I am an affected family member. This means that I have been exposed & impaired by family members (and friends) that have had a substance use disorder. After a lifetime of failed relationships and toxic behaviors that I had acquired, I finally got help. I have now been in therapy for about eight years. Sometimes we don't realize how things can negatively affect us, until we learn how to emotionally detox from those dysfunctional patterns and create healthy new ones. This does not happen overnight- I had to be very patient with the process. I had to be open and willing to learn, listen, and to try something different. You don't realize how toxic things are until you start to breathe fresh air.  

I went from being a Wanna-Be "fixer" to learning how to support other people while they fix themselves (like I did.) I have been studying addictions (formally) since 2013. I have worked in many areas of chemical dependency and found my true passion to be in prevention & recovery. Both are very important pieces of this crisis we call addiction. My goal is to work with communities by offering prevention programs for teens ages 12-17, coaching for individuals in recovery, and support to family members who are affected by substance use disorder. I would like to believe that if we work from both ends of the spectrum, we might be able to meet somewhere in the middle and end addiction.