About Me

Do you ever feel like psychologists, psychiatristis, medical doctors, mental health professionals, and consultants don't understand you or your clients? Dr. John Froiland has rigorously battled PTSD related to military and childhood experiences, depression, and alcohol use disorder. He brings an international level of expertise in social, school, educational, developmental, and clinical psychology, while also being a peer support specialist and peer addictions recovery coach.  John Froiland knows what it is like to lose almost everyting imaginable due to addictions and he also knows how to tenaciosuly make a combeback. When his father and hero (Colonel John L. Froiland, M.D.) killed himself, John responded by getting his PhD in Psychology at Michigan State University, and learning from world renowned experts in motivation and mental health. While he helped hundreds of thousands of youth as a prevention scientist and school psychologist, he coped with secondary traumatic stress related to serving thousands of clients with extreme trauma by drinking increasingly heavily. He often overcame his depression related to his father's suicide by using positive psychology and cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques on himself, but he could never figure out why he was still so stressed out and anxious, no matter how much exercise he did. After publishing over 70 scientific articles in psychology at Purdue University, he was about to get promoted to Associate Professor during the COVID pandemic. At that time, he was consulting with the ministry of education of a large country in Africa via USAID and Purdue Laser Pulse to help youth increase social-emotional health. He was also working on important projects with professors at various top universities across the world. He had a book contract with Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England) to be the sole Editor and Lead Author of the Cambridge Handbook of Positive Psychology in Education, which was contracted to include 30 leading social, educational, school, clinical, and positive psychologists across the world. 

In one night that shattered his world, Dr. Froiland hit his wife in the shoulder while under the influence of alcohol. She was not hospitalized nor severely injured and she waited 4 hours before she called 911, such that he was sleeping when the SWAT team surrounded his house; an executive home on one acre of scenic land overlooking one of Indiana's top 5 golf courses, which he had completely paid off just months prior. She accused him of far more than he did and the national, local, and regional media went wild with the sensational headlines due to him being a psychology professor at a prominent university and international expert on positive psychology. Dr. Froiland found himself in jail that night listening to a cellmate that thought he was the Messiah.  After 3 days of trying to sleep, read, pray, and doing push-ups on an iron bed with a one-inch ripped mattress and no pillow, John Froiland helped the young man with delusions to realize that he was not the Messiah, but rather he was a child of a loving God, like everyone else. When John was released from jail he was determined to get sober and deal with immense stress properly. However, he suddenly realized that he had multiple threats to his life on his Purdue email from people that read national articles (e.g., Newsweek and FoxNews.com) about the mostly false accusations his wife made against him. On the way to Minnesota for Thanksgiving (he had permission to travel from the prosecutor), Dr. Froiland heard a compelling voice tell him, "You are defeated, everything you worked for is destroyed, your reputation is ruined, you have nothing more to live for, kill yourself, drive off this cliff". He cried out to God and said, "Help me Lord". God reassured him that He would be with him every step of the way in making an epic comeback like ancient Job, including helping more people than ever. Nonetheless, he experienced being temporarily cutoff from his home. Then he experienced an expensive divorce, publicly being placed on administrative leave from Purdue, loss of his book contract with Cambridge University Press, being followed around by members of the press, loss of an accepted book chapter with Oxford University Press, and repeated public humiliation at the local, regional, and national level. Because of the media attention, his grueling court battle lasted two years, before 5 out of the 6 charges were finally dropped, but the damage to his reputation from the published accusations was monstrous. 

What did I do to Survive and Then Thrive? 

Ever since the most tragic night of my life, I have been completely sober; nearly 3 years now. I commenced on a rigorous journey of recovery, healing, and self-discovery that entails working the 12-steps of recovery, daily prayer and meditation, church, mindfulness, Tai Chi, Yoga, discovering that I had complex PTSD for decades, 2 years of psychotherapy for depression and PTSD, 40 weeks of anger management therapy, eating healthy food under the advice of a gut scientist who spent two weeks at my lake house, participating and volunteering at the Recovery Cafe, rigorous exercise, attending therapeutic PTSD retreats for veterans and first responders, working closely with mentors in sobriety and finance, and helping others acquire and maintain sobriety. If you have clients, patients, students or employees who feel like they have lost too much to go on or struggle with an immense constellation of seemingly insurmountable problems, I am ready to help you design plans that are tailored to their needs and the needs of your organization. I am availble as a psychological consultant, peer support addictions specialist, and/or executive life coach.