Tap the gear icon above to manage new release emails.
Follow HUGH D. WATT to get new release emails from Audible and Amazon.
As a licensed clinician and a probation officer working in criminal justice settings for more than 23 years, he has unique insight into the worst trials and traumas people experience in life. He simplifies learning in a way that has allowed him to successfully help others to understand that trials and trauma in life can produce growth.
Hugh decided to write his self-help books after his younger brother committed suicide and he came face-to-face with the man who sexually abused him as a child during the funeral service.
The first book Trial Tapper Taping Life's Trials to Produce Positive Growth hit Amazon # 1 New Release in the following Amazon categories: Grief & Loss, Military Families, Crisis Management Counseling; Teen & Young Adult Books about Suicide; Bipolar Disorder; Mood Disorders, Christian Ministry to Sick & Bereaved and Group Therapy. The second book Trial Tappers Harvesting More of Life's Trials hit #1 New Release in the following: Teen & Young Adult Sexual Abuse, Group Therapy, Children's Eating Disorders, Teen & Young Adult Violence, and Teen & Young Adult Parental Issues. The workbook- Tapping hit #1 in Psychology of suicide and #1 in Group Therapy. The second workbook - Harvesting hit #3 in Child Psychology.
Hugh has helped thousands of people grow resilient after trials in their lives. This book will give you tools in the form of visual stories with questions that will help guide you to overcome all types of trials from health and finance or traumas from sex abuse to suicide in your life.
His books will show you how to symbolically use the process of collecting maple tree sap as a way to overcome your trials. A sugar maple tree needs to be tapped in order to collect sweet sap, which is hidden inside the tree. This sap is then processed into maple syrup. Much like the process it takes to actively drill into a maple tree to get to the sap, a Trial Tapper is someone who recognizes that answers and growth come from within a person when they choose to take one of several proven paths after any trial. Over time, a Trial Tapper grows stronger and wants to share those positive paths with the world.
Trial Tappers take positive steps away from being a victim and towards being a survivor. We can use positive actions and choose to take one of several proven paths to become stronger after any trial. A Trial Tapper will use one of the TAPs in these book to move away from pain and towards hope.
Hugh uses his own personal trials and those of others he knows to demonstrate that resilience is possible after any trial. He has worked with both teens and adults who were experiencing all types of personal storms, including sexual and physical abuse, addictions, domestic violence, incarceration, anxiety, depression, bullying, suicide, family problems, terminal illness, financial struggles, and loss, to name a few.
Hugh earned a Master’s Degree from the University of Denver in Social Work and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). He became the Clinical Director of the 400-bed residential substance abuse program called Con-Quest, the largest residential program in the State of Utah. Prior to leaving this position, he received the prestigious Director’s Award from the Utah Department of Corrections for transforming a struggling program into a Therapeutic Community program with less than 30 percent recidivism.
In 2005, Hugh then began working as a U.S. Probation Officer and approved and coordinated sex offender, mental health, and substance abuse treatment for all federal felons releasing from prison in his state for more than ten years. He is a former University of Utah board member having served on the Institutional Review Board (IRB). His more than twenty years of clinical experience has required him to complete both the State of Utah Corrections and Federal Law Enforcement Training (FLETC) academies. While working as a U.S. Probation Officer, he was a founding member of the federal drug court program called Reentry Independence through Sustainable Efforts (RISE) and a former Co-Chair to the U.S. Chief District Court Judge, Assisting Reentry to our Communities (ARC) program. He has been certified as a Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) team member for law enforcement. Hugh has presented to many large groups to include the Correctional Education Association Leadership Forum and the National Forensic Counselors Association. He has been married for more than 29 years and has three sons.
