About

Hi, I'm Tim Lineaweaver.

I'm a counselor, writer, and speaker on addictions and trauma-related topics.

I've been a therapist for thirty years and am a licensed mental health counselor and alcohol and drug counselor.

I've written and spoken extensively on addictions, mental health, and relationships including for radio, newspapers, and the Good Men Project. I've been an adjunct professor at Lesley University and helped form the Cape Cod and Islands Suicide Prevention Coalition. During this time, I was the Project Director for Community Care for Depression, an initiative of the Community Health Centers of Cape Cod that was featured on the front page of the Boston Globe.

I got clean and sober in 1984 and have remained so, joyously. I live with my wife, Tessa, who is an accomplished potter. We have three children and four grandchildren.

My wife and I split our time between Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and Gulfport, Florida.

I'm writing a memoir.

I’m in the final stages of editing my book, Blasted, which is about generational trauma and my father’s alcoholism which ultimately blew apart our family. 

You can read an excerpt here.

A few other things about me.

WORK
I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) and a Licensed Alcohol Drug Counselor (LADC-1) in the state of Massachusetts. I have a half time virtual-only practice, treating clients ages eighteen and up for addictions, trauma and other mental health disorders. I speak publicly on related issues.

FITNESS
Fitness is an integral aspect to my physical, emotional, and spiritual health. My focus throughout most of my adult life has been on running, hockey, and martial arts, including boxing.

NUTRITION
Nutrition is another important aspect of my self-care regimen. I love to eat and try to keep a satisfying relationship with food. The human body is like a (highly complex) machine that requires good, clean fuel for optimal functioning. My general rule is to stay away from fatty, processed, chemical-laden foods and to try to eat fresh. Greens, nuts, low-fat yogurt, chicken and fish and seafood are some examples of my diet. I limit red meat to once in a while. I reserve the right to cheat and have a burger from time to time. For the most part, I stay away from sweets, though I love ice cream and will indulge occasionally. 

MUSIC
I’ve always highly valued music. As a sensitive kid with powerful feelings music consoled, confirmed, sustained, and inspired me. Unless I’m with a client or somewhere I can’t listen, then tunes are playing. Rock 'n' Roll, Blues, Country, Soul, some Jazz, and whatever fits into the moment. I’m always listening to the Allman Brothers Band because I’ve been a huge fan for over fifty years. I love Stevie Ray Vaughan, Stevie Wonder, and Al Green. My musical palette is pretty broad. I also listen to contemporary artists such as Marcus King Band, Alabama Shakes, Samantha Fish, and many others.

BOOKS
Like music, reading is essential to my existence and I always have a book going. I enjoy memoir, historical fiction, whodunnits, and crime-thrillers. I like novels that have something original to say about relationships, family, friendships, money and career.  I’ve had a great few years of reading as I have more time. Some recommendations: I love Don Winslow, Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and The Border. As a recovering person, I appreciated getting a more macro view of the addiction problem. 

I strongly suggest anything written by Patrick Radden Keefe, including Say Nothing, a well-thought out expose on the troubles in Ireland. I also loved the Snakehead about human smuggling into the United States and Empire of Pain about Purdue Pharma’s part in pushing opiates throughout the United States and how regulatory agencies looked the other way resulting in the opiate epidemic.  Keefe manages to humanize even the most odious human behavior while still calling out corruption and greed.

Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker weaves together several still pertinent themes while describing Civil War era New York, including racism, the draft and class. His characters are vividly drawn and the story will rope you in. 

Finally, I was nosing around Amazon one morning searching for something to read and I came across Andersonville by MacKinley Kantor. Written back in the 1950’s the book won the Pulitzer Prize. Kantor researched the book for seventeen years. It’s a dark book about man’s cruelty to man as he depicts with great detail the Rebel’s prisoner of war camp during the Civil War in Georgia. A big, thick tome that has one of the best endings I’ve ever read! Not for the faint of heart.  

I also read the Boston Globe (great sports section) the New Yorker and other periodicals, websites and e-zines daily. I’m obsessed with inclement weather and especially love and am fascinated by snowstorms and hurricanes. So, whenever there’s a storm brewing I’m trying to gain inside info and checking websites for the latest forecast.

TV
Okay, I’ll admit it. I love television! It has a calming effect on me. When telling people this, I’m often met with a snobbish, “We never watch television.” The fact is that a lot of television now is as good and sometimes as great as the best cinema. Consider most seasons of The Wire. Brilliant! How about Breaking Bad? Great! The Sopranos. Fantastic!