About Paul Pellinger - Paul Pellinger

Paul’s Story

Paul Pellinger has been using music to help individuals struggling with substance use disorder for nearly 30 years. He is an addiction treatment expert, Amazon bestselling author and lifelong music aficionado. All of these qualities were critical in helping him establish and run Recovery Unplugged Treatment Centers. After successfully embarking on his own recovery decades ago, Paul began using his insights and experiences to help others struggling with substance use disorder through his work at various treatment centers.

A Certified Addictions Counselor for over 25 years, Paul has also worked as a therapist. He was part of the movement to help create and design the Mental Health and Drug Courts in Broward County and worked as a court liaison to help guide defendants toward treatment in lieu of incarceration. He is now part of a new movement to help Recovery Unplugged implement a music-based addiction treatment approach to help all who need it.

Through his consulting company, Principle Path Services, Paul helped assist between nearly 40 treatment centers successfully obtain licensure and establish their operations. Paul Pellinger has deep love of music, and believes in its ability to heal. This belief gave him the impetus to start Recovery Unplugged and the entire music-based addiction treatment movement; one that has guided thousands of patients all over the country toward recovery and balanced mental health.

“I learned at an early age that music has of the power to motivate me, change my mood and help me remember things.”

Paul Pellinger

The Man Behind Musical Medicine

Paul has combined his decades of experience in the addiction treatment landscape with elements of his own recovery, and his deep love of music to create a proven and effective addiction care approach.

1989

Began career in the addiction care field.

1992

Began experimenting with music as a therapeutic resource in addiction recovery, an endeavor which planted the seed of what would become the Recovery Unplugged treatment model.

1996

Officially certified as an Addictions Counselor. Helped create, design and maintain the mental health/drug courts in Broward County that became a model for the rest of the nation. Led efforts to divert defendants away from incarceration into treatment, working with courts to provide expert assessment and performing various court liaison duties from 1994 to present.

1998

Established consulting firm that helped start, license and maintain approximately 40 treatment centers, including mental health facilities.

2002-2005

Birth of sons, Hunter and Tyler, strengthened my motivation to refine the music-based treatment model and continue to toward building Recovery Unplugged.

2013

Established Recovery Unplugged, where, to date, thousands of clients have been guided toward recovery with the help of music.

2018

Released Amazon-Bestselling Book “Music Is Our Medicine” to bring music-focused addiction care to new audiences.

Along the Way

Spoke before audiences across the country and given countless radio, TV and print media interviews.

“I have always believed that music, if harnessed correctly, could be used as a catalyst to engage the existing evidence-based models. Coincidentally, while I was using songs like “Amazing “ (which came out in 1992), Richie Supa, Recovery Unplugged’s Director of Creative Recovery, was beginning to recognize that music was helping people combat addiction—we’d end up joining forces 20 years later.”