Beyond the Two Pillars of Recovery

Colleen Clifford's memoir Life Beyond the Binge: A Commercial Fisherwoman's Journey Home was released close to our recording date. In this Episode, Colleen reflects on the 40 years she intermittently consumed excessive amounts of alcohol, collecting a series of could-have-been-tragic intoxicated moments until she saw through her excuses and resolved to stop putting other people at risk (adding her own safety as an important afterthought). Colleen invites individuals making decisions about drinking to take her experience into account: "...eventually, something unpleasant will show up in the drinking game of life, should you choose to play."

Dr. Sunniva Christiansen — Norwegian addiction specialist, child & adolescent psychiatrist, and researcher — was told not to mention "self medication" to patients during addiction treatment, but her patients used the phrase so often themselves it prompted her to investigate how people with substance use disorders experience and understand affect regulation. Her method of gathering data — lengthy, semi-structured, person-centered conversations — was so educational and empowering that it merits its own attention as a treatment modality.

Geography professor Dr. Rina Ghose describes the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping technology to integrate data on demographics, health, economics, and other variables to guide urban planners and empower community activists. In urban centers, for example, intertwined racial segregation and poverty contribute to disproportionate overdose deaths. Accurate GIS knowledge of community problems does not eliminate the problems, but it provides citizens and public officials a clear picture of needs to address.

Counseling psychologist Dr. Ben Bailey describes how Nonviolent Communication focuses tense conversations on feelings and needs rather than judgments and labels using examples from his work with individuals and couples in a university student health center.

Dr. Allen Levy—psychologist, licensed social worker, interfaith minister, and seasoned meditation teacher—reflects on modern psychoanalysis, couples therapy, group therapy, and meditation while relating those activities to the much larger context of the evolution of human consciousness.

At the end, Dr. Levy leads a brief, powerful meditation.

Freelance writer Gary Miller, Creative Director of Writers for Recovery, draws people deeper into their life experiences and relationships with each another with 7-minute, open-ended writing exercises where "there is no way to do it wrong." For eleven years, participants in Vermont Recovery Centers, Vermont prisons, and as far away as Ireland and the Dominican Republic, have grown in recovery through the love and humor in this program.

Guest Aviva Okrent shares her fascinating background as she describes what drew her to her current work as a life coach and how she goes about doing it, which is with relentlessly curiosity and attention to the whole person and their relationships.

Guest Gregory Tatro is a co-founder and the Senior Director of Mission and Impact at Jenna's Promise, a 9- to 18- month residential program in Johnson, VT that prepares persons in early recovery from substance use disorders to ultimately merge into communities with the skills and confidence they need for employment and daily life. Gregory shares how the tragic overdose death of his sister Jenna, and how the community responded, gave rise to this nationally recognized program of stigma reduction, hope, and action.

Consultant and trainer Dr. Tabitha Moore encourages us to appreciate our own humanity, including our personal place in history and culture. Also appreciating the humanity of everyone else, and their place in history and culture, has huge benefits, including taking racism out of race relations.

Dr. J. Scott Rutan, a psychologist who spent decades training group psychotherapists, shares how he taught therapists to create safe spaces where people could be honest and vulnerable enough to get out of their own way and into mutually rewarding relationships. You don't need to be a therapist to enjoy and learn from this.