The NOCE Dose: The Opioid Crisis Unplugged

In this episode of The NOCE Dose, Bianca McCall sits down with Mark Lambert, co-founder of Lighthouse XR, to explore how virtual reality can support recovery, reflection, and human connection.

Mark shares how his career in Hollywood visual design and immersive storytelling eventually led him into the recovery space after his son’s experience with opioid addiction. From building worlds for major films to developing virtual recovery environments, Mark brings a deeply personal and creative lens to behavioral health innovation.

Together, Bianca and Mark discuss The Retreat, Lighthouse XR’s virtual reality platform designed to help people engage with recovery concepts like core values, anxiety, anger, grief, community, passion, and purpose. Rather than replacing clinicians or peers, Mark emphasizes that VR works best as a tool that creates space for reflection and then strengthens real-world connection through guided conversation.

This episode explores the promise and limitations of digital health technology, the importance of human-centered design, and how immersive storytelling may help people stay engaged through the “long middle” of recovery.

What does gambling addiction really look like, and why do so many people struggle in silence?

In this episode of The Nostos, Bianca McCall sits down with Sam DeMello, Founder and CEO of eVive, to explore one of the fastest-growing yet least understood behavioral health challenges in America. Drawing from his own recovery journey, Sam shares how gambling quietly evolved from a childhood hobby into an addiction that impacted every aspect of his life, and how that experience inspired him to build technology that connects people to support before they reach crisis.

Together, Bianca and Sam discuss the hidden relationship between gambling, substance use, financial distress, and suicide risk; why traditional support systems often miss the people who need them most; and how digital health tools can lower barriers to care without replacing the human relationships that make recovery possible.

This conversation challenges common misconceptions about gambling addiction while highlighting the power of lived experience, personalized support, and community-centered innovation.

This Listening Session explores the rapidly evolving intersection of high-tech innovation and the deeply personal landscape of recovery. As behavioral health systems increasingly look toward high-tech solutions for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) prevention and treatment, this session explores how technology is no longer just a tool for communication but a primary intervention. Participants will engage with app developers and AI researchers to examine how machine learning models that are trained on the nuanced behavioral data of lived experience communities are being leveraged to predict recovery trajectories and provide real-time support.

Attendees will explore the practicalities and ethical nuances of “automated empathy,” including the use of GPS geofencing to activate supportive nudges in high-risk locations and Virtual Reality (VR) environments designed for cue-exposure therapy and de-escalation training. The session will facilitate a dialogue on whether these advancements strengthen the provider-client bond or create new barriers to authentic connection. Grounded in the goal of sustainable work-life integration for the workforce, participants will leave with a sophisticated understanding of how to integrate emerging technologies into traditional workflows without compromising safety, ethics, and human-centered approaches.

Altamit Lewis is a licensed clinical professional counselor and subject matter expert in behavioral health, trauma-informed care, and workforce wellness. With over 15 years of experience spanning crisis intervention, EAP services, and behavioral health program management, she brings a grounded, systems-informed perspective to the challenges faced by first responders, healthcare workers, and helping professionals. Altamit has led initiatives for state Medicaid programs, military family systems, and large healthcare organizations, emphasizing cultural responsiveness, emotional resilience, and sustainable care models.
She currently serves as CEO of Source Energy Consultant Services and as a field-based consultant providing short-term therapy and critical incident support to USPS employees. Her work combines clinical insights with policy-level strategies. A passionate educator and facilitator, Altamit is a published author and has led numerous workshops on mental health topics, effective communication, emotional intelligence, and more. Altamit holds a Master’s in Counseling with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is licensed in both Nevada and Maryland.

In this episode of The NOCE Dose, Bianca D. McCall sits down with Dr. Trudy Gilbert-Elliott, trauma specialist and clinician working alongside first responders and crisis teams, for a deeply human conversation about the cost of caring.
From “death by a thousand cuts” to the slow, often invisible onset of secondary trauma, Dr. Trudy unpacks what happens when exposure to crisis becomes cumulative—and how easily helpers can lose connection to themselves in the process.
At the heart of this conversation are two powerful truths:
we can’t hide our humanness, and too often, we are the only ones keeping someone’s story safe.
Together, they explore the importance of psychological safety, trusted relationships, and the internal “checklists” that help us recognize when we’ve crossed the line from present to performing. This episode also highlights the weight of holding others’ stories in isolation—and why healing cannot happen without connection.
Grounded in both clinical expertise and lived experience, this conversation is a reminder that being human is not a liability in this work—it’s the very thing that makes healing possible.

In this episode of The NOCE Dose, Bianca D. McCall is joined by Gabrielle Burton, LMFT, for a powerful conversation at the intersection of faith, trauma, and care work. Together, they explore what happens inside helping spaces—especially faith communities—when image becomes more important than authenticity.
From “mean girls in ministry” to cover-up culture and spiritual bypassing, Gabrielle names the realities many experience but few openly discuss. Leaders are often expected to carry grief, addiction, and crisis for others while managing their own struggles in silence—creating environments where vulnerability feels unsafe and healing is delayed.
This episode dives into the difference between belonging vs. fitting in, the impact of unresolved personal wounds on leadership, and why faith spaces must move beyond “pray it away” responses toward trauma-informed, relational care. It also highlights the need for collaboration between mental health professionals and faith leaders to truly support both communities and the people serving within them.
Grounded in both clinical insight and lived experience, this conversation challenges listeners to confront what’s hidden, rethink leadership, and create spaces where people can show up fully—without having to perform, conform, or hide. Because healing doesn’t happen in environments built on performance—it happens where people feel safe enough to be seen.

Jewels Crable completed her Bachelors of Social Work and a minor in Addiction Treatment at University of Nevada, Reno where she excelled and received special honor from the faculty of her program. During her senior year internship at NAMI Western Nevada, she felt at home with the Peer Work perspective and the ability to pull from her own lived experiences to help others. Having been personally impacted by mental health struggles, substance use disorder, suicidality, and domestic violence, Jewels felt instantly connected to this work.
Since joining NAMI Western Nevada, Jewels has been grateful to continue receiving trainings to elevate her skills and she recently added Community Health Worker to her titles. Beyond working the NAMI Warmline, Jewels also works outreach where she joins community events in her rural county and others to offer resources and connection. She also recently began working with students from 3rd to 12th grade in Churchill County to help support their mental health needs.
In the future, Jewels hopes to find the opportunity to earn her Master’s degree in Social Work and to continue to find innovative ways to serve her community and those who are working to improve their mental, emotional, physical, and social wellness.

This Listening Session addresses the emotional, cognitive, and professional impact of opioid-related crises on those working in prevention, treatment, and recovery, including clinicians, peers, first responders, and systems leaders. Drawing from suicide postvention frameworks and lived experience, the session explores the invisible injuries of care work, such as compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, and moral distress. Attendees will hear from colleagues who have navigated the grief and ethical ambiguity that follow overdose loss or suicide, while also gaining insight into sustainable work-life integration practices and emotional recovery strategies.

Season three of The NOCE Dose, hosted by Bianca D. McCall, centers the people doing the work—and the often invisible costs of caring. This season amplifies the voices of clinicians, peer support specialists, first responders, crisis teams, and community providers across Nevada who show up every day in response to the opioid crisis. Through powerful testimonies and expert insight, we explore how identity, access, and systemic expectations shape who receives support—and who suffers in silence. Each episode offers practical strategies to sustain the workforce, highlighting supervision, peer connection, physical health, and realistic approaches to self-care. Because supporting those on the frontlines isn’t optional—it’s essential.

In this episode of The NOCE Dose, we are joined by Amy Thatcher, a speech-language pathologist and neonatal feeding specialist with over fifteen years of experience supporting medically fragile and opioid-exposed infants. Together, we explore what truly family-centered care looks like in the NICU—from dismantling stigma and clinical bias to building trust with birthing parents and extended families. Amy shares why “meeting people where they are” is not enough if judgment remains in the room, and how small, intentional practices—calling babies by name, modeling caregiving, and inviting families into the healing process—can radically improve outcomes for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).

The conversation also dives into the long-term developmental implications of early opioid exposure, including feeding, oral-motor development, communication milestones, and theory of mind. We discuss the impact of the Eat, Sleep, Console model, the importance of early intervention services, and how awe, transparency, and compassionate education can quiet shame and empower caregivers. This episode is a powerful reminder that healing begins not only with clinical tools, but with humanity, trust, and the courage to break silence—one baby, one family, and one conversation at a time.