interventions. Over the past several years Drew has gained significant experience traveling the country and even internationally to assist individuals with accessing treatment. The intervention process, according to Drew, must be done with compassion, empathy and a strong understanding of the pain individuals are experiencing while active in addiction. Drew has assisted over 500 families with the intervention process. Primarily, focusing on young adult males and adolescents. Drew’s intervention and coaching style was shaped by a background and training in motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy, and client-centered care.
Dr. Sara Polley is board certified in child and adolescent psychiatry, adult psychiatry, and addiction medicine and has been in practice for over a decade. She is currently the Medical Director of Mental Health Services for Horowitz Health. She has an active outpatient clinic working with adolescents and young adults and specializes in diagnostic assessment, medication management, and family support for children, adolescents, and young adults. In addition to her clinical work, she is an appointed member of the Minnesota Cannabis Advisory Council and works as a pediatric addiction prevention and treatment consultant for both local and national organizations.
Dr. Polley completed her child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. She did additional training with Harvard’s pediatric addiction team, a world leader in the field of co-occurring care for youth. Dr. Polley completed her adult psychiatry training in a joint program between Sheppard Pratt Hospital and the University of Maryland. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School and earned her bachelors of science degree in child psychology from the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development.
I take a tremendous amount of pride in the work we do at The Recovery Academy. When a person enters our program, they become a part of our family, one that walks with them as they trudge the roads of early recovery to a life of freedom and happiness.
