Our Team
Our Team
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Michael Pontius
Master Trainer
Since 1978 Mike has worked with troubled youth and families in residential, outpatient and in juvenile detention settings.
Over the past 30 years he served as a trainer and consultant for many organizations, as well as Public and Private Institutions on a variety of topics including: Working with Youth Gang Members in a Residential Treatment Setting; Group Work, Treatment Programming, Crisis Intervention, Team Communication, Creating Treatment Team Meetings and Teamwork for Professional Organizations.
Mike has been with HWC since 2000. He is a Master Instructor Handle With Care, Behavior Management System providing training in HWC Basic Behavior Management System, Pre-School and Early Elementary School Program, Instructor Certification, and Instructor Recertification.
As a licensed therapist and university instructor, Mike has specialized in Verbal De-escalation, integrating faith-based principles into the counseling and cognitive retraining of juvenile offenders and creating effective training programs for juvenile justice professionals; working with Conduct Disorder populations. Mike has a lifetime of experience helping communities and families with the prevention, intervention and suppression of youth gangs; and working with violent youthful offenders and youth gang members in institutional settings.