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,

On October 19, Frank Bartolomeo, PhD was the guest speaker at our Monthly Pathway Session at St. Mark’s Church. We had over 25 attendees, including both parents and local recovery coaches. During the session, Frank used role playing to give insights into how a loved one can move from a particular stage in the Stages of Change Model, to another.

Our June 8 Pathway Session with Brenda Zane was a great success, as attendees learned that talking to your loved one about relapse actually reduces the chances of it happening. Brenda, a parent coach and host of the popular Hopestream podcast, knows from experience that relapse happens. She discussed the 5+ year journey she had with her son, who relapsed

Our May 18 Monthly Pathway Session on DBT Skills was well-attended and highly informative. Silver Hill’s Ryan Wade, MD, an addiction psychiatrist who leads the treatment program for Co-occurring Disorders, started off by covering the key concepts behind DBT, or Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. Then we heard from a woman in long-term recovery who courageously told her story of hope, which

In our April 5th Pathway Session on Self-compassion, Karen Walant, Phd, LCSW shared her insights and tips on how we can generate compassion for ourselves. Karen is a fan of both Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Tara Brach, who have done significant research in how we can reach our full potential when we show kindness to ourselves. As Karen pointed