SMART Recovery® Podcast

Michael Marcum is a licensed professional counselor at the VA, and a former Army sniper. By his own admission he changed "countries, continents, and careers" to try and escape the reality of his substance misuse which plagued him for decades. After multiple stints in rehab and other pathways to recovery, he found SMART and it transformed his life.

In this podcast Michael shares his recovery journey and explains why the practical tools and future orientation of SMART finally allowed him to choose a different kind of life.

The Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness (USARA) is a statewide nonprofit agency that focuses on connection between people in recovery and the wider world. By sharing their lived experience, USARA staff educates, advocates, and inspires individuals and communities to live more hopeful lives.

In this podcast, USARA's Executive Director Mary Jo McMillen and Associate Director Evan Done talk about the agency's growth and development over time, their personal recovery journeys, and why Utah is a great place to recover.

The Minnesota Recovery Options Act has recently been introduced as a means to require courts to provide a secular alternative for individuals ordered to participate in substance use treatment and as a way to provide information and resources to counselors about secular recovery.

Alison Gill is Vice President, Legal and Policy, for American Atheists, one of the organizations involved in the effort to get the bill passed in Minnesota (disclosure: SMART Recovery is also part of the coalition supporting the bill). In this conversation, she talks about the issues involved in advocating for individuals who object to religious-themed recovery treatment, why alternatives are a good thing for society at large, and how this specific bill can act as a nationwide model.

Link to Minnesota bill summary and text

Related court case: American Atheists Wins in West Virginia Religious Coercion Lawsuit

Compassion fatigue is real. It refers to circumstances where caregivers, professional or volunteer, become mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted and start to wear down. It can produce a downward spiral and lead to individual caregivers leaving the work that still means so much to them.

Fortunately, there are organizations who are trying to help the helpers avoid burnout, and one of those is CAPSA. Headquartered in Ottowa, Ontario, they offer all kinds of training and consulting on health related topics, offering courses such as Compassionate Care: Staying Well While Helping Others.

In this podcast we discuss compassion fatigue, substance use health, the danger of expectations, stigma, and more with Shawn Fisk, an educator and partnership lead with CAPSA. Shawn shares some of his personal story and belief in the possibilities of strong connections with others in mutually supportive relationships.

Including lived experience in a recovery ecosystem often adds an effective dimension of support for those trying to make changes in their lives. The field of peer recovery coaching has been growing nationwide and many states now offer certification programs.

In Utah, the Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness (USARA) employs a network of peer coaches that work closely with individuals who are seeking recovery. In this podcast, we are joined by two USARA peer coaches, Elizabeth Myers and Kelsey Pierce, who share their lived experience and love of helping others with us.

Special note: SMART looks forward to meeting USARA representatives in April when we hold our 30th anniversary conference in Salt Lake City. More information can be found HERE.

Billy Hoffman works with compulsive gamblers as a certfied counselor. His lived experience and clinical skills combine to provide hope for those who have reached a critical point in their negative spiral of financial and emotional consequences.

In this podcast Billy points out that despite compulsive gambling being recognized as problem for decades, there is still a relative lack of resources for those who are trying to get help. The recent meteroric rise in legal sports betting has only compounded the issues involved.

Here are links to potential resources:

APA article on inclusion of problem gambling in DSM-III

Dr. Valerie Lorenz's book Compulsive Gambling

Arnie Wexler's book All Bets Are Off

University of Maryland resources for problem gambling

International Problem Gambling Center

SMART Recovery is based on cognitive tools rooted in addressing how we think and react to life circumstances. For therapist Bruce Burleson, combining the cognitive aspects of behavior management with staying present in the moment is a recipe for successful treatment of addictions and compulsive behaviors. He calls his approach Mindfulness-Based Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and he authored a workbook all about it.

Burleson has worked in a variety of mental health and recovery settings in the course of his more than 25 years in the field. In this podcast he explains how he helps clients address their issues and chart their own path to recovery.

Jan Folk was a high powered businesswoman for years, battling sexism in the male-dominated insurance industry. At the same time she was struggling with alcohol-use disorder and kept ending up in crisis.

After a couple of attempts to stop drinking she finally realized that the only way she was going to change her behavior was if she looked deep inside and made the decision for herself. That is when she learned about SMART and has embraced recovery.

Jan decided to share her story by writing a memoir, Hell in High Heels: How I Conquered My Demons, about her life as a business owner, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She chronicles her childhood and rise to prominence, love of dogs, and shares a story about how one might possibly lose a private plane.

Keith Johnston is the Founder and Executive Director of Running2bwell, a nonprofit organization that helps those struggling with mental health and/or addiction issues become more physically and socially active. He decided to start the effort after a friend lost his son to heroin addiction and he wanted to try and contribute something positive to society.

Keith turned to exercise, since it had always been helpful when he was attempting to manage his own meantal health and addictions, and now facilitates walking/running groups and SMART meetings.

In this podcast, he talks about research that links exercise to greater mental clarity and many other benefits. He also shares his belief that not only do we all have issues of some kind, we all have a responsibility to contribute what we can to make the world a better place.

Jonathan Hunt-Glassman struggled with drinking too much for years, and tried many ways of changing his relationship to alcohol. But it wasn't until a doctor suggested he try medication that things got better. Based on his experience, he decided to start a company, Oar Health, which offers a way for individuals to investigate whether medication might be useful in their own recovery.

In this podcast, Jonathan is joined by Oar Health's Chief Clinical Advisor Dr. Josh Lee, an addiction medicine specialist, researcher, and Professor of Population Health and Medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.