Meet Cole Szabo

Licensed Alcohol & Drug Abuse Counselor | ADHD & Life Coach | Certified Parent Coach | Therapeutic Consultant

 I know that people are more complicated than their symptoms.

Someone can understand that their behavior is creating problems and still feel unable to change it. A parent can deeply love their child while also feeling angry, frightened, exhausted, or unsure how to help. A young adult can be intelligent and capable while still struggling to organize life, regulate emotions, or build momentum. Those are the kinds of situations I enjoy helping people make sense of.

My career in behavioral health began working in residential treatment with adolescents and young adults. Over the years, I have worked as both a clinician and in leadership roles within prominent behavioral health treatment programs, including serving in admissions and outreach leadership for adolescent and young adult services.

That experience gave me the opportunity to work closely with families navigating addiction, mental health concerns, crisis, residential treatment, and the broader behavioral health system. I earned my degree in Organizational Leadership from Lipscomb University, where I developed a strong interest in systems, roles, relationships, and how people function within them.

I later became licensed in Tennessee as a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor, Level II. Today, my work integrates counseling, ADHD and executive functioning coaching, parent coaching, family systems, recovery support, and therapeutic consultation.

My style is warm, person-centered, and collaborative. I also believe people often benefit from clear direction. Sometimes insight is important. Sometimes a new skill is needed. Sometimes a boundary needs to be established. Sometimes we need to understand the nervous system. Sometimes the family needs to change how it responds. And sometimes the current level of treatment simply is not enough.                I draw from:

• Family systems
• Attachment theory
• Internal Family Systems
• Emotionally Focused Therapy
• Polyvagal and nervous system approaches
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy
• Mindfulness
• ADHD and executive functioning coaching
• Recovery principles
• 12-step approaches when appropriate

I use these approaches flexibly rather than trying to fit every person into one model.

My understanding of addiction and recovery is also personal. My own experience with change, treatment, and long-term recovery informs the respect I have for how difficult this work can be. It also shapes one of the core beliefs behind Lucid: People are capable of change, but meaningful change usually requires more than simply being told what they are doing wrong. It requires understanding, honesty, support, accountability, practice, and a reason to believe life can become different.

Lucid means clear. Awake. Able to see something more accurately. That is what I hope the work provides. Not a perfect life. Not the absence of difficulty. But greater clarity about what is happening, why it is happening, and what to do next.