About Us

Sonny Cook brings more than three decades of experience working with individuals and families impacted by co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders across a wide range of state-regulated and privately licensed treatment settings. His career began in the mid-1990s as a counselor in California state-regulated juvenile detention facilities, where he worked with court-ordered youth and their families.

In 2004, Sonny transitioned into the role of Probation Officer with Riverside County’s Southwest Division. In this capacity, he gained firsthand experience within the criminal justice system, detention environments, and court-mandated services. Serving in a dual role as both a sworn peace officer and counselor, he supported court-sentenced offenders and their families while navigating complex legal, behavioral, and systemic challenges.

In early 2006, Sonny moved into dual-diagnosis treatment, where he spent over a decade as Program Director for court-placed clients and their families. Under his leadership, the program consistently delivered evidence-based treatment and comprehensive assessments, achieving a recidivism rate of less than 3% for six consecutive years. Despite these outcomes, Orange County Residence was defunded in 2016, bringing an end to a program recognized for its measurable impact and innovative approach.

Following more than a decade of groundbreaking work with marginalized populations, Sonny returned to academia and earned his Master of Social Work from the University of Southern California. While at USC, he served as an intern with the Savanna School District, providing evidence-based mental health interventions to families experiencing homelessness, substance use disorders, complex trauma, and chronic self-neglect. He worked extensively with families transitioning from the Santa Ana Riverbed into temporary housing along Beach Boulevard, delivering solution-focused interventions to school-aged children between the ages of six and fifteen.

During his internship, Sonny was recruited by Orange County Child Protective Services to join the Emergency Response Division. In this role, he provided crisis-focused interventions throughout the county, specializing in high-risk cases involving commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC), domestic violence, felony-level substance abuse, and severe trauma.

Sonny later transitioned into private-sector treatment, serving as a contracted therapist for several of Orange County’s premier facilities, including Nsight, Sierra by the Sea, Laguna Hills Treatment Hospital, and Pace Recovery. Today, he operates his own mental health and recovery consulting practice while maintaining a private clinical practice, continuing his lifelong commitment to ethical, evidence-based care and system-level impact.