2017 Health Care Champions Administrator: Tressa Moyle

SBJ photo by Wes Hamilton

Resume Highlights

• Bachelor’s in psychology and master’s in social work, with concentration on family health, Missouri State University

• Member of the National Association of Social Workers, Missouri Recovery Network and Empower Missouri

• Current chairwoman of Springfield Area Social Workers

Whether it’s administration duties or interacting one-on-one with patients, CoxHealth Center for Addictions Director Tressa Moyle is on the front lines helping those facing addiction find healing.

The center provides inpatient detoxification, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient plans, psychological testing and assessment, and individual counseling. Utilizing these treatment options, Moyle says lending a helping hand on a patient’s path to recovery is inspiring.

“To be a part of a patient’s journey, to watch them grow and change and to believe in themselves enough to want something different, that motivates me,” she says. “When patients are putting as much energy into their recovery as I am, it makes me want to be involved even more in their change process.”

In addition to her administration duties, Moyle provides direct patient care through intake assessments, therapy and psychoeducation groups within the addiction treatment program at 1423 N. Jefferson Ave. She also coordinates the care patients receive at the center with insurance companies that are involved.

“The financial concerns of our patients are great, and like patients in most health care settings, the insurance world seems daunting,” Moyle says. “I am in a position to be a liaison between the patient and their insurance company, taking away that stressor that would likely add an undue burden during a time when their time and energy should be focused on their recovery.”

Moyle has worked her way up the ladder at Center For Addictions. She was the first intern to work at the center, while she earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Missouri State University. She was then hired in 1999 as an intake coordinator while earning her master’s degree in social work, promoted to a case manager, and then to social worker, assistant direct and finally director in 2016.

Since joining the team, she has developed the intern program, mentoring more than 65 psychology students.

“Many of my clinical skills have translated to my work with interns. So many of the principles are the same: challenge ideas, provoke thought, develop insight,” Moyle says. “Nothing in my career has ever made me prouder than when an intern’s initial perceptions of our patients are challenged, and they begin to understand addiction and develop a passion for it.”

Moyle says her additional role as a per-course instructor at MSU goes hand in hand with her primary job.

“By mentoring and sending new social workers and therapists out into the behavioral health care field, who are aware of and understand the complexities of the diseases of addiction, I have the opportunity to be a part of the bigger picture, to affect change on a greater level,” she says.

Moyle works in a broad range of educational activities and workshops, within CoxHealth and in the community – including as a guest lecturer at Ozarks Technical Community College and Evangel University.

“Throughout all of this, my goal is to reduce the stigma and shame brought on by the disease of addiction,” she says, “and to be a voice of hope for those struggling.”