Welcome to R1 Learning
“Self-discovery guides choice.
Choice drives change.”
"I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."
William Penn
The R1 Discover Vision — Imagine What We See
Hello, my name is Tom Karl and I founded R1 in 2017 as a result of my professional experience and my own recovery journey, I am grateful to have survived the struggles and consequences from my alcoholism and emotional challenges that resulted with the help from so many others along my path. A positive outcome following my last substance use was the inspiration to create the R1 Learning System, the Discovery Cards, and the R1 Discover App. I am now committed to three tenets:
Keep my “Recovery First” (R1) — Anything and everything is possible if I keep my recovery in the #1 position each day. This has certainly been true for me.
Serve others — Helping others who also struggle with mental health, substance use disorder, other addictions, or life challenges, and their loved ones, supports our own recovery and personal growth.
Choose to live a healthy and purposeful life — My life is precious and matters… and my time here is short. I’ve learned that happiness comes from serving others, doing good, and being grateful. I choose to be happy and hope to inspire others to live a healthy and purposeful life along my R1 journey.
Connecting with others and sharing our experience is foundational to overall health & wellness, recovery, and personal growth. R1 is driven to spark meaningful conversations through self-discovery that increase connection, expression, choice, action, and change for individuals and their families. The R1 Learning System was developed to encourage these things and help individuals build the skills for change. We hope you find it does just that – increases engagement, builds vocabulary, helps individuals express themselves more effectively, and sparks meaningful conversations for you and the people you work with.
We are committed to developing and delivering quality training, tools, and technology solutions, and in multi-languages, for the mental health, substance use disorder, and educational communities. We want to hear from you. We will need your input and feedback along our journey – both your successes and challenges — so we can continue to improve the tools.
We look forward to meeting you, working with your team, and serving your community. We look forward to making a difference — with you!
R1 LEARNING
R1 Learning – About Us
High-Touch/High-Tech Training, Tools, and Technology Solutions
R1 Learning is an education company providing interactive curriculum that engages and empowers individuals to reach their full potential, equips and retains practitioners through workforce training, and generates data for measuring and improving outcomes. R1 delivers greater engagement for the leading evidence-based and best practices for topics in mental health & wellness, substance use & addiction, and life & work skills. R1 Learning is the fastest growing engagement and interactive curriculum service in the industry.
The R1 Discover App provides a standardized library of interactive, gamified, evidence-based topic activities, videos, personalized reports, dashboards, and advanced analytics for streamlined documentation and outcomes measurement. R1 Discover includes features that enable programs and practitioners to schedule, manage, and track engagements for 1-on-1, group, assigned, and self-explored sessions.
We curate, develop, and deliver high quality, high-touch / high tech evidence-based and best practice support curriculum that:
Enables organizations and programs to deliver a standardized, modular, and scalable library of curriculum through a consistent and repeatable process that maximizes the use of evidence-based practices and builds the foundation for measuring outcomes.
Engages, educates, and equips practitioners (educators, counselors, clinicians, social workers, coaches, mentors, peer support providers, etc.) with tools and resources to increase their knowledge, skill, and effectiveness to deliver evidence-based practices to a wide-range of populations in a variety of settings.
Engages, educates, and empowers individuals to increase their knowledge in fundamental behavioral health and life skills topics, activate motivation and self-efficacy; build vocabulary and learn how to express themselves more effectively; and build the skills for change toward health and wellness.
Our Mission
R1 engages and inspires individuals to explore, learn, and grow…. and reach their full potential,
Engages, equips, and retains practitioners through workforce training, (Builds workforce capability and capacity),
Generates meaningful data for improving outcomes.
The R1 Learning System - Engage, educate, empower, and Evaluate
The R1 curriculum is grounded in proven behavioral health models, adapted from the work of the original authors and experts and supported by research. The R1 Learning System combines this content with tools, training, and additional resources to enable effective implementation and use of evidence-based practices such as motivational interviewing (MI) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The central tools of the system, the Discovery Cards, provide a hands-on, concrete approach that enables both practitioners and clients to learn and apply these theories to real-life situations and circumstances. R1’s tools are effective and easily adapted for different populations and settings and by practitioners at all levels of knowledge, skill, and experience. By combining the most effective content with a structure for effective implementation, R1 fosters greater engagement with treatment, counseling, and coaching — empowering individuals to live a healthy, meaningful life… and reach their full potential.
evidence-based and best practices resources
The R1 Learning System was developed around the principle that effective behavioral health services should be grounded in evidence-based practices that are implemented consistently and with fidelity to the research. Rather than creating new clinical interventions, R1 translates established evidence-based theories, models, interventions, and best practices into practical, engaging educational experiences that help individuals understand, discuss, practice, and apply healthier behaviors in everyday life.
Curriculum topics are selected from nationally recognized behavioral health competencies and guidance documents, including SAMHSA's TAP 21 Addiction Counseling Competencies, IC&RC counselor and peer recovery certification competencies, state licensing and certification standards, and other recognized evidence-based resources. Whenever possible, R1 collaborates with the original researchers, authors, or recognized experts associated with each evidence-based practice to help ensure its educational content accurately reflects the underlying evidence.
Examples of evidence-based and best-practice topics within the R1 Learning System include Motivational Interviewing (Bill Miller), Stages of Change (Prochaska & DiClemente), Trauma-Informed Care (CDC, SAMHSA), Recovery Capital (Best, Cloud, Granfield, & White), Adverse Childhood Experiences (CDC, Kaiser Foundation, Felitti), Relapse Prevention (Gorski), Values (Schwartz), Self-Affirmation Theory (Steele), Defense Mechanisms (Vaillant), Substance Use Disorder (DSM-5-TR; American Psychiatric Association), Career Interests (Holland), Personality Types (Marston, Clarke, Geier), and many others. Link to topic evidence-base or evidence-informed references.
Regardless of the topic, R1 teaches these evidence-based concepts through a consistent educational framework grounded in Albert Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory. R1's Observe, Evaluate, and Respond learning process helps individuals build self-awareness, strengthen self-efficacy, and apply evidence-based skills across behavioral health, recovery, and life domains, creating a consistent learning experience that supports meaningful and lasting behavior change.
R1 Communities
Communities We Serve
R1 Team
R1 Leadership Team
Tom Karl
Founder and CEO
Frank Bomher
R1 Partner & Chief Technology Leader
R1 Team & Partners
Joel Straight
Chief Client Solutions Advisor
Cindy Morgan-Jaffe
Senior Consultant/Expert Facilitator
Mike Cox
Senior Consultant/ Solutions
Chief Implementation Advisor
Thought Leadership Collaborators
Dr. David Best
Recovery Capital
Dr. Shalom Schwartz
Values - The Schwartz Values Wheel
Clinical Advisors
Marty Ferrero
Executive/ Clinical Director at Spero Recovery Centers
Pete Nielsen
Executive Director, BHAP, CCAPP, Counselor Magazine
Clinical Advisor
Clinical Advisor
Sandy Rivers
National & NY State Clinical Educator, Authentic Training LLC
Clinical Advisor
Clinical Advisor
Clinical Advisor
Research Advisors
Lighthouse Institute, Chestnut Health
Dr. David Best, STAR Recovery
Kurt Lebeck
Senior Research Advisor
Research Advisor
R1 Learning Advisors
Kimo Kippen
CEO, Aloha Learning, Former Chief Learning Officer at Hilton Worldwide
Rob Lauber
XLO Global, Former Chief Learning Officer at McDonald’s Corporation
Lisa Cohen
CEO, Holistic Human Capital Consulting
Learning Advisor
R1 Operations partners
MWZB Law Partners
Summit
Parcels Plus
R1 Impact
“Utilizing the Discovery Card decks provides a rich experience for clients, giving them the words and concepts to focus and share with each other. The materials are highly individualized and most clients really enjoy the tactile nature of sorting and laying out the cards themselves.”
Marty Ferrero, MA, CCS, ICCADC, LADC, CMAT
Sr. Clinical Director
“We have been using the kits to help with focusing on addiction specific learning. With our focus being so trauma oriented the addiction issues can sometimes be missed. I found the cards are good ways to open up that conversation and make sure we don’t miss any areas needing focus.”
Scott Davis M.Ed., LPC-S, CSAT
Clinical Director
“Thank you for this great interactive group tool. I purchased a set last year at the CCAPP conference and have used it several times in group. The clients absolutely love it and it has given many hours of great process material in addition to the learning objective.”
Tina Chavis
SUDS Counselor
“I purchased a Clinician Kit with nine decks at the NCAD conference. I use them daily in Group session as well as individual therapy sessions. They are excellent tools because patients talk automatically, even the guarded ones! “
Laila Burgos, ARNP
Clinician
“We utilize the Relapse Phases and Warning Signs topic. The information positively affects each woman with new tools to improve and maintain their recovery. We are looking forward to using all that R1 Learning has to offer. This is awesome!”
Celeste Muenz, Executive Director
Kia Waller, House Manager
“The clients love using the Discovery Cards and I enjoy teaching them. They are very helpful and the best part is the clients actually do all of the work and are able to truly see where they say they are now versus where any one else says they are.”
Barbara J. Ruark, CAC-AD, LCPC
Wicomico County Health Department
“Really cool concept--love the idea of people "learning without realizing they are learning." Kudos!
Hank Matthews, LPC, CSAC
“We always have a great time with the Relapse Phases and Warning Signs activities. Some said they are surprised by what the cards reveal about their warning signs, others feel validated because the cards accurately put their last relapse into words. They always enjoy the hands-on learning experience. Thank you!!”
Mari-Eliane Triolo
M.Ed., Resident in Counseling, QMHP-A, QMHCM
Behavioral Health Specialist II
“The R1 Learning System is a great way to enhance the material and concepts we are teaching Drug Court clients in our early recovery group. The clients have an interactive way of taking a deeper look at the Stages of Change and evaluate the types of consequences their substance use created.”
Graham Sargent CADC-II-ICADC-ICCJP
Criminal Justice Program Manager, Co-occurring Continuum
