Paolo Veneracion

Psychotherapist, The Dawn Wellness Centre and Rehab
CRC, ICAP I, CSAT III, Masters in Mental Health and Trauma Counselling

Paolo Veneracion is a psychotherapist and recovery coach at The Dawn Rehab in Thailand, Asia’s first CARF-accredited treatment centre. With more than 16 years in addiction treatment and specialist training in trauma informed therapy, he brings both clinical depth and lived understanding to his work. As a person in recovery himself, Paolo works with a kind of insight that comes from having walked the path he now helps others travel. He is also a contributor to The Dawn’s blog, sharing his clinical expertise in PTSD and trauma treatment, EMDR and addiction.

Paolo’s work at The Dawn

Paolo works with clients across both addiction and mental health, with particular strength in trauma. He is one of The Dawn’s EMDR therapists, and much of his clinical focus sits with the people who arrive carrying both a substance use issue and the trauma underneath it. His view is that the two are usually connected: in his words, most clients with addiction develop some form of mental health issue, and treating the whole person rather than the substance alone is what makes recovery hold.

This perspective shapes how he works with clients. With therapies such as EMDR, he draws on direct clinical experience of delivering them and on the real questions clients bring to the room, meeting people where they are rather than where a textbook expects them to be.

Paolo Veneracion’s expertise and professional training

Paolo holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Masters in Mental Health and Trauma Counselling, alongside intensive training in trauma informed therapy.

Clinical focus areas

Trauma informed therapy and EMDR
Addiction and substance use treatment
Co-occurring mental health conditions
Recovery coaching

Credentials

Certified Rehabilitation Counsellor (CRC)
Internationally Certified Addiction Professional (ICAP I)
Certified Sex Addiction Therapist (CSAT III)
Recovery Coach (RC)

Experience

Paolo has over 16 years of experience in addiction treatment, across both residential and intensive outpatient settings. Before joining The Dawn, he served as head therapist at a treatment centre in the Philippines and as treatment manager at an international rehabilitation centre in Eastern Thailand. That breadth, from frontline therapy to managing a treatment programme, informs how he understands a client’s journey from first arrival through to lasting recovery.

In Paolo’s own words

I strongly believe that, by adhering to the spiritual principles and recovery tools used at
The Dawn, recovery is always possible, regardless of the client’s background and history.