Michael Marcum is a licensed professional counselor at the VA, and a former Army sniper. By his own admission he changed "countries, continents, and careers" to try and escape the reality of his substance misuse which plagued him for decades. After multiple stints in rehab and other pathways to recovery, he found SMART and it transformed his life. …

The Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness (USARA) is a statewide nonprofit agency that focuses on connection between people in recovery and the wider world. By sharing their lived experience, USARA staff educates, advocates, and inspires individuals and communities to live more hopeful lives. In this podcast, USARA's Executive Director Mary…

The Minnesota Recovery Options Act has recently been introduced as a means to require courts to provide a secular alternative for individuals ordered to participate in substance use treatment and as a way to provide information and resources to counselors about secular recovery. Alison Gill is Vice President, Legal and Policy, for American Atheists…

Compassion fatigue is real. It refers to circumstances where caregivers, professional or volunteer, become mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted and start to wear down. It can produce a downward spiral and lead to individual caregivers leaving the work that still means so much to them. Fortunately, there are organizations who are trying t…

Including lived experience in a recovery ecosystem often adds an effective dimension of support for those trying to make changes in their lives. The field of peer recovery coaching has been growing nationwide and many states now offer certification programs. In Utah, the Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness (USARA) employs a network of pee…

Billy Hoffman works with compulsive gamblers as a certfied counselor. His lived experience and clinical skills combine to provide hope for those who have reached a critical point in their negative spiral of financial and emotional consequences. In this podcast Billy points out that despite compulsive gambling being recognized as problem for decades…

SMART Recovery is based on cognitive tools rooted in addressing how we think and react to life circumstances. For therapist Bruce Burleson, combining the cognitive aspects of behavior management with staying present in the moment is a recipe for successful treatment of addictions and compulsive behaviors. He calls his approach Mindfulness-Based Rat…

Jan Folk was a high powered businesswoman for years, battling sexism in the male-dominated insurance industry. At the same time she was struggling with alcohol-use disorder and kept ending up in crisis. After a couple of attempts to stop drinking she finally realized that the only way she was going to change her behavior was if she looked deep insi…

Keith Johnston is the Founder and Executive Director of Running2bwell, a nonprofit organization that helps those struggling with mental health and/or addiction issues become more physically and socially active. He decided to start the effort after a friend lost his son to heroin addiction and he wanted to try and contribute something positive to so…

Jonathan Hunt-Glassman struggled with drinking too much for years, and tried many ways of changing his relationship to alcohol. But it wasn't until a doctor suggested he try medication that things got better. Based on his experience, he decided to start a company, Oar Health, which offers a way for individuals to investigate whether medication migh…

Courtney Anderson insists on having plenty of fun in life. After she quit drinking, she wasn't quite sure what that really meant or how to make it happen. Now 11 years later, Courtney not only continues to have fun in life, she coaches others about how to make the most of their new sober lives. Courtney's website, https://www.courtneyrecovered.com/…

September is National Recovery Month and we welcome Keegan Wicks to the podcast. Keegan is the National Advocacy and Outreach Manager for Faces & Voices of Recovery (FAVOR) a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington D.C. Keegan has worked in the recovery field for 10 years as an advocate and counselor, and has been in long-term r…

Besides being SRUSA's Executive Director, Pete Rubinas is a SMART Family & Friends meeting facilitator. He says he reaps many benefits by joining with others to share experiences and work on developing positive responses to challenging circumstances. SMART Family and Friends meetings are available both in-person and online, and provide participants…

Dr. Steven Proctor is the founder and principal consultant of PRO Health Group and a Senior Program Director for Thriving Mind South Florida. He is also a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who has studied and written about Contingency Management programs, most notably in his Annals of Medicine article, Rewarding recovery: the time is now for contingen…

Tammah Watts is a licensed therapist, certified outdoor guide, and SMART Recovery facilitator in San Diego. Her active lifestyle came to a screeching halt after an unexpected health condition left her homebound. Discouraged and in despair, one day she was surprised by a moving encounter with a small bird. Now she's written a wonderful book that sha…

Dr. Allison Beck is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Clinical Psychologist based in the School of Psychology, University of Wollongong in Australia. Her recent work includes research on the effects of online SMART Recovery meetings during the pandemic in Australia. It turns out that many individuals got great benefits from participating, and the …

Carolyn Straub moderates a thriving online community for those interested in SMART on the social media platform Reddit. She enjoys helping others engage around how much SMART's tools and resources help those seeking recovery from addiction. In this podcast, Carolyn also shares her personal journey of recovery, which she wrote about in the Journal o…

The Greater Cleveland Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI GC) has spent years providing education and advocacy on behalf of individuals and families affected by mental health conditions. Increasingly, substance use disorders co-occur in many persons, making treatment more complex. In this podcast NAMI GC Executive Director Kati…

Killian Noe and Dr. Ruby Takushi co-founded the first Recovery Cafe in Seattle in 2004, envisioning a healing space for people who have experienced trauma like homelessness, substance use disorder, addiction and other mental health challenges. Today there are more than 60 cafes that work together as part of the Recovery Cafe Network across the U.S.…

Michael Werner is a chemist by background and a philosopher by disposition. He was also the President of the American Humanist Association at the time they were looking for a secular recovery alternative to highlight, and that was how he eventually learned about and fell in love with SMART. Michael has facilitated thousands of SMART meetings and be…

Dave Howard is a SMART Facilitator in Poway California. He spent years going to 12-Step recovery meetings before finding SMART. Now he is convinced that what SMART offers can help anyone seeking recovery no matter what perspective they bring to the table. In this podcast Dave talks about his almost 20 years of drug and alcohol misuse, reaching a cr…

Nonie Sims has facilitated SMART meetings for 14 years in Tucson Arizona. Nonie knew that SMART Recovery was the right fit for her in the first 10 minutes of her first meeting. Now she spends her time making sure others get a chance to see if it's the right recovery pathway for them too.

Jay Phillips is the Executive Director and Board President of Seed Sower, Inc., a provider of housing and other support services for women recovering from substance use disorders in West Virginia. In this podcast Jay talks about his awakening to the great need for recovery services, the decision to leave a comfortable job and commit to a new path i…

Newly minted SMART Recovery facilitator Tracy Gryp and her mentor Rick Kuplinski share their personal SMART journey and how they created better lives for themselves through the program. In the spirit of paying it forward, they now work together to bring the best support group meetings possible to their meeting participants.…

Mary Beth O'Connor went from running from the law as a methamphetamine abuser to handing down the law as a judge. Now twenty nine years in recovery, Mary Beth chronicles her incredible story in her new memoir, From Junkie to Judge: One Woman's Triumph Over Trauma and Addiction. In this episode, Mary Beth talks about her perspective on multiple path…