George L. Swanberg, LCSW, LSATP, MAC

Portrait of George Swanberg

George Swanberg, a licensed clinical social worker and a licensed substance abuse treatment practitioner, has worked in and directed treatment programs in the psychiatric and addictions fields in Virginia, Washington D.C., and Maryland since 1971.  His undergraduate degrees are in psychology with a minor in sociology from Minnesota State University, Moorhead. He earned his MSW, master’s in clinical social work, from Virginia Commonwealth University.

His career in the addictions field began while serving in the army at Fort Belvoir, VA, treating GIs with heroin addiction returning from Vietnam. From there, he worked for the Psychiatric Institute of Washington D.C., where he became the administrative director of the psychiatric day hospital. After directing the substance abuse programs for a southern Virginia city and county, he directed several inpatient and residential addictions and inpatient treatment centers as well as a hospital-based eating disorder program and psychiatric treatment programs prior to founding his outpatient treatment program, Life Line Counseling Center in Fairfax, Virginia, in 1989. He has served as an expert witness on addiction and mental health with the Virginia courts, the Canonical Tribunal of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, VA, and has given expert testimony before the U.S. Congressional and Maryland general assembly task forces on substance abuse.

For the past several years George has been performing the pre-liver transplant assessments and treatment of patients from Georgetown University Hospital and the University of Virginia hospital transplant units. George is a certified brain health coach from Dr. Daniel Amen University and is a certified trainer in the Power BrainingTM brain/body fitness program. He has led these groups at Life Line Counseling Center. As addiction causes brain damage, he has concentrated on studying and explaining the role of brain structures and chemistry in mental health disorders and addictions. George has been trained in brainspotting, a successful treatment modality for trauma clients: up-to-date research and best practices are used in collaboration with experts in the fields of trauma-informed counseling and treatments, precision medicine, brain imaging, and the use of non-medicine natural methods of counteracting the effects on the body and brain caused by substance abuse and other brain injuries.

George and his team at Life Line are passionate about their mission of saving lives, families, and, therefore generations. Due to the Covid restrictions and precautions, he is now offering counseling via Zoom only. You can reach George and the Life Line Counseling Center team by visiting their website or the Center’s Facebook page.