CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY, DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, -

HEALTH, SOBRIETY, RESILIENCE, GRATITUDE, ACCEPTANCE

LOVE OR FEAR

Like many people in the Helping Professions I became involved with finding a solution when I was stuck in my own Swamp and had no idea how to get out. As I made the decision to accept that I had a drug and drinking problem finding help that would work for me was the next challenge.

Over years, initially as an active participant in my own recovery, and later practicing my trade as a counselor, I've found healing for  myself as well as others. My first discovery was that getting straight was actually the easy part, Staying straight and sober has been the ongoing process of discovery, learning from mistakes, and not surrendering to old behaviors and thinking. I've found many resources that have helped the process of recovery to a varying degree. Inpatient, Intensive Outpatient, traditional outpatient, individual, group, couple and family counseling, AA/NA/ALANON have all proven effective. As new tools have been found, they are added to aid in the process of healing.  Old tools were discarded when they were found to be less than effective.  There is a story of a person lost in the swamp. A stranger walked by and ignored him. A minister came by and prayed for him (or her), and finally someone else came by and jumped into the swamp. The first person said, “What are you doing? Now we’re both in the swamp!” The second person said, “But I know how to get out”. There is a simple truth in that story when it comes to healing life’s traumas.

At this point in my ongoing journey I've put all I've learned into a template for change called  "Going from the Swamp to the Meadow: Left/Right Brain Fusion". The model is of two parts - identifying the Swamp, the  drama and problems in our lives that have made us sick and tired, and the Meadow -The place where we would like spend more of our time.

Discovering what stops us from just leaving the swamp and going to the meadow is the process of healing.