Category Archives: Addiction Recovery Posts

posts about addiction and the recovery process

FOUNDATIONAL THINKERS IN THE RECOVERY COACHING COMMUNITY

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Michael

Phillip Valentine

In the past few weeks, I have been presenting brief biographies of people that have been instrumental in developing the recovery coaching industry. As a field, recovery coaching had an odd path of growth. In the 80’s no MBA’s or PhD’s set forth to devise this new industry of recovery coaching. But a few people saw this as a bona fide profession. Yes, some of these Foundational Thinkers were drunks, dope fiends and ex-cons, like Bob Timmins. Others were dedicated professionals in the field of addiction recovery that saw there was a gaping hole between a client leaving treatment and achieving long term recovery that needed to be addressed. How does a person leaving a treatment center find, embrace and develop their recovery? The answer was for the client to find a 12-step meeting, find a sponsor, and pray to a higher power.

Picture this, open the door of a treatment center, and send the client back into the environment that placed them into treatment in the first place, with these instructions “don’t drink (or pick-up, act out, or drug etc), find a meeting and get a sponsor” and with no other guidance except a list of 12-step meetings. Those in recovery know how hard that path is. For those who choose not to believe in a higher power or that could not find a sponsor or whose addiction did not fit into the typical AA or NA meetings, what should they do? Well, most likely, 80% of these people relapsed.

William White’s model of a volunteer peer recovery coach began to fill that hole between treatment and long term sobriety. Treatment centers are now calling this model an aftercare program, and hiring recovery coaches to help their client through this transition period. The outcome is that both of these models work and both use a recovery coach to assist the client on the path of recovery. There is, as you will read below, a discussion as to the efficacy of a coach that gives their time for free and a coach that is compensated. Is one right and the other wrong? Is the other type of coach is not trained well enough? Is one more legally liable than the other? In the next few posts, not only will I introduce these leaders of the recovery coaching field, but I will also feature their thoughts on this topic.

One individual, Phillip Valentine, chose the William White recovery model and began one community recovery support center in Hartford and has grown the Connecticut Community of Addiction Recovery into a nationally recognized leader in developing recovery support centers and recovery coaching training.

Phillip Valentine is the Executive Director for the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR). He has been an integral component in this recovery community organization since January 1999. He is recognized as a strong leader in the recovery community and in recovery himself. Valentine is on the Board of Directors of Faces and Voices of Recovery in Washington DC; the nationally-recognized voice of the organized recovery community. In 2006 the Johnson Institute recognized his efforts with an America Honors Recovery award. In 2008, Faces and Voices of Recovery recognized CCAR with the first Joel Hernandez Voice of the Recovery Community Award as the outstanding recovery community organization in the country. In 2009, the Hartford Business Journal named him the Non-profit Executive of the Year. Currently, he is spearheading CCAR’s effort to build a statewide network of Recovery Community Centers that feature innovative peer recovery support services like Recovery Coaches, Telephone Recovery Support, All-Recovery Groups and Recovery Works! –which is an employment services component to the recovery community centers.

In an interview with William White, as part of Perspectives on Systems Transformation: How Visionary Leaders are Shifting Addiction Treatment Toward a Recovery-Oriented System of Care, published by the Great Lakes Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC), Valentine describes what he sees as the difference between peer-based recovery support services, treatment services and recovery coaches that are compensated:

White: How would you distinguish between peer-based recovery support services and treatment services?

Valentine: I see treatment as more sterile, professional, hospital-like, staff-focused. Treatment can be real effective in initiating recovery, where recovery support services are more focused on maintaining and enriching recovery. Recovery support services aren’t bureaucratically bound—at least not yet—by mountains of rules, regulations, and paper. Recovery support services are more free and unencumbered to sustain a focus on whatever it takes to support recovery. We’re trying to escape the coldness you feel when you walk into a place that seems only concerned with forms and money—the feeling that you’re just one more person in the assembly line, one more of the addicts or alcoholics coming through the system. It’s hard to be seen as a person in such coldness. Recovery support services are the warmth that can heat you back up. They’re the antidote to people being paid to be your friend. Frontline counselors are often warm and wonderful people, but they are constrained by the burdens placed upon them.

White: Are your recovery support services being provided by people in volunteer and paid roles?

Valentine: The vast majority of our recovery support services are provided by volunteers, and that’s the way we hope to keep it. That being said, if a director of a center is a very strong, powerful personality and very visible, people will be drawn to that person for recovery coaching. What we try to do is to get such people to train others so that we can expand the pool of recovery support resources.

White: Do you see a danger in the trend toward paid recovery coaches? Might we drift toward that same clinical coldness you described earlier?

Valentine: It’s always about the heart. There’s a real spiritual component. Some recovery coaches can get paid and handle it well and others cannot. Getting paid in this role elevates the level of authority and responsibility. I worry about the ego. I worry about coaches aspiring to that kind of life-and-death influence over others. That kind of authority can mess with a person’s recovery and humility. The longer I’m in recovery, the less I know. When you’re a paid recovery coach for a while, you think you’re starting to know all the answers, and that’s just not true. There’s always gonna be clients who are gonna teach you more than you teach them, and I hope we stay open to the lessons of such people. There are new ways to deal with things. The volunteer piece works in part because you have a whole network of other volunteers that you bounce things off of. With volunteers, the individual is served by a community of people—the volunteers being the welcome wagon of that community. What a difference it makes on the soccer fields! I’ve had six years’ experience as a travel soccer coach. I wouldn’t dream of getting paid. I love it, and I do it because the kids are so much fun. The sport’s great. I have something to contribute. Why do we think that a recovery coach should be any different than that? (White, 2006) http://vtrecoverynetwork.org/data/Recovery_Symposium/GLATTCInterviewValentine.pdf

FOUNDATIONAL THINKERS IN THE RECOVERY COACHING COMMUNITY: Bob Timmins

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Michael

Bob Timmins, an addiction specialist who is credited with salvaging the lives of a long list of celebrity drug users by steering them onto the path of sobriety and helping them stay there, died of respiratory failure in 2008 at his home in Marina del Rey after battling years of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 61.[i] Though little known by the public at large, Timmins was a titan in the world of recovery coaching.

Some of his clients — members of the bands Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mötley Crüe and Aerosmith — have spoken publicly about Timmins’ role in helping them battle drug abuse. But most celebrities preferred anonymity, a request Timmins took pride in honoring. “Bob has helped everyone from the owners of sports franchises to heads of movie studios to Grammy-winning, internationally known music idols . . . as well as the most down and out homeless person who comes to him for help,” said Michael Nasatir, a friend, and a criminal defense attorney in Santa Monica, who worked with Timmins early in his career.

What Timmins knew about drug abuse, recovery and redemption was learned from experience.

Robert Wayne Timmins was born in Los Angeles on Sept. 27, 1946, the son of a police officer. His mother suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and when Bob was 9 years old, she attempted to murder him. Timmins was placed in foster care, by ninth grade he lived on the streets, was a heroin junky, and as a convicted felon, he spent time in San Quentin. It was in San Quentin that Timmins met Danny Trajo, they were cell mates and gang members in a white supremacy gang there. These two were familiar with all forms of prison violence. Yet, it was Trajo that introduced Bob to the 12 step rooms. When Trajo left San Quentin, he told Timmins to look him up after his release. Four years later, expecting to start-up exactly where he had left off before entering San Quentin, Timmins showed up at Trajo’s doorstep. Danny Trajo took him to his house, and offered him a spare bedroom to stay in. When Timmins said “Come on, let’s do some things…” in response, Trajo took him to a 12-step meeting. Trajo introduced him to Eddie, his first sponsor, and the rest, let’s say is history. Bob Timmins credits Trajo and Eddie, with turning his life around. Eddie was Timmins’ sponsor until Eddie died with 47 years of sobriety. Timmins said “If I didn’t get a sponsor and jump into recovery, I wasn’t going to stay long enough to get anything.” [ii]

In the years that followed, Timmins helped found and was involved with several organizations, including the CLARE Foundation, Cinco Swim Sober Living Home, recovery centers, Impact House and Cri-HELP in Los Angeles as well as the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. Early in his career he began working with troubled youths, including a young Jeff McFarland.

“I met him when he worked at a rehab hospital I was in,” said McFarland, who is now an attorney. “I was a 19-year-old drug addict and criminal, and he helped me turn things around. He had instant credibility. When you spoke to him, you knew that he had lived the life that you live. And he understood.” Today, McFarland is the chair of The Timmins Foundation.[iii] The Timmins Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in memory of Bob Timmins, whose work changed Jeff McFarland’s and countless other young people’s lives. The Timmins Foundation supports a “Bob Timmins Bed” that provides beds for 365 days of impatient treatment or residence at a sober living environment for a year to clients that are unable to afford the entire cost on their own,. The Timmins Foundation seeks to provide financial support for the early intervention and treatment of substance abuse -which Bob knew could prove to be the difference between a life well-lived and a life wasted- by going into the community, seeking out young adults in need of treatment and building a sense of purpose for young adults in post-treatment recovery.[iv]

In courts across the nation, Timmins was an expert witness and a consultant in the development of treatment plans for addiction-related offenders. He assessed drug addicts before they went to trial, he advised them and suggested to the judge to place them into treatment instead of incarceration. Judges and lawyers paid Timmins for his expertise in selecting a proper program for a defendant, “but the amount we paid him was a joke compared to what he did,” said Bernard Kamins, who served as a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge from 1985 to 2007 and worked with Timmins in the California Drug Court system. “Here’s this guy who for $150 would get somebody straightened out. . . . He knew the right places to put people, and he gave them two things: hope and motivation. As a judge I couldn’t do that,” Kamins said. Timmins steered clients to 12-step meetings and helped them find sponsors. But Timmins did more, drawing from the people he knew and had helped in the past, he could put an addict in contact with a youth homeless shelter, admit them into a treatment center at no cost, introduce them to the president of a recording studio or aid in their admission into USC. Timmins was that type of guy.

In the entertainment industry, Timmins influenced the way recording labels treat artists by requesting amenities such as “safe harbor rooms”: hospitality suites that are clean of drugs and alcohol. In the entertainment industry, drugs and alcohol were given freely to the artists to stimulate their creativity and as perks for their performance. As a recovering entertainer this was a very dangerous environment to be in, Bob changed this dynamic in the industry. After the 1995 death of Shannon Hoon of the group Blind Melon from a drug overdose, Michael Greene, president and CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced the first industry wide symposium on the subject of drugs in rock and asked Bob Timmins to help. Beside “safe harbor rooms” and contractual guidelines that advocate sobriety, the symposium and Grammy.org helped Timmins and Howard Owens start the MusiCares Foundation, and MAP, the Musician’s Assistance Program, which provide assistance to musicians, including those suffering from addiction. MusiCares provides a safety net of critical assistance; services and resources that will cover a wide range of financial, medical and personal emergencies for music people in times of need. MusiCares celebrates 20 years in 2013.

Working with celebrities did not leave Timmins star-struck, in a 1991 article in GQ magazine; he said

“I see them as human beings first. I see them in their pain and try to help them through a suicide attempt or whatever’s going on,”[v] Bob Timmins was one of the most influential foundational thinkers in recovery coaching, developing the concepts of sober companionship, recovery coaching and legal services coaching. Through the years he tirelessly helped rock star, millionaire or skid row addict with the same compassion and conviction, whether he was compensated handsomely or graced with a humble handshake and a thank you. Bob was a milestone in the recovery coaching movement.

Hear Bob Timmin’s AA Story, this is a must hear:

http://timminsfoundation.org/Speech2005b.html

This is the second part of the third chapter of “Guide to Coaching People in Recovery from Addiction” a book written by Melissa Killeen and available as an eBook in January 2013 on Amazon.com

Part Three of Chapter Three: “Foundational Thinkers…” will be posted next week.

References:

[i] Addiction specialist worked with celebrities OBITUARIES / Bob Timmins, 1946 – 2008 March 08, 2008| Jocelyn Y. Stewart | LA Times Staff Writer- jocelyn.stewart@latimes.com

[ii] Christopher Kennedy Lawford “Moments of Clarity: Voices from the Front Lines of Addiction”, Harper Collins NY

[iii] Addiction specialist worked with celebrities OBITUARIES / Bob Timmins, 1946 – 2008 March 08, 2008| Jocelyn Y. Stewart | LA Times Staff Writer- jocelyn.stewart@latimes.com

[iv] The Timmins Foundation, 865 S. Figueroa St., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90017. http://timminsfoundation.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/the-timmins-foundation/

[v] Addiction specialist worked with celebrities OBITUARIES / Bob Timmins, 1946 – 2008 March 08, 2008| Jocelyn Y. Stewart | LA Times Staff Writer- jocelyn.stewart@latimes.com

Posted in Addiction Recovery Posts | Tagged Bob Timmins, Jeff McFarland, MusiCares Foundation, Musicians Assistance Program, Safe Harbor Room, The Timmins Foundation | Comments Off

FOUNDATIONAL THINKERS IN THE RECOVERY COACHING COMMUNITY

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Michael

William L. White is a Senior Research Consultant at Chestnut Health Systems / Lighthouse Institute, a past-chair of the board of Recovery Communities United and has served as a volunteer consultant to Faces and Voices of Recovery since its inception in 2001. White has authored or co-authored more than 400 articles, monographs, research reports and book chapters as well as 16 books.

William White tells this story of what motivated him to dedicate his life to addiction recovery:

I helped get a man released from the drunk tank of a local city jail, connected him to a local AA group and offered daily support to him and his family. He did amazingly well for a few months considering the severity and duration of his alcoholism. It was the week of Christmas when, depressed over the gifts he was unable to provide for his wife and children, he sought the balm of an offered bottle. He was jailed later that day for public intoxication and hung himself during the night in the same cell in which I had first met him. Such suicides were common in those years. When I stood before his body and met later that day with his family, I was overwhelmed by my own ineptness and the meager resources I had been able to muster in my offer of assistance. There were no addiction-trained physicians, no detox units, no treatment programs, no trained addiction counselors. I was enraged that this man had to die in despair in such a despicable place. I think my commitment to spend my life working in this field began that day.

William White was born in 1947 to an Army family, his father a construction worker and his mother a nurse. His family grew quite large with more than 20 adopted, foster, related and siblings living in a small rural home inIllinois. White received a scholarship toEurekaCollegeand showed an interest in psychology, sociology and history. His first job was with the Illinois Department of Mental Health in 1967, where his responsibilities included touring the wards of the mental health institution and screen the alcoholics and addicts for community placement.

The late 1960’s brought the decentralization of many mental health hospitals. White was exposed to the depraved conditions, the over-crowded wards, the stench of urine, the bizarre and near lethal medical procedures such as lobotomies, shock therapy and forced sterilizations. In the seventies, White became an outreach worker, gathering addicts and alcoholics from jail or hospitals and connecting them with services like Salvation Army shelters, SRO’s and AA meetings. In 1970, landmark funding from the Federal Government channeled dollars to local communities to develop addiction treatment programs to augment the paltry rehabilitation assistance. White worked at Chestnut Health Systems one of the first addiction treatment centers in Illinois, and within months he became the clinical director of the facility.

In 1975, William White began pursuing a master’s degree in Addiction Studies at Goddard College. Upon graduating he worked with the Illinois Dangerous Drug Commission, and then became deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Regional Training Center in Chicago and later transferred to Washington DC. In 1986, White later returned to the Chestnut Health System and co-founded the Lighthouse Institute, a research center focused on developing and disseminating information about addiction treatment. In 1998, , he published his most recognized book; Slaying the Dragon, a seminal history of addiction treatment and recovery in the US.

William White’s contribution to Recovery Coaching research has been monumental, essentially changing the concept of the process of recovery by researching what has worked with hundreds of individuals with sustained, long term recovery.

In 2002, William White wrote in partnership with the Fayette Companies of Peoria, IL Chestnut Health Systems of Bloomington, IL, and the BHRM project (which was funded by the Illinois Department of Human Services, Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse) wrote “An Addiction Recovery Glossary: The Languages of American Communities of Recovery” This text included definitions of a new concept called the Recovery Advocacy Movement and reinforced Bill Wilson’s statement: “There are many paths to recovery”. This glossary introduced many emerging terms to addictions treatment field like Family Recovery, Recovery Capital, Recovery Coach and Wellbriety that were not then widely known in the field and have since become capstones of the recovery coaching field.

In 2003, White and, Ernest Kurtz, PhD. wrote “Linking Addiction Treatment and Communities of Recovery: A Primer for Addiction Counselors and Recovery Coaches”. This article revolutionized the concept of post treatment or after care, introducing ways to achieve recovery for individuals emerging from a treatment center.

In 2006, White, Michael G. Boyle, David L. Loveland, and Patrick Corrington, turned the addiction treatment field on its ear by publishing “What is Behavioral Health Recovery Management? A Brief Primer” followed by White, Kurtz, & Mark Sanders’ text called “Recovery Management”. Both are time-sustained, recovery focused, documented collaborations between service consumers, the traditional addiction service provider and the non-traditional service providers united in working toward the goal of stabilizing and actively managing the ebb and flow of addiction recovery until full remission and recovery has been achieved, or until they can be effectively self-managed by the individual and his or her family.

Simultaneously, the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Mental Retardation Services, commissioned White to write “Sponsor, Recovery Coach, Addiction Counselor: The Importance of Role Clarity and Role Integrity”. White in this document defined a sponsor, a recovery coach and an addiction counselor, clarifying their roles and how the roles can work together.

How can you define a new role in an industry without defining the role’s ethical responsibility? In 2007, William White and a team from a Philadelphia based Community Recovery Center; called PRO-ACT developed the “Ethical Guidelines for Peer Based Recovery Support Services”.

Between 2010 and 2012, White and his collaborators have focused on developing recovery-oriented approaches to medication-assisted treatment, including integrating recovery coaching and other recovery support services into methadone treatment programs in the U.S.

In short, no one person has done more for the Addiction Recovery community than William White. White’s sustained contributions to the field have been acknowledged by awards from the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, NAADAC: The Association of Addiction Professionals, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and the Native American Wellbriety Movement.

His pursuit of defining recovery coaching as a volunteer position is quite clear in all of these articles. I applaud this decision and the reasons for it, as it serves a need, in fact fills a gap in addiction treatment that was sorely missing. But today, Recovery Coaching is moving into a new realm, maybe one might see recovery coaching as growing-up, going to college, getting married and having children.

Recovery Coaching is gaining acceptance, the field is developing benchmarking standards, coaching certification, payment for services, and perhaps in the future, re-imbursement for coaching services by from health care enterprises. Professional associations and conferences have sprung up to aid peer specialists and recovery coaches in developing their skills. Without William White, the acceptance of recovery coaching would never have come about. William White continues to hold true to his adage of being a researcher, and in a recent conversation with him, he warned me that these new developments in recovery coaching and in addictions treatment need more research to substantiate the outcomes, I wholeheartedly agree.

William White changed addiction recovery into what we recognize today as the Recovery Model that many in addictions treatment are following. He continues to dedicate himself to research, advocacy and writing on addiction treatment, although his wife, children and photographing sunsets in Southwest Florida, enjoy his equal dedication, today.

William White’s web site is: http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/bio/

To view a video on a presentation William White and his opening workshop at the ROSC – Recovery Oriented Systems of Care Symposium – 2009 Atlanta, Georgia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfx58zYTZJ8&feature=relmfu

This is the first part of the third chapter of “Guide to Coaching People in Recovery from Addiction” a book written by Melissa Killeen and available as an eBook in January 2013 on Amazon.com

Part Two of Chapter Three: “Foundational Thinkers…” will be posted next week.

References: Johnson Institute, 2006, Great Lakes Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network, 2006, Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Mental Retardation Services, 2006, The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania, Inc – Pro-Act, 2007, Blackwell Synergy, 2007, Faces and Voices of Recovery.org, thewhitepapers.com, 2011

Posted in Addiction Recovery Posts | Tagged ATTC, Ernest Kurtz, Faces and Voices of Recovery, Great Lakes Addiction Technology Transfer Center, Patrick Corrington, Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Mental Retardation Services, Pro-Act, Slaying the Dragon, The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania, thewhitepapers.com | Comments Off