Our October 18 Pathway Session on Addiction Studies with Shane Murphy, PhD, was a big success. Shane, who founded and heads the graduate-level program in Addiction Studies at WestConn State University, gave us some background about the program and why it is needed. The program serves different individual needs including: 1) credit hours (37) to pursue a career as an

Our June 14 Pathway Session with Kate Appleman, LPC, Caron, was a big success. Some of the highlights included: 1) Kate reviewed the latest studies on cannabis use, including ones that associate occasional THC use with increased risk of psychiatric disorders; 2) Clinical factors that promote recovery including motivational interviewing and contingency management; 3) Effective boundary-setting and how it can

On Wednesday, May 17, we hosted a Pathway Session on Interventions with Paul Gallant, CIP. Paul is a well-known interventionist in the Northeast, as he lives in Monroe, CT and has been doing intervention work for over 35 years. Paul describes intervention as “changing the course” based on love. It can occur whenever one or more members of the family

On April 19, we hosted our Monthly Pathway Session on setting boundaries with Amanda Craig, PhD. It was a great success, as over 50 people attended–mostly parents and recovery coaches. Given that many parents are challenged with a child living at home who is in active addiction or early recovery, this discussion was extremely useful. Amanda started off sharing how

On March 15, NCPSG hosted a monthly Pathway Session on Transitional Recovery with Timmy Brooks of Synergy Houses, based in the Philadelphia area. During the session, Timmy shared his life story from prep school lacrosse star to facing 10 drug-related felonies and jail time. While he found support from his family, including his dad who has over 29 years of

On February 15, NCPSG hosted a monthly Pathway Session on Collegiate Recovery Programs with Lisa Arnold of Fairfield University and Amy Boyd Austin of the University of Vermont. During the session, both Lisa and Arnold described how they’ve successfully led collegiate recovery programs which are the “gold standard” in their respective states. One key to these programs is they offer

On Wednesday, January 18, our support group hosted David Fiellin, MD of Yale in a virtual Pathway Session. Dr. Fiellin is the director of the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine. He’s a strong advocate for treating addiction in primary care settings and reducing the stigma of using medications to treat addiction. During his talk, David discussed the role medications can

Our December 14 Pathway Session with Dr. John F. Kelly was a great success. If anyone has the scientific and empirical evidence that peer support groups work, it’s John. To recover from addiction takes a continuing care model, and John advocates for that at every opportunity. Here is the replay on YouTube, and here is his slide deck. You can

On Wednesday, November 19 we held our monthly Pathway Session with Dr. Ned Hallowell over Zoom. In his open, empathetic style, Ned made the case for why ADHD is not so much a disorder as a series of traits that can be managed. In fact, these traits have huge benefits, especially the big three which are both strengths AND challenges:

On November 16, we hosted a Zoom Session on ADHD and addiction with Dr. Ned Hallowell. Ned is a world expert on ADHD and the author of two books Driven to Distraction and ADHD 2.0. He has changed the narrative of ADHD from one of disorder to a collection of traits that can be channeled into important positives: creativity, imagination,