Our Team

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.