1. Helping Substance abuse clients re-establish healthy relationships Jaketra Bryant,LPC,MA

3. About the speaker…….  Jaketra Bryant, Licensed Professional counselor and Relationship Expert, is in private practice and contracts services with Georgia State University athletic department and Counseling and Testing Center. She has over nine years of experience in the mental health field. She has extensive experience working with individuals who struggle to find their direction and meaning for one’s life. Prior to starting her own counseling program, she worked with the legal system at maximum security state prisons and jails counseling inmates/prisoners. After completing her undergraduate degree in Psychology/Biology Pre-medicine coupled with her Masters in Counseling she now strives to help the total person mind and body heal. Jaketra has established her own assessment tool looking at the 4 core areas that impacts a person’s ability to function healthy. Her assessment tool is currently used at local Universities in Georgia and with Pro-level athletes. She has taught several workshops on topics to end the silence of mental health and open the door to cultural issues and has received outstanding reviews.

4. Learning Objectives  Barriers- to establishing healthy relationships  Prepare therapist to assess the complications of establishing a healthy relationship while in recovery. Learning objective strategies to assist the client with identifying those barriers within their past usage that one would need to be attentive to. Boundaries- a must in relationships  Discuss the requirements “the must” of setting boundaries in order to maintain one’s sober lifestyle.  Demonstrate activities that teach boundary settings in relationships and how to intertwine barriers and boundaries. Balance- to a lasting healthy relationship  Discuss the stigma with having a relationship while in recovery  Demonstrate the importance of evaluating barriers, and setting boundaries in order to have balance between maintenance of recovery and a healthy relationship.  Discuss suggestions therapist may give clients to have a healthy relationship.

5. SAMHSA SAMHSA stated that these four major dimensions support a life of recovery:  Health—overcoming or managing one’s disease(s) or symptoms—for example, abstaining from use of alcohol, illicit drugs, and non-prescribed medications if one has an addiction problem—and, for everyone in recovery, making informed, healthy choices that support physical and emotional well-being  Home—having a stable and safe place to live  Purpose—conducting meaningful daily activities, such as a job, school volunteerism, family caretaking, or creative endeavors, and the independence, income, and resources to participate in society  Community—having relationships and social networks that provide support, friendship, love, and hope

6. Barriers……… Barriers: a circumstance or obstacle that keeps people or things apart or prevents communication or progress Why’s….  Barriers keep clients away from the same old patterns  Barriers or knowing one’s barriers help clients build insight with their own struggles  Barriers can be the clients “panic zone”  Barriers can go against the recovery  Barriers help recognize the risk of certain behaviors

7. Barriers……..Assessing the clients  Recovery oriented service system/ recovery oriented care 1. Clients participation in recovery and planning 2. Identifying and addressing barriers to recovery 3. Assist clients in knowing what to expect while in recovery The recovery oriented care practice recognizes that recovery is not necessarily about a cure but about having opportunities for choices and living a meaningful, satisfying and purposeful life, and being a valued member of the community.

8. Recovery oriented care model Assessing the client for barriers The Recovery oriented care model is a person centered approach. It has a heavy focus on getting the client involved with methods to reach goals and maintain recovery. The Recovery model strives to make plans individualized, provide education and is strength based. When I hear those key features I find great opportunity to teach clients how to sustain recovery and avoid placing themselves in compromising situations.

9. How to assess your client’s barriers with using an integrated approach and the recovery oriented care model VEAT approach 1. V verbalize those consequences associated with barriers 2. E educate the client on why recognizing barriers are actually important when it comes to this change in lifestyle. 3. A ask the client to identify their own barriers that they see may cause their recovery to be difficult 4. T teach the client how to overcome those barriers identified during their assessment.

10. Boundaries….a must to recovery Boundaries are an essential part of recovery. Boundaries: something that indicates bounds or limits Activity one: Boundary drawing, materials white paper, colored pencils or markers/crayons Procedure..1) Begin the session with defining what boundaries are: a)here are boundary/limitations used in every aspect of life, including but not limited to Relationships, work, time etc. b) There are three types of boundaries (draw out an example of each of these boundaries.

11. Overly RIGID… This person has shut herself off to the world around her/him saying “NO” to the bad things but also “NO” to the good things in life. This person feels isolated and lonely, at the expense of feeling in control. NO

12. OVERLY WEAK boundaries….. This is where the person cannot say “NO” to anyone. Instead they say “YES” so often that they begin to feel overwhelmed, out of control and unhappy about their lives. They are afraid of saying “NO” because they don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or make anyone made.

13. HEALTHY boundaries. This is where the person says “YES” to the things that make him/her feel GOOD about herself and “NO” to the things that make her feel bad about herself; regardless if it makes others happy or not No YesNo to the bad No Yes to the goodYes

14. Continued….. Ask the client what does he/she boundary look like and draw it out… Discuss the drawing and have him/her identify what each color/symbol means to them. Have the client do a second drawing. This one will be what the client would like her boundaries to look like. Discuss what will it take to get to this place and specific actions that the client can take to obtain the confidence to establish these boundaries in her life. Resource: Art therapy: Sharing directives; boundary drawings

15. Activity Activity two: Boundary setting Hand-out

16. Balance…… Barriers + Boundaries = Balance Barriers are recognized to set the boundary to maintain balance in recovery

17. A person in sobriety looks like the picture above. Once they have committed to a life without drugs and/or alcohol it now becomes a strength and determination battle. The strength to set the necessary boundaries and the determination or will power to sustain their recovery.

18. Applying the recovery oriented care model to balance Key points to maintain balance 1. Supports and empowers individuals to make their own choices about how they want to lead their lives and acknowledges choices need to be meaningful and creatively explored. 2. Ensures that there is balance between duty of care and support for individuals to take positive risks and make the most of new opportunities. 3. Involves listening to, learning from and acting upon communications from the individuals and their carers about what is important to the individual

19. Hot Topic: avoiding relationships in recovery  The first year no romance zone  Get to know thyself  Rule 101 avoid relationships with other people in recovery

20. Healthy relationships, Healthy recovery Dating a Recovering Addict: Match-Maker or Deal Breaker….A past problem with drugs or alcohol shouldn’t automatically care you away by David Sack, MD David Sack wrote an interesting point stating, Most recovering addicts aren’t strangers to therapy and, as a result, have spent a lot of time working on themselves and their relationship. They have learned critical relationship skills, including how to identify, process, and communicate their emotions and to set personal boundaries while respecting the lines drawn by others. Recovery addicts don’t expect perfection in their partners, having learned firsthand that it doesn’t exist. And they have committed-in recovery and in life-to honesty and integrity and making decisions in accordance with their values.