Meet the Founder
Jonathan Diamond, Ph.D., founder and artistic director of the Hilltown Youth Performing Arts Programs, is a consultant, writer and practicing psychotherapist in Northampton and Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts specializing in trauma, addictions and the clinical needs of adolescents. Author of the critically acclaimed Narrative Means to Sober Ends: Treating Addiction and Its Aftermath (Guilford Press, 2000) and Fatherless Sons: Healing The Legacy Of Loss (John Wiley & Sons, August 2006), Diamond taught at Smith College School For Social Work and is a frequent guest lecturer at other universities. A popular speaker and trainer, he has presented workshops on these and related topics through out the United States and Canada.
Dr. Diamond has over thirty years experience in the fields of chemical dependency treatment and employee assistance programming. As an EAP consultant, he designed the highly effective seminar for employers, “Alcoholism and Addictions in the Work Place: Treatment of the Impaired Professional”; which he's delivered to hundreds of managers and employees at businesses large and small in both the public and private sector from Berkshire Medical Center to GE Plastics, Cambridge Hospital to Berkshire Life, and Crane Paper Company to the Norman Rockwell Museum. A sample of other trainings Jonathan has offered include: “Invitations to Responsibility: Therapy With Men Who Batter” (New England Center For Women In Transition); “Letters Home: Working With The Families And Soldiers of The War in Iraq” (Annual Conference of Social Workers for Peace and Justice); “Transforming Violence: Addiction & Trauma Recovery in the Schools” (Greenfield High School, Northfield Mount Hermon); and “Clinical Approaches to Addiction” (Harvard Medical School).
Jonathan founded the Hilltown Youth Theatre Summer Workshop in 2010 to provide intensive training, artistic and professional skill building and leadership development to youth from underserved rural areas. In 2015, in response to a statewide opioid crisis, he and co-founder Alyssa F. Wright launched the Recovery Theatre, a performing arts experience for young people overcoming trauma, addiction, anxiety, depression and other behavioral health challenges. In 2011 he received the Mary Lyon Foundation Spirit of Adventure award for his innovative work with the Hilltown Drama Club and bringing the performing arts into the schools. Writes former Academy at Charlemont Head of School Mark Efinger, "In addition to the collaborations involved in making theatre, Jonathan Diamond has been the architect of joining schools, both public and private to each other and to professional artists and organizations. I have been involved in academic theatre for 28 years spanning five states and four regions of this country and I have never seen this level of working together shoulder to shoulder between institutions and people traditionally pitted in competition against each other."
Critical Acclaim For Narrative Means to Sober Ends 
"This fluent, engrossing book takes us to the heart of the therapeutic relationship, into the experience of the therapist and the inner lives of clients. Powerful elements of 12-step approaches are interwoven with narrative therapy's brilliant use of letter writing. The poetic energy of Diamond's voice ties these strands together as he provides his own vivid commentary and reflections. Therapists, teachers, students, and concerned general readers should find in this book instruction without tears."--Lynn Hoffman, ACSW, author of Exchanging Voices
"Ever wonder how therapy feels to a recovering addict? Then you'll want to read this book and its many accounts of pain, loss, suffering, and recovery. Stories of survival tell more than any diagnosis about what has gone wrong in a person's life...Reading these stories and learning of their role in treatment, we begin to see how the images and metaphors that go into their telling are healing in their own right. Instead of punctuating his sessions with interpretations, Diamond weaves a coherent account that tries to make sense of an often-interrupted past, and his clients are clearly grateful."--Donald P. Spence, PhD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, UMDNJ; author of Narrative Truth and Historical Truth
"Poignantly describing the experience of the addict and of the therapist working with addiction, this book provides good advice for acting quickly and therapeutically with clients. Diamond draws extensively on his own experience to model a therapeutic stance that is open, direct, and egalitarian, without ever abdicating the importance of knowledge and clinical skill. He is always reality-based, whether dealing with behavior, affect, or unconscious motivation. The narrative method is well presented, and best of all is the sense the reader gets of the therapist's real presence and engagement. This book is a basic primer to help therapists become bicultural and bilingual--to become 12-step literate without giving up their own beliefs, theories, or first therapeutic language. Diamond moves away from a narrow, rule-bound, 'fix-it' mentality to offer a much-needed expansion in thinking, attitude, and principle."--Stephanie Brown, PhD, Director, Addictions Institute, Menlo Park, CA; author of The Alcoholic Family in Recovery
"I strongly urge anyone interested in understanding addiction to take this journey with Jonathan Diamond. This is an engaging and richly diverse guide to understanding the complexities of recovery. Diamond is a kind and creative advocate for the multitude of addicted adults and adolescents asking to be heard."--Dusty Miller, EdD, author of Women Who Hurt Themselves
"With eloquence, clarity, skill, and artistry, Diamond opens up a whole new perspective on the process of therapy for client and clinician, and on how narrative techniques can help in achieving recovery. Without abandoning biological or neurological research findings, he demonstrates innovative, flexible ways to help clients understand their lives and the role that drugs and alcohol play." - Readings
Read an excerpt from Jonathan’s article on adolescent substance abuse, "Making Friends With Your Addiction”, from the Psychotherapy Networker.
Praise For Fatherless Sons
"Research shows that most men now are better fathers than their own fathers were to them. A generation of men are 'making it up,' giving to their children more than they received. No one describes the poignancy—and hope—of contemporary fatherhood better than Jonathan Diamond's heartfelt and insightful new book. For every man who had a father—and who wants to be one.
”—Terrence Real, author of
I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression and How Can I Get Through to You?: Closing the Intimacy Gap Between Men and Women"Diamond's moving account of his relationship with his father is a nuanced exploration of mourning and its aftermath."
—Publishers Weekly
"This is a powerful and beautiful book, written with warmth, humor, and generosity of spirit. Fatherless Sons guides us through the complex journey of grief, helping to transform pain and anguish into hope and healing."—Dr. Dusty Miller, author of Your Surviving Spirit and Women Who Hurt Themselves
