Rapid Growth for Sanford House at John Street
As our newest project continues, we are committed to keeping you in the loop. Have you heard? Sanford House Addiction Treatment Centers is restoring another one of Grand Rapids’ iconic mansions. This time it will serve as a men’s treatment facility. We will open in June 2017. Rapid Growth And in case you didn’t see […]
Why Is Group Therapy an Important Part of Addiction Treatment?
Why is group therapy so prevalent in the treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs)? As demonstrated by self-help groups, and particularly as stated in 12 Step groups, members “share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problems and help others to recover.” Groups allow those in treatment opportunity to […]
Every Therapy Dog Has His Day – Addiction Treatment
Therapy Dog … I’m not exactly a dog person. In fact Santino, the Sanford therapy dog, and I have an unwritten “hands off” policy. In other words, I don’t pat his belly or give him full body hugs. He doesn’t lick my face. We usually just ignore each other companionably. But last week, Santino […]
A Recipe for Anxiety (Hint – It Includes Dark Chocolate…)
Many of us in recovery suffer with anxiety. It comes as part of the package of feelings we experience. It also waxes and wanes as we experience different moments and milestones in our recovery. Today, I am in the waxing phase. I’ll share with you how I am coping and my top tips to […]
Fighting Fit – A Recipe for a Healthy Winter…
Winter is on its way. The temperature has dropped; it is getting darker earlier and there is less sunshine. I’m not sure about you, but when I feel winter looming I want to hibernate. A place that is all too familiar. As a person in recovery, I have a propensity to withdraw. I want […]
Radical Self Care – When Life is Taking a Toll on Your Body…
This week I have flown over 20,000 miles to attend my brother’s funeral. It has been heart breaking and I feel like a shell of my former self. I’ll never be the same again. I learned the true nature of my powerlessness and what I am able to control. The buck stops with me, […]
My First AA Meeting… Scared to Death
The sounds of laughter trickled down the hall and up the stairs, carried on the currents of coffee and lingering stale cigarette smoke. I stood at the top railing, peering down. There was no one was in sight, but I could hear them. I looked back behind me, through the double doors of the […]
Fear Not the Pink Cloud, My Sober Friends
You can see it up there, can’t you? Right beside the sun, next to the unicorn. It’s hard to miss—a fluffy mass resplendent in its coral color. It has a built-in espresso maker and from its center, rainbows shoot high in the sky and stain the horizon with joy and high-fives. If you’ve […]
Girl Restarted – What It’s Like to be Out of Rehab and Back to College
Apartness is such a common thread in the stories of alcoholics and addicts. It seems to plague us; the feeling of being an utter misfit, of not belonging and having to pump ourselves full of booze just to feel a part of things. I don’t ever remember feeling comfortable anywhere. I was squirmy and […]
Getting Self-Esteem (I’m Not Much, But I’m All I Think About)
Mirrors I used to love looking in mirrors. As a child, I’d frown, make funny faces and would see just how far I could cross my eyes. I inspected myself—the gap in my two front chompers, the length of my hair, the way my eyebrows almost met. As I grew up, I found […]