Our Team
Patrick Balsley
Founder and Executive Director
Patrick is a North Carolina Addiction Specialist Professional Practice Board Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor and has been working with families affected by substance use for over a decade. He is the Founder of Sana Counseling and has worked in every level of care of addiction treatment over the course of his career.
Patrick currently serves on the Behavioral Health Committee at Atrium Health Foundation and on the Advisory Board of For Students, a non-profit organization that helps schools facilitate essential conversations around mental health. He is on the Board of Directors of both, Emerald School of Excellence, the Carolina’s first Recovery High School, and Pivot Point WNC, a non-profit in Asheville, NC, that offers therapeutic wilderness experiences for at-risk youth.
You can also catch Patrick on the air waves, as the co-host of Champagne Problems an award-winning podcast that examines the normalization of alcohol in our culture. You can listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Mike Gminski
Director of Mentorship
Mike is the Director of Mentorship at Sana House, where he utilizes his rich life experiences and personal recovery journey to guide our men through their individual processes. As a former professional athlete with a 14-year tenure in the NBA, Mike brings his resilience, discipline, and team-focused approach to empower the men at Sana House.
Mike first discovered his passion for aiding others after embarking on his own recovery journey in 2020. For the first three years of his recovery, Mike amassed a wealth of experience serving as a Peer Mentor at Rebound, an addiction treatment program founded by his friend and former NBA teammate, Jayson Williams. Recognizing the transformative power of mentorship, Mike chose to pursue a more permanent role in his hometown, a testament to his commitment to serving the Charlotte community.
Exemplifying the essence of mentorship, Mike consistently demonstrates the power of change and the strength of the human spirit in overcoming adversity.
With his steadfast dedication to service and unyielding belief in the transformative power of recovery, Mike truly embodies the spirit of Sana House. He continues to impact lives with his compassion, commitment, and devotion to aiding others on their path to recovery.
Dr. Dyrk Halstead
Clinical Consultant
Dr. Dyrk Halstead (‘Doc’) has been a practicing Emergency Medicine physician for the past 35 years, directing several Emergency departments in the middle TN area before graciously joining the Sana House team in late 2022.
In 2021, ‘Doc’ expanded his expertise and completed a year and a half understudy with Dr. Gabor Mate in Compassionate Inquiry, a healing approach developed by Mate to address mental health challenges. While Halstead has focused on trauma-informed modalities, he utilizes his considerable experience with attachment theory, Jungian and Myers-Briggs Personality theory and the neurophysiologic basis of behavior to help our men on their journey to overall wellness.
Dr. Halstead aims to bring together his extensive medical background and knowledge of trauma-informed approaches to forge a unique and personalized experience for the men at Sana House-joining them wherever they are on their journey.
In his spare time, Doc enjoys tending his orchids and working with exotic and rare woods.
MacGregor Stevenson
Director of Operations
MacGregor Stevenson is a native Charlottean and an active leader in the Charlotte recovery community. He attended Charlotte Country Day School and later College of Charleston before leaving school to pursue a career in the restaurant industry as a sous chef. He worked in the restaurant industry for the next 15 years until the fast paced, alcohol and drug induced lifestyle of the hospitality world took its toll.
In 2015, MacGregor moved to South Florida to attend treatment and has been in long-term recovery ever since.
While in FL, MacGregor served as House Manager at a sober living in Delray Beach before moving back to Charlotte in 2016. After returning home, he took a position as Director of Housing for a local addiction treatment center in the Charlotte community.
MacGregor has a passion for helping men find recovery and live a purpose driven life. He believes there’s no greater feeling than seeing men in recovery find their footing and grab hold of their potential.
