Thank God It's Toby: Highlights

Faust A. Ruggiero’s professional career spans almost 40 years, and is diversified and compelling, as it has consistently established new and exciting cutting-edge counseling programs in its pursuit of professional excellence and personal life enhancement. He is a published research author, clinical trainer, and a therapist who has worked in settings that have included clinics for deaf children, prisons, nursing homes, substance abuse centers, inpatient facilities, and as the President of the Community Psychological Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania. In that capacity, he developed the Process Way of Life counseling program, and has developed it into a formal text presented in the Fix Yourself Handbook.

Upon graduating from Mansfield University in 1977, Mr. Ruggiero enrolled in the graduate program in Psychology at Illinois State University. There, with a dual major in clinical and developmental psychology, with a minor in research, he assisted in the publication of several research articles, including his thesis “The effects of prosocial and antisocial television programs on the cognitions of children”.

Upon leaving graduate school, Mr. Ruggiero began working with Antoinette Goffredo counseling services providing psychological intervention to adolescent deaf children. There, he helped Ms. Goffredo develop a behavioral management program for profoundly deaf children with residual hearing.

In 1982, he accepted a position with the Lehigh Valley Alcohol Counseling Center. There he provided individual counseling services to clientele suffering from alcohol abuse and addiction, including the introduction to both the twelve-step recovery process, and family and intervention services. It was at the alcohol counseling center, where Mr. Ruggiero was asked to develop a Phase 2 counseling program for individuals convicted of drunk driving offenses.

In 1984, Mr. Ruggiero left the Alcohol Counseling Center to pursue a treatment position at Northampton County prison. There, he provided psychological and substance abuse intake and counseling services to inmates. He coordinated all substance abuse services, and program development services for inmates. In 1986, he obtained his certification in substance abuse treatment in the state of Pennsylvania.

He left Northampton County prison in 1989 pursue his endeavors at the Community Psychological Center on a full-time basis. As president of the Community Psychological Center, Mr. Ruggiero continued to provide services to individuals, families, those suffering with substance abuse, abused women and women in transition, couples and marriage counseling, counseling for veterans, law enforcement, and other first responders. In 1994, Mr. Ruggiero accepted an invitation to become a trainer for the Department of Health in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Ruggiero also provides counseling services for first responders, law enforcement, and other emergency personnel. Following several years of experimentation regarding the various therapeutic approaches, Mr. Ruggiero developed and began utilizing the Process Way of Life Program. The program consists of over fifty internal human processes, which can be accessed and developed to help clients address the various conditions which were affecting their lives.

After the program was developed, it was rigorously researched and tested, and changes were made culminating in the approach presently being used by Mr. Ruggiero at the Community Psychological Center.

In the summer of 2016, Mr. Ruggiero decided to develop the Process Life Program into a text that can be published, and would help people in need address the difficult situations that are affecting their lives. The Fix Yourself Handbook was completed in December of 2019. On February 1st, 2020, The Fix Yourself Handbook received the Silver Award from The Nonfiction Authors Association. On May 2, 2020, it received the Gold Award from Literary Titan. On September 1st, 2020, it received the Bronze Award from Reader's Favorite. He has appeared on television and radio shows, and podcasts discussing the Process Way of Life presented in The Fix Yourself Handbook both nationally and internationally. The Fix Yourself Handbook II; The Journey Continues is currently in development.

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