PEER Voices Podcast

What is a peer supposed to look like? For Juliet Dorris-Williams and Gabe Howard, the answer is simple: there is no single way a person with lived experience of mental health, addiction, or trauma is supposed to look, act, or live. Yet both have repeatedly encountered people who question whether they are "really" peers because of their education level, appearance, or professional role. In this episode of PEERVoices, Juliet and Gabe explore the assumptions and stereotypes surrounding peer support, including the surprising ways those assumptions can come from within the peer community itself. Juliet shares an early experience at The P.E.E.R. Center when someone questioned where the peers were, despite the organization being made up of people with personal lived experience. Gabe shares a particularly memorable encounter with a doctor who assumed that because he lives with bipolar disorder, he must be receiving disability benefits. The conversation also explores why people can be much more than what they look like, how assumptions can hide someone's life experience, and why peer supporters themselves have a responsibility to keep learning. Listen Now!

What does it take to turn your own lived experience into a career helping other people?On this episode of PEERVoices, Gabe Howard and Juliet Dorris-Williams talk with Gary Krafthefer, a longtime member of The P.E.E.R. Center team, about recovery, peer support, certification, and the barriers that can make entering the peer-support workforce feel overwhelming.Gary shares his personal recovery story, including childhood struggles, a nervous breakdown following his parents' divorce, multiple diagnoses, self-medication, and the moment that changed his direction: learning he was going to become a father. That realization pushed him to take a hard look at his life and decide he needed to change.Today, Gary uses that lived experience to help other peers. Through PeerTAC, he answers questions from people across Ohio who are trying to become certified peer recovery supporters, maintain their credentials, earn continuing education, or simply figure out what they are supposed to do next.Listeners Will Learn:What PeerTAC does for Ohio's certified peer recovery support workforce.Why peer supporters don't fit a single stereotype or professional profile.How sharing your story can help other people feel less alone.Why asking for help can be an important part of moving forward.Whether you're already a certified peer recovery supporter, considering certification, or simply wondering what peer support can look like, this episode offers practical information, honest recovery insight, and plenty of encouragement. Listen Now!

Ethics and boundaries are essential to peer support—but knowing where the line is isn't always easy. In this episode, hosts Juliet Dorris-Williams and Gabe Howard explore the complicated gray areas peer supporters face on the job and why simply knowing the difference between right and wrong isn't enough.

Joining them to round out the discussion is Gary Krafthefer, who works with PeerTAC and regularly fields questions about ethics and boundaries. Gary explains some of the most common challenges peer supporters may face, including dual relationships, self-disclosure, oversharing, scope of practice, workplace boundaries, and working while experiencing a personal crisis.

Their conversation also tackles an important misconception: making an ethical or boundary mistake doesn't automatically make someone an unethical or immoral person. The episode also emphasizes the importance of maintaining your own recovery. Being certified and employed doesn't mean the work of recovery stops—and peer supporters need to recognize when personal circumstances may affect their ability to support someone else.

Listeners Will Learn:

• Why staying within your scope of practice matters

• How to handle an ethical gray area

• Why asking for help is a strength, not a failure

Ethics aren't always black and white. Sometimes the most ethical thing you can do is admit you don't know and ask for help.

Generational differences can create tension in any workplace — and peer support is no exception. On this episode, hosts Juliet Dorris-Williams and Gabe Howard explore the growing divide between newer and more experienced peer supporters and ask an important question: What can different generations learn from one another?

They examine the power dynamics that can emerge between experienced leaders and newly certified peer supporters, including the danger of dismissing someone's ideas simply because they're young or new to the field. Most importantly, they explore what happens when we look past differences in age, race, gender, education, experience, and background and focus on the mutuality of lived experience that connects all of us as peers.

Listeners Will Learn:

• What newer (or younger) and experienced (or older) peer supporters can learn from each other

• Why generational differences can create tension in peer support

• Why leaders need to pass their knowledge to the next generation

From technology and social media to leadership, advocacy, and the changing ways people connect, Juliet and Gabe discuss how the peer support field has evolved — and why neither the "old way" nor the "new way" has all the answers.

deWhat happens when military service gives you a powerful sense of identity, purpose, and belonging—and then you have to leave it behind?

In this episode, Gabriel M. Burke, LISW, an Army National Guard veteran, social worker, and founder of Jump The Broom LLC, opens up about veteran mental health, moral injury, racism in the military, and the often-overlooked challenges of transitioning back to civilian life.

Gabriel introduces the idea of the "invisible rucksack"—the emotional experiences, trauma, identity shifts, and burdens veterans can carry long after leaving military service. He shares his personal experience of feeling a profound loss of belonging after returning to his Ohio National Guard unit, navigating racism and microaggressions, experiencing depression, and ultimately leaving the military.

This powerful conversation is ultimately about resilience, identity, forgiveness, peer support, and learning that you are more than what hurt you. Listen now to hear Gabriel's powerful story.

"You are not what hurt you. You are more than what hurt you." ~Gabriel M. Burke

What if healing from trauma isn't about reliving the pain, but about taking back your power and rewriting your story? In this episode, Pristina "PJ" Jackson reveals how she turned childhood trauma and complex PTSD into a life of purpose as a bold advocate for mental health and addiction recovery.

PJ opens up about the years she spent cycling through hospitals, therapy, and even electroshock treatments, only to realize that the traditional narrative of healing left her stuck in an identity of trauma. She explains how shifting her perspective—seeing anxiety and survival instincts as her body's way of protecting her—allowed her to move beyond coping and into active recovery. Together with hosts Juliet Dorris-Williams and Gabe Howard, PJ challenges long-held assumptions about treatment, recovery, and what it truly means to "show up" for yourself. She offers practical, empowering insights on reframing safety, working through fear, and building the capacity to thrive instead of merely survive. If you've ever struggled to break free from old narratives of pain this episode is for you.

Peer support saves lives, reduces relapse, and strengthens recovery — yet too often, it's undervalued and underfunded. In this episode, hosts Juliet Dorris-Williams and Gabe Howard sit down with longtime recovery advocate Cheri Walter to explore why peer services matter and how advocacy can amplify their impact.

Cheri, a person in long-term recovery and board member of The P.E.E.R. Center, brings 40 years of experience in Ohio's mental health and addiction systems. She explains why peers are not a replacement for clinical care — but rather an essential complement that helps people thrive, avoid crisis, and stay connected. Together, they discuss the urgent need for sustainable funding, the risks of over-professionalizing peer work, and the power of peers leading at every level of decision-making.

If you've ever wondered how to strengthen the recovery movement or why advocacy is critical right now, this conversation offers both inspiration and practical next steps. Listen now!

In peer support, your title might say "peer supporter / specialist," but your life experience, education, and skills often add up to much more. Many peers wear multiple hats—combining lived experience with roles like social worker, counselor, advocate, educator, or even executive director.

In this episode, we explore what it means to bring all those roles into the room. Our hosts, Juliet and Gabe, share how their professional training and lived experience overlap, the benefits (and occasional tensions) of wearing more than one hat, and how to stay authentic to the peer role while honoring other parts of your identity.

We talk about the opportunities this brings—greater resources, wider perspectives, stronger advocacy—and the challenges, from navigating boundaries to avoiding role confusion. Along the way, we highlight how multi-hat peers can bridge gaps in treatment settings, meet people where they are, and model that recovery is not one-size-fits-all.

Whether you're a peer specialist, a professional in another helping role, or both, this conversation celebrates the unique strengths that come from showing up as your whole self.

Whether you're a certified peer supporter or a licensed clinician, the work of supporting others can be deeply meaningful—but also deeply draining. Both roles carry heavy emotional weight, and both require real commitment. Yet, the way we talk about and practice self-care often looks very different between the two.

In this episode, guest Jennifer Martinez joins hosts Juliet and Gabe to explore the unspoken expectations that peers should "prove" they're strong enough, how stigma can shape the conversation around rest and boundaries, and why licensed professionals may have more structural support for taking care of themselves. Jennifer brings a unique perspective, blending lived experience with professional insight, and she shares practical, no-fluff strategies for making self-care sustainable—not just a checkbox. We also dive into what peers and professionals can learn from each other, and how mutual respect can help close the gap.

If you've ever wondered how to keep showing up for others without running yourself into the ground, this conversation will leave you feeling seen, supported, and ready to protect your own well-being. Listen now!

In this powerful episode of PEERVoices, Gabe Howard and Juliet Dorris-Williams sit down with Stephanie Mitchell Hughes, Assistant Director at NAMI Franklin County, to explore her deeply personal journey through major depressive disorder and the challenges of solo parenting. Stephanie opens up about her early struggles with depression, the turning point that led her to seek help, and the ongoing battle to manage her mental health while raising her children. Through candid conversation, she shares the determination it took to push through the darkest times, the importance of finding the right treatment, and how her lived experience fuels her work in mental health advocacy. This episode is a must-listen for anyone facing similar challenges, offering hope and insight into the power of perseverance.