CC Sabathia + Phoenix House/NY in Conversation About Addiction and Pathways to Recovery

NEW YORK, NY (12/23/2020) (readMedia)-- Today, CC Sabathia, Yankees legend, media personality, author and philanthropist, will join in conversation with Dr. Kamala Greene-Genece, Dr. Jonathan Avery, a clinical psychologist and addiction psychiatrist with Phoenix House NY as well as Ann Marie Foster, CEO of Phoenix House/NY to discuss addiction and pathways to recovery.

On December 22nd, Under The Grapefruit Tree: The CC Sabathia Story, an intimate look at the life and career of the former baseball superstar, will debut at 9pm on HBO and HBO Max. Prior to Wednesday's conversation, the documentary will be screened for patients at Phoenix House New York and Long Island.

The film features the deeply personal story of the New York Yankees pitcher, using as its foundation behind-the-scenes footage from his final season with the Yankees in 2019. In his own words, Sabathia narrates his story, which began in Vallejo, CA, where the future pitching great first honed his skills throwing grapefruits from a tree in his grandmother's yard. As the highs and lows of his last season are chronicled, Sabathia looks back on his legacy as one of the game's preeminent pitchers, as well as the profound challenges that shaped him, including his longtime battle with addiction that came to a head in 2015 while playing for the Yankees.

The pandemic has caused an increase in the number of relapses, new cases of addiction and overdoses while addiction care providers have received less assistance from the government.

If press would like to join please RSVP ahead of time with Evan Thies at evan@pythiapublic.com.

About Phoenix House:

Since 1967, Phoenix House New York has helped thousands of people overcome substance and alcohol abuse in order to lead healthy, productive, and rewarding lives. Phoenix House New York offers short-term and long-term residential, intensive outpatient, and general outpatient treatment. Phoenix House also offers treatment for co-occurring mental health disorders, medical, psychiatric, and dental services, and impaired driver programs. These services are designed to meet the individual needs of adults at various stages of recovery, including military personnel, and veterans. In addition, Phoenix House provides educational and supportive services to family members, friends, significant others, and the community.

About Dr. Avery:

Dr. Avery is currently the Director of Addiction Psychiatry and an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York-Presbyterian Hospital. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Avery teaches addiction psychiatry to the Weill Cornell medical students and residents of New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He has been published on a broad variety of topics in psychiatry, including papers on subjects ranging from clinician attitudes towards patients to how to use buprenorphine. He is the founder of the Addiction Stigma Institute that studies stigma towards individuals with substance use disorders and creates novel interventions to improve these stigmatizing attitudes. He was on the editorial board for the DSM-5 Clinical Cases book, and is the editor of the books Co-occurring Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders: A Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment and The Stigma of Addiction: An Essential Guide. He has won numerous awards for his clinical and academic work, including the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology Faculty Innovation in Education Award and the Outstanding Faculty Member Award from the New York County Psychiatric Society.

About Kamala Greene Génecé, Ph.D:

Kamala Greene Génecé, Ph.D is a licensed clinical psychologist with extensive experience in behavioral health program development and administration. She received her doctoral degree from Boston University, completed her pre-doctoral internship at the Boston Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC), and completed post-doctoral work at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. Dr. Génecé has extensive clinical and research experience in the cognitive-behavioral treatment of anxiety, depressive, and substance abuse disorders. Dr. Génecé has taught and supervised graduate students, psychiatry residents, and Addiction Fellows, and has taught and consulted widely on the process of disseminating cognitive-behavioral treatments to diverse treatment settings and conducted specialized trainings for professionals in cognitive-behavioral and motivational interviewing techniques.

Prior to joining Phoenix House, Dr. Génecé Deputy Director of the Division of Substance Abuse (DoSA), Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at Montefiore Medical Center, where she was the Chair of the CQI committee and provided administrative and clinical leadership to over 200 staff members serving 3000 patients.