About

After receiving a B.S. in Experimental Psychology, Mr. Hudak received an M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling in 1976.

A Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, he was one of the first groups to be certified for licensure in our state.

I have been called a pioneer in the development of successful treatment interventions for abusers and victims. In the 80s, he received the Dan George Memorial Award for outstanding contributions in programming to the mental health field.

I designed Montana’s first intensive chemical dependency/codependency outpatient program in 1978. Because the model integrated systems in codependency models, both the person with the substance problem and their spouses and family could recover together.

I was also influential in the training of Montana’s first certified alcohol counselors in the late 70s, and early 80s.

My models are a synthesis of CBT, co-dependency, systems, attachment, and trauma-based developmental concepts. He defines many Axis 2 patterns as “limbic survival patterns” that have evolved out of our cultural denial with regards to Western Europe and America’s history of child abuse and neglect, slavery, and the attempted genocides of native peoples.

Ultimately, the model explains some aspects for how abuse unintentionally passes across generations, with a particular focus on how attachment and the limbic system play out in human relationships. Hint: It starts in the chemistry and psychology of attraction between couples!

He is the Legislative liaison for The Montana Sex Offender Treatment Association, past President, and a Clinical Member of the National Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.

My presentations are known for their practical application of complex theories in an atmosphere of compassion and fun.

I have been a resident of Montana for 45 years.

SKILLS and TRAINING experiences

I grew up in a diverse, working class neighborhood. Those families were some of my “my first teachers”.

The, there were my parents. Dad was a poor, depression era survivor Slovak, who lost his dad at 4 and his mom at 18. He was 1 of 11 children, half of them born in “The Old Country”. This steady, hard working, child of an alcoholic, sought security in his bookbinder factory career, missing only 2 days of work in his 1st twenty years. He met, and married my Puerto Rican mom, from her more aristocratic, privileged background. This certainly contributed to my need to learn to, at first, avoid conflict, and eventually, learn to deal with it through integrating aspects of those differences, towards the creation of a third, often more balanced synthesis of the original opposites. This is as important in working with couples as it is within ourselves. : )

Professional Mentors:

I’ve been blessed with having had some of the best teachers and mentors that a person could hope for. These masters included Virginia Satir, arguably our country’s first family therapist, and many of the original “systems” therapists like Jay Haley, Salvador Minuchin, and other great visionaries like Jean Houston, Bucky Fuller, John Stevens, Richard Olney (Gestalt) Milton Erikson (Hypnosis and Imagery), Francine Shapiro (EMDR), Richard Bandler (NLP), Ester Perel, (couples and sexuality), John Bradshaw, and countless others. Couples trainers included Hendrix (IMAGO), Susan Johnson (EFT), and John Gottman. Of course, I have also received a myriad of training from the leading publishers and researchers in the field of sexual abuse victimization and those that act out sexually.

My favorite mentor and cultural synthesizer of societal “addiction” and abuse is Gabor Mate. My fave integrator and teacher of brain attachment research is Daniel Siegel. (How the brain is wired to heal and grow and integrate past trauma with-in secure relationships)

I have also been privileged to sweat with several of Montana’s medicine men within several tribal traditions, and count my friends in Indian Country as mentors as well.