Ron Martino

Ron Martino

The remarkable lifetime of service to the human spirit that is the achievement and living legacy of Ron Martino began in his efforts to detox addicts in the orbit of drug clinics associated with Perth Amboy Hospital, continued in his mentoring of young people as a vice principal, basketball coach and guidance counselor in New Jersey junior and senior high schools, and has found final expression in his creation of a unique personal program for managing the debilitating symptoms of modern stress through building the self-image. For the past decades, sufferers of every symptomatic manifestation of stress-from anxiety and depression to serious drug and alcohol addiction- have found their way to Ron Martino’s door, and in crossing the threshold, have found relief from their debilities and the personal tools for securing continuing lifelong well-being. He has touched the hearts and bettered the lives of thousands of grateful individuals, both those he has trained and transformed through his program-as well as the family, friends and association enjoying the benefits of those formerly troubled individuals’ transformations.

Ron’s revolutionary ideas about new therapies for afflicted lives began to take shape when he was a teacher at a residential school for incorrigible and uneducable children – the kids the public school had given up on and refused to teach in a normal school environment. Shortly after receiving his bachelors degree, he was charged with running the school on weekends, not only administering and teaching, but also feeding the children, spending many a night there away from his own family. Around that time he also began working with the terminally ill, preparing them for their final journeys – a special calling he is still often asked to perform. He moved on to New Jersey’s Perth Amboy Hospital, where he gained a reputation amongst his peers for achieving amazing successes with the hard cases and lost causes. It was at this time in the 1970s that he ran a multi-learning disabilities center in Union, New Jersey, for eight summers. There he worked with children who were autistic, perceptionally-impaired, emotionally disturbed, profoundly- or educably-retarded, slow learners, or some combination of the aforementioned.

Ron became the Vice Principal of Bishop AHR High School in Edison. New Jersey, in 1984, after having been a guidance counselor there for two years. Performing double duty as the coach of the boys’ basketball team, he led his quad to the Middlesex County, NJ, Varsity Championship – the first in the school’s history. (He had previously coached the Burnet Junior High (Union, New Jersey) 9th Grade team to an undefeated season—the first in that school’s history). His experiences during these years in understanding and guiding young people’s lives and their developing senses of self projected Ron into a special position where he could help not only the students, but also their families and others in their communities. In evening tutorial visits to the homes of failing students, he found problems in learning to usually have their origin in the negative environment of the students’ homes, rather than any deficiency in students’ intellects. He found himself advising and instructing families as much as individual students, helping them devise a system of coping with their crushing burdens and conflicts as the only effective way of clearing the path for students to continue in their academic progress. Word spread of the neighborhood “Helper” who had solid answers and practical, do-able methods for positive transformation of the negative situations and stressed-out households that smother a young person’s incentive to learn and drive families apart. Ron’s evening “tutorials” became less and less about algebra equations and more and more about the importance and how-to of building the self-image as a prerequisite to all further progress in life. As the living evidences of his successes in transforming lives in the local community multiplied and the volume of word-of-mouth referrals mounted, Ron was finally forced to forego his nightly house calls and relocate his help sessions to his own kitchen table. It had become time to professionalize his informal (and no-fee) “practice” and systematize his unique program.

Since his retirement from Bishop AHR High School in 2003, Ron has been able to devote his full time to training individuals in the use of the mental tools for positive decision-making that build the self-image and successfully manage the stress that is the source of most modern life-diminishing debilities. His program was once sought out as a desperate lifeline for drowning souls, wanting only to resurface into “normalcy.” His program is now renowned as not only a last best hope of the afflicted, but the guide to a way of life unlocking the potential and skyrocketing the achievement of even the happiest, healthiest, and most gifted individuals. His clientele ranges from teachers, students and married couples to doctors, lawyers, police officers and businessmen. Ron’s normal daily commitment is a ten-to twelve- hour schedule of personal sessions-even though he has never advertised his services. He continues to take on as many pro bono cases as his own finances will allow. Acceding to a growing popular demand, he has recently begun bringing his program to larger audiences in seminars and public speaking engagements.

In 2006, Ron was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in recognition of his outstanding record of service to his community. The Medal is bestowed by the prestigious National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations as part of their mission to honor and foster tolerance, respect and understanding among the diverse religious and ethnic groups that constitute the heritage and enduring strength of America.

Ron has just completed his book detailing his program for training humans in the art of creating their own individual happiness and sustaining lifelong well-being.

Hosted and maintained by Inter Media Post