File: William M. Finch
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Eden Veil Center
This is a CONFIDENTIAL file.
Accessible only to authorized individuals
who have been granted written consent
from the Executive Director of
The Eden Veil Center for Recovery
File: William M. Finch
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Eden Veil Center
Patient Profile
Patient Name: William Marc Finch
Nationality: American
DOB: 29 February 1980
Birthplace: Asbury Park, NJ
Current Residence: San Francisco, CA
Occupation: Reporter
Employer: San Francisco Post
Education: Graduated Sir Winston Churchill High School, Montreal, Quebec, 1997; BA,
Journalism, New York University, 2001; MA, UC Berkeley Graduate School of
Journalism, 2008.
Military Service: 1st Lieutenant, US Army, 2002-2005, assigned to duty in Abu Graib
Prison, Baghdad. Awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Honorably Discharged.
Marital status: Widower. One son, deceased.
Next of Kin: Mother, Céline Beauchamp, deceased; Father, Jerome Bennett Finch,
deceased; Siblings, none.
In case of emergency contact: Wallace Gimbel, Managing Editor, San Francisco Post.
File: William M. Finch
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Eden Veil Center
Case Summary: William Marc Finch
William Marc Finch, of San Francisco, CA, voluntarily registered for treatment in the
Center on April 20 following the death of his son, Buddy Desmond Finch, ten days
earlier. The child’s death was the result of a car crash in a vehicle driven by Mr. Finch’s
partner, Bethany Hutt. Following the accident, Ms. Hutt registered a blood-alcohol level
of 0.18. Mr. Finch was not present during the accident or at the time of his son’s death.
Prior to entering Eden Veil, Mr. Finch had been arrested under Penal Code 647(f),
known as California's "drunk in public" (or "public intoxication") law. He was remanded in custody of the San Francisco Police Department following a three-day drinking binge.
At the time of his arrest, he was found unconscious at the street curb outside a
Townsend Street bar in the Mission. The court offered Mr Finch the option of serving a
sentence of 30 days in detention or admitting himself to a rehabilitation center for the
treatment of alcohol addiction. He choose the latter and was referred to Eden Veil. He
was admitted to the Center the day after his court appearance. He has no previous
criminal convictions nor any history of alcohol or drug abuse.
Mr Finch completed intensive rehabilitation therapy under my supervision. During the
treatment program, he proved to be a willing patient who resolved several traumatic
personal issues that included the death of his son. His progress was steady and he
requested, and was granted, an early discharge from Eden Veil after three weeks of
residential treatment. I have determined that, despite the circumstances that led to his
arrest, Mr. Finch does not suffer from chronic alcoholism — or any other form of
addiction — and that the best course of treatment is to support Mr Finch's return to work
and independent living.
As part of his treatment he has learned a number of therapeutic techniques (yoga,
mediation, mindfulness) to reduce his anxiety which he has been practicing
independently for a week prior to his release from Eden Veil. Out-patient support
therapy is available to Mr Finch at his request.
File: William M. Finch
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Eden Veil Center
In accordance with the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)
Mr Finch has been diagnosed with bereavement disorder. His condition was considered
acute and satisfies the two-week minimum duration applied to the syndrome. His
prognosis is guardedly optimistic; the possibility of a complete recovery is unknown.
Certified on this day by:
Dr. Michael Petersen
MD, PsyD
Head of Therapeutic Services
Eden Veil Center for Recovery
Approved by:
Dr. Eileen Salmon
MD, PhD
Executive Director
Eden Veil Center for Recovery
Therapeutic Treatment Notes
File: William M. Finch
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Eden Veil Center
Therapist: Dr. Michael Petersen
Client: William Marc Finch
20 April
Following his admission and orientation to the Center, I introduced myself to Will Finch
(WF). Initially, WF was unable to shake my hand. Furthermore, he was unwilling to
make appropriate eye contact through our hour-long session. We covered mostly
biographical details. Toward the end of the hour he apologized for his "incoherency" and claimed he was in the "throes of a three-day hangover." He stated that the drinking
episode that resulted in his arrest was the worst — and the only — binge he'd ever been on. When I asked him to describe the experience, he covered his eyes and turned
away. I terminated the session and he returned to his room.
In addition to my daily one-on-one treatments with WF, he joined the afternoon group
therapy session comprised of ten other residents. Given their chronic addictions and
repetitive treatments, most of these patients were used to disclosing intimate details of
their lives as part of the therapeutic process. However, group therapy presented a new
situation for WF. Nonetheless after two days of complete silence in the group, he began
to participate when one patient, Susan (SS), asked him why he shook his head when
another group member, Janice (JB) said she “couldn’t kick her addiction.” The edited
transcript of the session follows:
24 April
WF: “Until today I just didn’t get why I can’t let go. I realize that maybe I’ve got it just as bad as everyone else here.”
SS: “What does that mean? What does maybe I’ve got it just as bad as everyone else mean?”
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Eden Veil Center
WF: “That maybe I can’t kick it. I just didn’t figure it out until now. Until Jenny (JB) just
said that. That she couldn’t kick it.”
JB: “What I can’t shake is twenty-two years of drinking alcohol every day. So what are
you talking about? Juice? Pills? Mainlining?”
WF: (after a hesitation) “No. The six years of having him at my side.”
SS: “Sweet mother of Mary. Who are you talking about?”
WF: “My son.”
JB: “So why’d you leave him?”
After a long silence, I asked, “WF, do you want to answer that question?”
After another hesitation WF continued: “I didn’t leave him. He was taken from me. Killed
in a car accident.”
25 April
During our one-on-one session, WF admitted that until that confrontation in group
session with JB and SS, he hadn’t spoken about his son’s death to anyone “let alone a
group of strangers.” When I asked how that felt, he admitted that it provided so
me relief,
“not from the pain — but from the guilt of allowing it to happen.”
We then explored the nature of his feelings of guilt. He expressed his regret that he’d
allowed himself to fall victim to the manipulations of a woman, Bethany Hutt, after the
death of his wife, Cecily Finch. Bethany was driving the car during the accident that
resulted in his son’s death. A tox screen following the accident revealed her blood-
alcohol level was 0.18.
File: William M. Finch
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Eden Veil Center
26-29 April
Over the next four, one-on-one sessions we explored alcohol dependency and how it
lead to an account of his childhood. His mother, Céline, a French-Canadian originally
from Montreal, died of cirrhosis of the liver five years after his family moved from New
Jersey to Quebec where WF’s father, Jerome Finch, found employment in his father-in-
law’s jewelry store. WF claimed that his mother drank to excess every day. While she
was able to remain functional, his mother lapsed into daily bouts of bitter sarcasm that
inevitably finished with long rants and screaming. During WF’s last year of high school
Céline’s illness took a final turn.
Following her death, WF returned to New Jersey with his father who found casual
employment driving trucks. Although his father was rarely more than a social drinker, he
fell into cycles of depression and was unable to hold a job for more than a few months.
IN 1997 WF obtained an academic scholarship and was admitted to NYU and
completed a BA in Journalism. During the next four years he saw his father less
frequently and stayed in his father’s apartment only during routine holiday visits,
Christmas and Spring Break.
Each summer, WF secured employment at various weekly newspapers in New Jersey
and up-state New York. When I asked how that made him feel, WF expressed a strong
sense of relief. “I was free. Free from my father and the long shadow my mother cast
over both of us.” During this period he drank no more than two or three beers a week
and only with co-workers — never alone.
30 April
In our 5th one-on-one session, WF revealed that his father died during the final
semester of WF's journalism program at NYU. When I asked what effect this had on
him, he explained that it wasn't so much the loss of his father that hit him but how he'd
died: alone at the side of the railroad tracks west of Asbury Park, NJ. In mid-February
File: William M. Finch
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Eden Veil Center
Jerome Finch was discovered without a jacket, no socks, no shoes. The three
teenagers who found him claimed they'd seen no muggers lingering about. The police
could find no evidence of a crime. It was as if, WF claimed, his father had simply set off
along the rails, stripped down and waited for the winter to take him. The Medical
Examiner concluded that Jerome Finch had died from hypothermia following a bout of
acute depression.
The summer following his graduation from NYU, WF said, "In a moment I later came to
regret — at a time when I knew I had to completely change my life — I enlisted in the
Army.” Following his basic training he was recruited into Military Intelligence and
assigned to Abu Graib Prison outside Baghdad. His cover was as a Public Affairs
Specialist.
I asked if he was breaching US Army confidentiality by telling me this. He said there was
no breach in revealing that he was in Military Intelligence, but there would be if he
revealed what he'd witnessed in MI operations. He said that what he'd seen would make
"your eyes roll up the back of your head."
1-2 May
In the following two sessions WF was unable to move forward. I viewed this as classic
blocking behavior. He could express no genuine remorse for the loss of his father or
mother. "It's simply ‘case closed’ with them," he insisted.
3 May
In his eighth session he revealed the following episode he'd experienced in Iraq.
On the road from Baghdad to Abu Graib, his vehicle struck an IED. WF was at teh
wheel. Two enlisted men and a captain were passengers. The explosion caused the
truck to flip into a ditch. As WF and the captain — whose arm was severed at the elbow
— climbed out of the wreck, two Arabs armed with AK47s approached from the far side
of the vehicle and opened fire. The two enlisted men were killed instantly. WF returned
File: William M. Finch
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Eden Veil Center
fire, killing both attackers. For his actions in saving the life of the captain while under
fire, WF was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
I assumed this episode was not part of WF’s confidential Military Intelligence record. He
replied that it was “most definitely on the public record” and the fact he was given a medal demonstrated it. He explained that while he felt some remorse for killing the
Iraqis, it was in self-defense in a combat situation. His deepest regrets were about what
happened on a day-to-day basis in Abu Graib Prison. That, he said was off record and
would remain so, not just because of his oath of secrecy, but also because he could not
discuss his life after his tour of duty.
Three months after his medal award, he secured an honorable discharge from service
and returned to civilian life. With a new sense of purpose, he completed a masters of
journalism degree at Berkeley and found employment at the San Francisco Post. Less
than a year ago WF accepted a job with the digital division of the newspaper .
In 2007 he married Cecily Armstrong. In 2008 she gave birth to their son. In 2013 Cecily
died of breast cancer — a crisis, WF said, “that I just didn’t see coming.” I asked him to
describe how this affected him. He shrugged off the notion and said, “next question.”
When I pressed him, he told me “any talk about Cecily is off limits.”
4 May
In group therapy today, JB asked WF about the accident that took his son’s life. The
following is transcript of the recorded session:
JB: I don’t mean to pry, but earlier you told us about your son. About what happened —
without telling what really happened.
WF: (struggling to reply) What’s that supposed to mean?
File: William M. Finch
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Eden Veil Center
JB: So, for example … were you driving?
WF: (hesitation) No. Bethany was.
JB: Were you there?
WF: No, I was at home fixing his bike…. And why exactly is this any of your business?
JB: So she’d been drinking?
WF: (silence)
JB: And you’d been drinking with her, right? Look, everyone in this room knows how it
works. There’s no hiding whatev —
WF: (cuts in with a burst of emotion) Damn right I drank with her! I’d just lost my wife the
year before. And then Bethany took everything over. I didn’t know what … what to …
Unable to finish his sentence, WF left the group meeting.
4 May, addendum
An hour following the g
roup therapy session I met with WF alone in my office. He
seemed to have recovered his composure and asked “now that everything about my
wife and son is out there — how do I go on?”
Good question, I told him. But only he could answer it for himself. He scoffed at the
suggestion. I told him that while he might have the disposition for it, I didn’t believe he
was a classic alcoholic and that his drinking binge following his son’s death was a one-
off. Since he didn’t appear to be possessed by any addiction, I explained that his future
appeared much brighter than almost anyone else in the Center — including some of the
File: William M. Finch
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Eden Veil Center
staff. He seemed shocked to hear that and asked, “Then why do I still feel like a piece of
cold crap?”
I told him that I thought he was in a state of acute bereavement and that his son’s death
triggered an episode that unearthed all the repressed grief he’d managed to bury going
back to the deaths of his parents, Cecily, and the men he’d killed in Iraq. “You never
properly mourned any of them,” I explained. He nodded in mute agreement.
I then drew WF into a gestalt session. Over the next two hours I coached him to express
the grief he suffered from each person he’d lost or killed. It was traumatic for him, but he
stuck with it as we peeled away each layer of remorse until we cleared the final episode
with Buddy’s accidental death.
I asked if he wanted to turn the corner — away from grieving — to celebrating the life of
his son. He wondered if this would ever be possible. I asked for a picture of the child.
We went to his room. He showed me a 3 x 4 print he kept in his suitcase. We admired
the image for a few moments — the boy sitting beside his mother. At this point WF
expressed a deep affection for Buddy. I pointed out that this was the first time he’d
spoken his name aloud in front of me. He nodded with a look of surprise and when I
pressed him, he repeated Buddy’s name several times.
I then set the picture on his bedside table and propped it between two airline-size
bottles of Dos Manos tequila. It was a therapeutic technique that Dr. Eileen Salmon and I have both used several times in the past. I suggested that WF set the picture of his