Geoff Kane, MD, MPH is Emeritus Chief of Addiction Services at the Brattleboro Retreat, a
190-year-old psychiatric and addiction treatment hospital in southeastern Vermont. He founded Meetinghouse Solutions, LLC in 2017 to promote resilience and recovery at the
community level. He is a graduate of Boston College, Yale School of Medicine, and Yale
School of Public Health. Geoff is board certified in Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine,
a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, and a Certified Group
Psychotherapist.
Dr. Geoff Kane has focused on the treatment and prevention of substance use disorders
(SUDs) especially addiction, the severe end of the SUD spectrum, for more than fifty years.
Drawing upon vast clinical experience, scientific studies of the brain and behavior, and
population research, Dr. Kane helps professionals and the public understand how personal
and environmental factors cause harm or work in favor of those at risk for, or in the throes of,
substance use disorders. He invites individuals stuck in addiction to work with nature as they
modify their lifestyle (Keep your distance!) and connect with others (Ask for help!) in order
to move away from active addiction and grow in humility, honesty, and responsibility. He
also encourages people with serious substance use disorders to assess whether it’s to their
advantage to adopt additional measures such as medication, residential treatment, and
spiritual practices.
Substance use, risky and harmful substance use, SUDs, and addiction involve human
behaviors that are influenced for better or for worse by heredity (genetics), human interactions
in families and elsewhere (nurturing, non-judgment, judgment, peer pressure, violence…),
physical environment (safety, accessibility of substances…), and socioeconomic environment
(cautious or permissive attitudes toward use, commercialization of substances, discrimination,
poverty…). The current situation in the United States, where rates of harmful substance use
and mental illness are increasing, can be turned around if more and more individuals and
communities think and act ecologically, recognizing their own place in this web of
interacting risk and protective factors and then act in ways that respect their own risk
tolerance and the well-being of others.
From Geoff: Few things in life, if any, are as refreshing as mutually respectful, authentic
interactions between human beings. I hope you experience a touch of that in the writings and
videos on this website and on meetinghousesolutions.com. Both websites are likely to be
perpetually under construction, which is all the more reason for you to visit again.