Joseph Toscano

With over four decades of experience as an Addiction Specialist, Joseph brings a rare depth of clinical knowledge and perspective to his counseling practice. After 15 years of agency work, he ventured into private practice in 1997, obtaining National Certification as a mental health professional. Combining his expertise in addictive processes with a holistic understanding of their broader contexts—often entwined with unresolved grief and trauma—Joseph believes that all human beings possess addictive tendencies that are tied to deeper aspirations and dreams. To him, addictions represent misguided attempts to seek out something vital like connection, purpose, belonging, or simply a reprieve from pain. He also recognizes that anxiety and depressive disorders carry their own forms of intelligence. Joseph chooses to embrace the challenges inherent in these experiences instead of attempting to erase them. While mood disturbances can be destabilizing, depression, anxiety, and addictions have lessons to impart. They serve as nature’s way of signaling that something may be amiss in life, highlighting incongruences with one's deepest values, relationship health, or spirituality.