Finding Peaks

Sharing Krystle’s Story


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Episode 45
Sharing Krystle’s Story
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https://youtu.be/5L8Ry-HfVYM
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Description

In this episode we are joined by a family that holds a special place in our hearts to remember and celebrate Krystle’s story.

Talking Points
  1. We are introduced to the nonprofit organization that was inspired by Krystle and her brother Kevin’s lives, called KK Fearless.
  2. Going over possible ways to tell Krystle’s story and celebrate her life in an uplifting way.
  3. Remembering the greatest ways Krystle impacted the lives of the people around her and what they carry with them from knowing her.
  4. Revealing our surprise to Krystle’s family of how we plan to honor her in the future.
  5. Quotes
    “Sometimes it feels like addiction is such a big thing and like addicts are just numbers. And so to hear that there is actually a memory and connection tied, that she wasn’t just passing through your program, like just another number, is really encouraging from a family perspective.”
    -Stephanie Scott, Krystle’s cousin
    Episode Transcripts
    Episode 45 Transcripts

    [Music]
    hey everybody and welcome to another
    amazing episode of finding peaks so
    grateful to be here on this beautiful
    winter day 2022. um to my right we have
    our trusty steed i don’t know i always
    call you that i don’t know either it
    just feels like a prize
    you’re always here and you’re consistent
    jason friesma our chief clinical officer
    and we have our lovely guests over here
    we have brooke
    as well as stephanie who are the family
    of um crystal perez who came through our
    program back in 2016 and we are here
    today
    in an effort to just celebrate crystal
    and celebrate her cause and celebrate
    her loving energy her connecting spirit
    and as we just talked about her
    tremendous fight with her mental health
    but before we kind of get into the weeds
    with some of that stuff i’d love to talk
    about
    brooke as well as stephanie they’ve put
    together and mom
    have put together a non-profit and so i
    want to just let them have the stage a
    little bit talk a little bit about this
    non-profit and how they’re raising
    awareness for addiction and mental
    health through their beautiful cause so
    i’ll turn it over to you brooke yeah
    thank you um so we started my family and
    i started the nonprofit kk fearless
    after the loss of crystal my sister and
    my brother kevin as well
    to an overdose and so
    we’re just it’s our way of honoring them
    of keeping their legacy alive and we
    hope to raise money and give to local
    rehabs all around colorado to create a
    music room where their residents can use
    music as a tool to help them on their
    road to recovery
    that is awesome now was was music
    something that crystal was passionate
    about yeah so we chose music because of
    crystal and kevin who they were
    super musically talented you might know
    this as well but uh she she had the
    tattoos
    yeah yeah we all did all three of us did
    okay
    but and i’m not musically talented
    that was them
    but i do love music and so yeah it was
    just kind of that was how we
    we knew initially we wanted to give to
    rehabs um but we weren’t really sure and
    then and then we found like our niche
    where we’re like oh we can incorporate
    music and that also honors them because
    they were so talented and
    loved music and loved to play music um
    so that’s where we get the music piece
    from that’s so awesome we get so many
    artists on our side of things
    and sometimes you know artists i’ve
    found is certainly in family systems
    sometimes they have a tough way of
    expressing themselves exactly and giving
    them that opportunity to really express
    it through music through art whatever it
    might be it’s just such a phenomenally
    connected outlet
    um
    where do you show up in that cause
    stephanie
    yeah so i am
    married into the family with brooke so
    we’re cousins but not blood related and
    so obviously through that connection
    with the family and knowing crystal and
    kevin for the past almost 14 years since
    i’ve been a part of the family
    but personally like most of us
    also know many addicts
    have lost friends to addiction
    know a lot of people that are still
    struggling i have close family members
    that are also addicts and so i um
    i think at first
    they
    you know going through crystal and kevin
    i hadn’t opened up about like my
    connection to addiction with brooke as
    you know both sisters
    um in a relationship and so
    that has been
    um
    an area for us to be strengthened by
    like our relationship to
    just be able to talk about it in a space
    where we both know what we’re going
    through understand each other understand
    each other help support um
    and so
    yeah my just
    knowing addiction knowing the challenge
    being close is like family members to
    to the cause is really what sparked us
    to
    start just wanting to do something we
    didn’t know what it was going to look
    like but we just wanted to do something
    yeah i just i really really honor that
    action-oriented step you know i
    unfortunately talked to a lot of
    families of ones that have lost loved
    ones and in every family’s like what can
    i do what can i do how do i do it
    you all are doing it it’s a pretty
    magical thing i’m sure they’d be looking
    down and be like those are my people
    let’s go you know
    jason what was your relationship
    potentially with
    crystal and i want to talk about kevin
    too here in a little bit just because i
    didn’t get to meet kevin um so we’re
    going to give him some time here too but
    what was your relationship crystal’s
    going to get more time probably because
    we knew her
    um
    i mean
    obviously
    uh she was a client in our program and
    it was back when our program was a lot
    longer you know now we’re a 45 day
    program with with iop on the back end of
    it but um
    you know
    i don’t know if this is the time to talk
    about it but like i i can remember like
    crystal i think came to our program like
    right before we went on a hut trip
    um
    like maybe the day before maybe two days
    literally right before and
    um i i swear i told her this later like
    i thought she had like the coolest
    glasses because i couldn’t see the arms
    oh yeah but then she didn’t have enough
    glasses
    yeah yeah your glasses were broken i’m
    like oh like how is that
    [Laughter]
    and the one thing that immediately stuck
    out i mean that trip was amazing to be
    with her but she was
    tough as nails that one um like
    she literally
    uh
    was going through withdrawals you know
    in the middle of nowhere and complained
    zero times
    she just needed to be by the fire which
    makes sense yeah checks out um
    but immediately uh
    you know there was just something about
    her like there was
    there’s this essence to crystal that was
    so
    um engaging and so
    um
    i know she just brought a life uh and
    when you were talking about music brooke
    like
    i don’t remember what the event was i i
    i’m pretty sure one of the other clients
    had to go to the hospital for some
    reason and it’s back when
    like our whole house would
    travel as a pack so everybody went to
    the hospital and there’s a piano in
    there and she just sat down and like
    blew everybody’s hair back with what she
    could do on the piano and um
    everything she taught herself
    yeah which makes sense um
    and
    i just always remember wanting her to
    like express more and more of herself
    and like she would like do it and then i
    think she would not feel embarrassed or
    ashamed or i don’t know what or like
    self-conscious maybe
    um
    i don’t know but there was always just
    something uh that i just really
    that just profoundly touched me about
    her and and
    her path um
    uh and then obviously with logan too and
    like walking through that and there’s
    just a lot of
    um there’s so much life and then so much
    pain inside of that young woman um
    it just was uh
    she was easy to like and easy to invest
    a lot of time and energy into trying to
    walk with her
    on her path
    yeah
    thank you for that jason um i want to
    talk before we jump into it um kevin
    um i didn’t get the opportunity to meet
    kevin tell us a little bit about kevin
    yeah kevin um
    he
    was just as musically talented as her um
    he they both i feel like
    um had this like energy that just drew
    people to them they were always um loved
    and liked by so many people they were
    the popular people all the time
    everywhere they went
    kevin struggled with his addiction
    probably for just as long as crystal
    so probably over a decade
    and
    he the last year of his life he was
    diagnosed schizophrenic
    and went through that with his
    medication and everything like that
    and then
    he yeah i mean
    i don’t i don’t know what else to say
    about him i don’t really want to speak
    to his addiction but
    um yeah he just was a very loving
    kinding human being so talented he drew
    that picture he’s artistically talented
    musically talented yeah and what year
    did he pass
    he just passed in 2020 november mm-hmm
    yeah it sounds like you know mental
    health
    um and i love what you said there is
    like we don’t need to go into the
    addiction
    because it actually is it’s mental
    health yeah and people are struggling
    with mental health today and um you know
    us here at peaks we’re doing it putting
    our best foot forward to bridge that gap
    um because it is that unnecessary shame
    spotlight that gets shined oh he’s a
    substance a user it’s different it’s not
    different
    and we talked about that pretty candidly
    before the episode so
    sounds like a phenomenal human yeah i
    would have loved to admit i don’t know
    yeah so he’s great yeah he played a
    bunch of instruments uh he mostly played
    guitar uh he was really good at playing
    guitar
    um crystal was the one that was
    guitar and piano and violin
    and any of them sing
    no no neither i think i’m the i’m i’m
    the one i just haven’t started that yet
    here we go
    lead singer of the non-profits of her
    voice there’s potential
    why don’t you just sing a little
    foursome oh yeah
    let’s just jump right into the people we
    actually have two women in programming
    right now that are literally after the
    commencement upon my last two groups
    they got a guitar out and they sang a
    song that they wrote at peaks wow
    so yeah i wanted to get into some
    questions about crystal and just kind of
    pick your brain a little bit because i
    want to make sure that
    we’re telling her story in the right way
    i want to make sure that the energy that
    we’re putting out into this world
    fits
    and so as her family and really as maybe
    one of her closest people in her life
    um
    how should we be telling crystal’s story
    i don’t know i mean that’s a great
    question i would tell her story in the
    way that you knew her um
    because that’s how i tell my story i
    don’t go off of what people tell me
    about her i go off of what i how i knew
    her and who she was to me and that’s how
    i think you guys should share that
    because um i love like meeting people
    who knew her and them telling me stories
    and like you guys telling me stories
    about her hike and her sledding and like
    that’s your guys’s stories that you have
    of her and i hope you continue to share
    those because that keeps her alive
    um and i’ll continue to share everything
    that i know about her and the great
    memories i have of her
    yeah that’s that’s that’s really
    beautiful and
    i appreciate you saying that it
    it can be really difficult at times as
    we talked about before the show to
    really carry that message on
    in a really infectious way and i always
    feel
    geez i kind of feel a little bit guilty
    because the only thing i know of your
    sister is
    absolutely perfect
    you know it’s i i get to watch her come
    in hopeless and i get to see hope come
    alive and that’s the last i remember of
    her
    and so
    the way that i want to tell her story
    moving out there is just in that way is
    i saw someone come in a fighters fighter
    and fought a great fight um and
    experienced significant happiness and
    recovery
    and that’s how i remember yeah and
    that’s what i love to hear i love to
    hear different perspectives of how you
    guys knew her and connected with her in
    different ways
    how would you tell her story stephanie
    from what you know
    i mean
    what comes to mind is just
    her intensity for love like
    whenever she was around anyone it was
    like
    she was just so present right like
    and i never remember i mean we all have
    like phones and stuff but i just always
    remember her being like so present and
    like
    whatever whatever we were doing it was
    like playing games at the table like we
    played games and puzzles and stuff it
    was just like she was always just so
    there and just wanted to connect and
    just
    genuinely loved being around these
    people that
    she cared for
    that she was safe with
    that made her laugh like she was like i
    just keep going back to her laugh like
    you can’t um
    yeah she she made her presence known by
    the joy that she like filled the room
    with
    yeah i don’t think you can speak about
    her unless you bring up her laughs yeah
    yeah
    yeah i was just saying you yeah everyone
    knows her laugh i mean she would
    she would make fun of you and you’d
    still be laughing with her
    because her laugh was so infectious but
    you didn’t care yeah
    it’s weird i hear a little of her
    laughter yeah yeah i do i hear myself in
    it a little bit too yeah when i laugh at
    certain times it’s usually like when i’m
    around people that knew her which is
    really kind of cool uh and then some
    pictures i noticed i’m like oh my gosh i
    look like christian
    well your mom even talks about when you
    were growing up like baby pictures and
    stuff you were like the same like people
    didn’t know like wait which daughter is
    which
    i was i was at the parking meter out
    there and i saw you and i was like i got
    lit up with chills like oh yeah brooke
    yeah wow
    yeah yeah i get that a lot from
    stephanie when we had crystals um we did
    we celebrate her birthday every year
    and stephanie came and she was just
    staring at me and was like it is uncanny
    like how much you look like her and it
    freaks me out to stare at you right now
    i get that a lot
    and it’s really cool how you all have
    stayed pretty well connected we were
    talking a little bit before the show of
    some of our other peaks alumni that were
    here with crystal
    it’s really cool that you all have been
    able to stay in touch with them a little
    bit and um yeah it’s really cool that
    they have supported us through this and
    have reached out to you guys to have you
    know it’s it’s really a cool tight-knit
    community i think yeah yeah
    jason how about for you i mean what
    i know that crystal
    um positively impacted you in a number
    of ways i mean i train with jason in the
    morning in the gym too so we’ve been
    talking about this a lot leading up to
    this and um i just know she holds a
    special place in your heart personally
    and professionally
    yeah i think
    you know interestingly like it’s
    you know like when we started serenity
    peaks and invited women into you know
    there’s a men’s program and then and
    then we start serenity peaks and really
    you know crystal was in that kind of
    first cohort of young women that came
    into our program and um
    and with it being a new program and and
    um
    a new kind of adventure i guess for me
    and i think for us chris i think
    um
    it just created these really special
    bonds like with that first
    group of people and and i do think of
    that hot trip that we went on like i i
    mean i will never forget that and
    um and i mean i i do have so many
    pictures in my phone of of what we were
    doing and the hikes and
    this silly beanie that crystal was
    wearing is like red i think in white
    but just a smile and and like
    um
    so i think there’s a there was a piece
    of crystal too that just signified just
    a really
    fun part of
    my career too like selfishly that just
    like there’s an intersectionality there
    of like this is
    fun and like um
    [Music]
    and i think during that time too we you
    know chris you and i would
    not joke but like just be in amazement
    of like
    how
    um how different the women’s program was
    from the men’s program and how
    just the depth of pain and trauma that
    came in versus
    the men not that they don’t have their
    own problems but like
    with what the young women walked in with
    um
    it felt really heavy and so i do think
    we we invested i invested a lot of time
    into
    really kind of wanting to make sure
    peaks did well but then of course as a
    result of that like just really getting
    to know
    um
    just that whole group that that that
    you’ve been mentioning and um
    yeah and then uh just yeah crystal like
    she just
    she was in it man and like uh
    and
    when i think about her too like she
    definitely was kind of the life of the
    party in a way but not like i’ve been
    around people who are like the party and
    they’re really forcing it or like it’s
    about them yeah
    um in her it was just yeah it was just
    how it was her setting
    and um
    and like she was just always in for it
    was just always a yes like we’re going
    to play this game cool
    uh yes
    let’s do that or
    we did
    we did a charades on that hud trip and
    like we had just funny things of like
    riding in the van or
    the best chris burns oh my god yeah
    that’s great
    and she just was in for that even though
    she felt
    terrible in in that um
    that sledding video that we had that i
    if you remember that like i mean it
    she just did it all out and like she
    went over that jump and her glasses one
    arm glasses go flying everywhere
    they may have had two arms at that time
    i can’t remember but like it was uh um
    yeah it i and i remember
    i don’t mean for this to sound morbid
    but like i remember thinking that you
    know with these with this group two of
    like
    you know
    unfortunately you know i’ve done this
    long enough i’m like not everybody makes
    it out of this
    like i remember it broke my heart at the
    time and then
    you know unfortunately not everybody
    made it out of them
    and that
    hurts and sucks
    and um
    yeah
    i don’t know that that gets me yeah
    um
    she was such an amazing
    i don’t know is i guess i think we’re
    carrying her forward in a lot of ways
    and and like i said that
    that that picture of her sits on my desk
    like right like i just have a spot for
    it and i’ve moved that desk
    dozens of times now i think but like
    it’s always the first thing to put back
    up because it’s just a reminder um you
    know and
    we’ve in the last year peaks have have
    said that we are here to save lives
    um and i want that reminder that like
    this is what saving lives really does
    mean um and
    because it is a life and death battle
    and not everybody gets out of it alive
    yeah
    it’s cool to hear
    such a personal connection
    coming from
    i mean i see you guys as like you guys
    work for with the rehab right and
    being on the family side of it like we
    hear
    some stuff what happens you know while
    in recovery while in different programs
    but to sometimes it feels
    like you know addiction is such a big
    thing
    and
    addicts are just numbers you know and so
    to hear that there’s actually like a
    memory and connection tied and like it’s
    you know wasn’t just passing through
    your program is just another number
    is really encouraging from a family
    perspective that it’s like you know
    there is there is so much more than just
    the step by step and cranking through a
    system type thing and so
    that’s cool yeah yeah because i think
    yeah not everywhere right right but i do
    think
    um
    yeah i think
    how we’ve chosen to run peaks to and and
    this comes from chris and how he started
    it is like we
    we don’t have to be three steps removed
    from our from the people we’re helping
    like
    we’re all just people yeah doing the
    best we can and
    crystal was doing the best she could and
    um
    yeah that
    and we didn’t have to create some sort
    of barrier to say hey we can’t be in
    alignment with people who are just doing
    the best they can and
    um
    we have to be there with them yeah
    yeah you guys bring up an absolutely
    great point as well and we touched on it
    a little bit before the show is just
    disrupting an industry too really
    ensuring that the people that you know
    are treating our vote most vulnerable
    have the resources to do so
    and if they don’t have the resources to
    do so it can end up causing more harm
    and so that’s been something that our
    ceo my brother brandon burns has been
    tried and true on over the last year
    he’s like we are disrupting this
    industry this is crap the way people are
    being treated to your point as numbers
    and things of that nature i mean i i
    find no greater joy than getting on an
    introduction call and say i can’t wait
    to i can’t wait to have a smoothie with
    your loved one you’re like what
    yeah i’m the founder like that’s my
    thing
    i just drink smoothies with people in
    early recovery and celebrate they’re
    like wow
    because it does matter different yeah
    because we’ve never had more than 12
    beds in our women’s program it’s always
    been very intimate and very very cool
    let’s say never we had 16 for about two
    weeks
    never
    then we learned way too many yeah
    so let me ask you brooke
    what would you say that one of the
    greatest things
    that you carry with you today that
    crystal left behind
    one of the greatest things that maybe
    you got from her
    throughout your guys is close connection
    that’s a great question i i think i
    think it’s hard to pinpoint just one
    thing
    i carry a lot of both of them with me
    and i think like i was saying to jason
    that sometimes
    i i can hear myself or i can hear her in
    me
    um and i think that’s a gift really like
    i i find joy
    in that sometimes i i may look at like
    her in pictures or sometimes i may laugh
    like her
    um i think is really cool but i think
    that’s probably one of the things is
    like it’s it’s her laugh
    it’s
    being able to like still hear her laugh
    in me which is really weird
    just laugh just to hear yeah
    that’s cool
    yeah it’s it’s weird it’s trippy um but
    and i i have like lots of dreams about
    them i feel like they come to me you
    know which is really weird but
    yeah i mean i still feel like they’re
    with me everywhere i go it’s
    um i haven’t really separated myself
    from them i guess
    yeah what about the connection with
    fearless
    and like the way she lived fearlessly
    because we’ve talked about that a lot is
    like
    we strive for that and like yeah she
    just
    she
    she had a lot of shame i know
    that was
    really hard for her
    because she was also gay
    and i know that that was hard for her to
    talk to other people about um so it’s
    not only like you’re gay but you’re also
    an addict and so you look down like
    doubly you know it’s like
    double marginalized because of that um
    and so
    she but like you guys were saying like
    anywhere she was just the life of the
    party anywhere she went
    um and
    it was more so like behind closed doors
    i feel like is when
    she had that shame and stuff with her
    but i think when she was out in front of
    other people people saw this confidence
    in her and this sort of like fearless
    component to her
    and so the whole fearless aspect that we
    have incorporated is like the ring she
    wore said fearless but it’s also how she
    acted you know and how people saw her
    did you have a question
    i have a lot of questions
    [Laughter]
    um
    so
    i mean what a gift to kind of carry your
    siblings
    around like that and have them visit you
    and your dreams and all that yeah
    my question too is like what’s the
    weight of that
    yeah
    um
    the the dreams it’s it’s heavy
    uh because that crystal and i always
    talked about our dreams um just how
    vivid they were and we would go to the
    bookstore every you know every week and
    read dream books and it was something
    that like we connected and bonded with
    um and so it’s yeah the dreams are hard
    um especially after the the deaths they
    were really hard but now it’s like
    now they’re like really you know they’re
    they’re like good dreams now you know
    and so it’s kind of
    refreshing in a way but
    i don’t think anything else is as heavy
    as that
    i don’t know
    i love what you brought up too is
    that’s exactly my experience with
    crystal is
    even though we knew obviously through
    working with her that
    that shame lived inside it was never in
    the center of the room
    yeah it was something that fortunately
    or unfortunately
    she dealt with a little bit more
    independently
    you know
    i think that’s a
    great point she always was kind of this
    happy joyous
    kind of persona and it attracted the
    people around her and wanted people to
    get closer to her you know i remember
    her graduation that must have been maybe
    the coolest graduation of our first you
    know first couple cohorts of clients
    that have come in yeah i mean it was
    just jam-packed in there i remember yeah
    sitting on the floor
    you know it is interesting because like
    i remember as you were talking about her
    shane it’s weird to talk to you because
    like it just keeps
    flooding
    um but like her her shame was also like
    some of the most sacred space like i
    think some of
    my my best conversations with her were
    about the things that you just kind of
    brought up and
    and that burden she carried which
    that’s when you felt the heaviness that
    she was carrying around yeah and
    and i just remember you know my own
    reaction to that too
    was just almost feeling desperate to
    help her
    unburden herself with some of that
    because um
    almost wanting her to see her as
    everybody else saw right because i think
    sometimes she missed that
    i
    i feel bad
    sometimes and guilt is kind of sits in
    me because it’s like i i had this whole
    like tough love approach
    and a lot of the times when she would
    tell me she didn’t want to do something
    she was self-conscious or she
    shame or whatever and it was like and i
    didn’t understand i was just like what
    do you mean like just who cares like
    you’re beautiful
    who cares what what anyone else you know
    and it’s um it’s just kind of like naive
    for me to to even think or say that to
    someone who you know when i can’t even
    relate to that
    um and i see now in retrospect but
    yeah that’s unfortunate yeah how could
    you have known though i mean
    i talk about it all the time i’m a new
    dad
    so i was reading the dad to be book in
    like where’s my mental health section
    there’s nothing there so we all show up
    and to jason’s point i think we do the
    absolute best that we can do
    yeah you only know what you know yeah
    but when jason brought that up about
    crystal and the shame is i have
    experienced that and it was heavy
    um and there was a piece of her that’s
    like i just
    somehow someway want you to be able to
    see the way that the world views you
    because it’s
    spectacular right you know and that’s
    that’s the age-old journey of recovery
    with young people who’ve experienced a
    tremendous amount of shame and pain is
    like can we get them to see what we see
    before it’s too late right you know
    and i think that’s what i that’s a
    something i plan to do with this
    non-profit is to be an advocate for
    those people who are feeling that way
    because i know how crystal and kevin
    felt that way and
    i
    i wan i know what it looks like and i
    know how it makes them feel and i want
    like everyone to know that i’m an
    advocate for you you know it’s like i
    you can come to me and you don’t have to
    be afraid to tell me that you’re using
    right now or whatever the case may be
    and i’m not going to look down on you
    and i’m not going to judge you because i
    saw it firsthand
    and so i think that’s kind of what i
    want to bring with this non-profit as
    well as just being an advocate for those
    who are suffering and in all this pain
    and the shame and just break that stigma
    yeah
    right really i love the the niche that
    you guys have thought about too of
    creating um a musical space because i do
    think um
    it’s easy
    you know for us to meet people like
    doing sporting things or like physical
    activities and yeah
    all kinds of things but it does leave
    like a segment of people
    wrestling and get sober that
    need to engage with the arts and like i
    think we do try to include arts in what
    we do but
    um that specific musical space um i
    think that’s a powerful uh gift i think
    to give people um
    and and we’ve certainly you know over
    the last you know five and six years or
    whatever like we’ve had certainly people
    come through that like we have a
    i mean not the best keyboard in the
    world
    maybe we can hook you up with it yeah
    right
    yeah it’s not i think it’s just fun to
    watch people who really get it yeah you
    can sit down
    and also that’s a vulnerable space too
    because i think uh
    you know to exhibit your talents like
    that um you can feel really well
    vulnerable and really uh
    scared it is it is like
    i remember crystal would only let it out
    a little bit here and there like little
    pieces and then
    it was of course amazing when she would
    but
    it was very incriminal yeah i think
    that’s how they
    expressed themselves crystal and kevin
    both i saw that because they
    had a hard time kevin i mean wore his
    heart on his sleeve really like he was
    really open and transparent with you but
    crystal was much harder to crack and i
    think
    the music helped
    her a lot with that and expressing it
    and i know from
    experience her and i just listening to
    music was like our way of bonding and
    like talking to ourselves yeah just
    through lyrics
    but yeah i think the music part i hope
    will help a lot but i’m really glad that
    we incorporated that into it for sure
    yeah that’s really really cool
    i love it it just creates vulnerability
    i don’t know what it is about music
    she’s like man i’m gonna sink into that
    right you know i can remember being a
    new professional and
    that was the music therapist and i have
    no idea how i got that must have been
    music it must have been an
    therapy i’m like done man i like music
    and i like therapy so
    let’s put them together but i remember
    sitting in there and i had no idea what
    i was doing i just had a big heart to
    help people but i remember there was
    this guy in there who
    passed away was one of my friends his
    name was yaya
    and he would never talk in group
    but he’d say hey can i play song
    and you he would just belt and you’d
    move to tears because he would just you
    could heal everything he’s trying to
    express
    in that one song right and you’re just
    like oh
    just so moving yeah so i love love what
    you’re doing and i think that um longer
    term we’d love to get a music program
    going here at peaks i think it’d be
    exceptional because there’s nothing
    greater than sitting around and just
    watching
    these amazingly giftedly talented people
    in recovery jam out
    it’s like the coolest thing ever well we
    experienced just a small bit of it at
    our first drop-off and so we’ve you know
    from raising money to getting
    instruments to dropping off at recovery
    center
    just pulling up we hear all this music
    happening you know like they’re already
    playing and tinkering and it was like
    they’ve had the instruments for 30
    minutes and they’re like already
    creating songs together and it was just
    like this like organic thing that it was
    just by the instruments being there like
    something was happening right like
    nothing that we did like it was just the
    music was there and then
    they just like lit up and we just sat
    there and watched them just jam out and
    just organically just like play together
    they’ve implemented a um a music theory
    program into their rehab and so if you
    didn’t know music before here’s an
    opportunity to learn music and now we
    have the instruments to do it and they
    have a church band now brook went to go
    listen to the church band so they now
    have a band in their weekly
    sessions and so that was a really good
    experience to go see them and do that
    and people after the session would come
    up to me and like thank me um was yeah
    so powerful and just like you have no
    idea how much this has helped me and
    like i’ve never played an instrument
    before and i picked up the the bass and
    love it and it’s helped me so much for
    this recovery yeah um was and he’d only
    been there for a few weeks and so that
    was really
    powerful it’s really cool to hear that
    you can feel that in that video too yeah
    and just hearing that you know some of
    the guys that got on there and just said
    simply what this is doing for him
    yeah wow like we hadn’t known them for
    more than 30 minutes and they’re
    bringing up their past with their you
    know trauma with their parents and like
    all this stuff and it’s just like
    holding this guitar in your hand for 10
    minutes and suddenly you’re just feeling
    free that vulnerable space we talked
    about right like i now trust you to have
    this conversation and this is opening up
    so much for me to be able to talk and
    we have grand plans about the future of
    opening a storefront space a physical
    space that can be sort of like this
    drop-in jam session that is like a space
    to just like
    you know you don’t need to have a guitar
    but you can come and play ours or
    private rooms where are you know they’re
    a handful of people that want to just
    start maybe creating a band or just like
    have something to do you know like we
    like you mentioned sports there’s you
    know 24 7 you know
    recovery like gym workout spaces and
    like you know what if you want an art
    space to come and just do the art thing
    and tap into that side of you but you
    don’t have a space to do it that’s sort
    of the grand vision yeah or the money
    right like just come hang out with
    like-minded people and we’ll have a
    stage if you want to put on a show like
    let’s put on a show like we’ll give you
    an audience and so that’s the grand plan
    is to create a community and we know
    there’s so many
    aspects you know recovery isn’t just one
    thing
    but if this could be the one thing that
    helps you know that coke that healthy
    outlet that coping mechanism that one
    thing that like
    you can
    lean on and get you
    to that next step whatever that looks
    like
    that’s you know worth it in itself for
    you know and that is like you know
    crystal and kevin will live on through
    each one of those moments so that is a
    really cool thing actually phoenix
    multi-sport yeah yeah does it for sports
    right it’s like all you got 24 hours
    sober you come in come home yeah
    you bring up a great point and we’re
    gonna wrap up here shortly but um
    touching our passion every day
    and a lot of our artists too i had a
    female in our women’s program just
    graduated
    she’s on itunes i mean so gifted and i
    sat down there and i said that was the
    most amazing song i’ve ever heard played
    in front of me
    and she goes
    yeah my mom told me how to do something
    a bit more reasonable and i’m like oh
    right and so what what i think our
    artists are told or at least they’re led
    to believe throughout their lives that
    that’s that’s when when you want to get
    serious come over here
    you know and so that i think they’re
    they tell themselves a narrative like i
    can’t do this i can’t be
    i’m pushing the the
    the energy today that says we should
    touch our passion every day if you’re an
    artist we paint if you’re a singer we
    sing if you play guitar we play guitar
    yeah because no matter what we do in
    this world in the name of recovery we’ll
    be fulfilled
    so i love that cause i’ve loved having
    you all on here um i want to talk about
    something really quick that i’d like to
    do for
    you and your family and most certainly
    in crystal’s name
    um
    i don’t know if i told you but we’re
    getting ready to build a 13 000 square
    foot state-of-the-art treatment program
    right up here in north colorado springs
    wow we have the real estate we’ve been
    fighting for it for the last two years
    annexing it rezoning it so
    congratulations thank you we are
    breaking ground um this month wow and
    our treatment team would like to
    dedicate a portion of that building to
    crystal
    wow
    a
    corner we want to call it crystal’s
    corner
    in an area where people can go and they
    can play music oh man that’s amazing we
    can carry on crystal’s name um forever
    wow yeah that’s amazing thank you
    you’re welcome
    thank you
    and i am hopeful that that starts coming
    here
    i’m hopeful that that starts
    the ball rolling for a music therapy
    program
    that we’d love to start with well you’re
    a music therapist
    i’m gonna be heading up the charts
    but i am just as i told you before the
    show i’ve just been we’ve been thinking
    about ways how do we let these beautiful
    faces live on and
    crystal’s face is going to live on a
    peak’s recovery forever and we’ll go on
    and tell her story and we’d also like
    for you all to come out each year and
    talk to our team and talk to our clients
    about how much this matters to you
    so we’re gonna let that beautiful face
    live on
    certainly on our side of things and it
    is our promise and our commitment to you
    all that will continue to disrupt this
    industry and continue to have the
    personal touches in our program that
    connect people to things that really
    matter
    so that is our commitment
    thank you thank you all so much for
    coming on it’s been so nice having you
    on thank you for driving down in this
    horrible weather
    thank you jason for accompanying me on
    this show it’s been really special to
    connect with you all in here um
    yeah i’m really grateful
    it was actually fun to sit and talk to
    her and talk about it and talk to you
    guys yeah it was great
    yeah
    well it just reaffirms i mean
    nothing about addiction for anyone is
    easy right there’s so many different
    layers but
    the fact that
    the efforts the talk the discussions
    like the stigma the shame all of that
    just
    there is a reason for
    continuing to have the conversation and
    i mean we
    we’ve been up and down with like where
    we’re going with this non-profit ever
    since crystal passed away and
    as soon as it hit it hit and like this
    is just a perfect example that like
    when you follow your passion right when
    you like
    see a gap you feel a gap and like it’s
    coming from a place of just you know
    this can work and that there is that
    need and there’s people
    that um appreciate that that it’s all
    worth it
    so we’re grateful for you for
    having continuing to have the
    conversation and the dialogue and
    um seeing
    seeing crystal and kevin and everyone
    else that you come in contact with as
    people and doing the best that they can
    yeah
    thank you all so much for coming on and
    sharing this vulnerable piece but i
    think it’s just a really important piece
    we’ll let that memory live on in a
    really infectious enthusiastic and
    relentless way because that’s what
    crystal left for me was this relentless
    approach
    to the work yeah so
    thank you all
    and that’ll do it everybody uh thank you
    all for uh coming on tuning in please
    find us on all of your podcasts
    instagram facebook
    anything else tick tock tick-tock i am
    the brand ambassador please tune in to
    the tick tock it’s a good time
    um but until next time um thank you so
    much for joining us today uh we miss you
    crystal and we love you peace
    [Music]

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    Finding PeaksBy Peaks Recovery Centers

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