DR CHARLES FLORES

He/him

CEO Vital Puma Integral Recovery

Dr. Flores is a California licensed and nationally certified psychotherapist. He is also a state and internationally certified advanced drug and alcohol counselor who has practiced in multiple settings in the field of co-occurring disorders for 25 years. He has directed several multi-million dollar substance abuse and mental health treatment programs in the Bay Area.

Originally hailing from the South Bronx, Dr. Flores obtained his MS in Counseling Psychology at Fordham University and gained additional training and certifications in Family Counseling in Iona College, the Ackerman Institute, Gestalt Associates, Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science, Sophia University, and his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Integral Studies in multicultural, humanistic, and spiritual psychology.

Dr. Flores serves as the Vice-Chair of the Board of the California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals, where he serves on the Executive, Finance, and Chair of the Legislative Committee, which promotes excellence in the delivery of services focused on substance use and its associated problems by providing the highest level of advocacy, competence, and ethics among programs and professionals. In that role, he provides training for SUD providers for his district in the Bay Area. He also serves as the Chair of the CCAPP Education Board, which provides education and technical assistance regarding addiction, treatment, recovery, and associated problems.

Dr. Flores is also a professor of Chemical Dependency Studies at California State University, East Bay, and has taught psychology at John F. Kennedy University and several other universities for the past 15 years. He is the Psychedelics and Addictions Fellow for the CIIS Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research and is listed in Chacruna Institute of Psychedelic Plant Medicine‘s People of Color Making a Difference in Psychedelic Healing. He is also a strong advocate for sexual and gender diversity as natural expressions of the human experience and is a proud member of Bay Area Open Minds and The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom.