Recognizing and Addressing Addictions in the Time of COVID-19

Friday April 24th at 1:30pm Pacific Time

(2:30pm Mountain Time;3:30pm Central Time; 4:30pm Eastern Time)

The Connectors Group
For some people, this COVID-19 moment can be a set-up for additions, which can lead to long-term physical, financial and relationship challenges. Dr. Kristen Allott and Natasha Duarte have brought together three experts who will share different approaches to addressing addictions:

• Ambrosia Eberhardt – 12 step programs

• Andrea St. Clair - Outpatient and inpatient recovery, and alternatives to 12-step programs

• Alida Schuyler – Harm Reduction approaches

The below video is the recording of the webinar about Recognizing and Addressing Addictions in the Time of COVID.

Meet the panelists:

Ambrosia Eberhardt, Program Manager, Parents for Parents Program, Rising Strong, Spokane, WA

For the last 4 years, Ambrosia has been supporting parents entering Child Protective Services in achieving the skills and sobriety needed to regain custody of their children. She supervises and trains Parent For Parent (peer support) programs, and educates professionals about the complexity of the child protective services system. She uses her voice and experience to influence policy and law changes that impact the population she serves. Ambrosia co-founded a local advocacy group called Spokane Parent Advocacy Network, is a member and prior facilitator of the Washington State Parent Ally Committee, and is currently involved in taking this work internationally to support the creation of the International Parent Advocacy Network. Ambrosia empowers people to walk through complex situations and navigate the child welfare system successfully, using her own story to inspire hope in others. She teaches HOPE classes and champions a Protein for All program. Learn more

Andrea St. Clair, Client Care Coordinator, Counselor and Chemical Dependency Professional

Andrea began her work as a Chemical Dependency counselor in 1990 after completing the Addiction Studies Program at Seattle University. She has a BA in Holistic Psychology and Counseling from Antioch University and a MA in Mental Health Counseling from Argosy University. She draws from Person Centered and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapies to support clients in achieving wellbeing and the quality of life they desire. Her dedication to respectful holistic treatment and her quest for better ways to meet client needs led Andrea to a Positive Alternative. She facilitates groups, provides individual therapy, and is often the first person individuals speak with when they call A.P.A. for information about our program. Her ability to connect, offer compassion, and present a thorough picture of what may best suit their needs is reassuring to callers who often feel vulnerable when seeking help. This initial contact opens the door to treatment and desired change. She has been providing group and individual counseling and working as resources coordinator at A Positive Alternative since 2009. Learn more

Alida Schuyler, Recovery coach

Alida has been a professional life coach since 1997 and specializes in addiction recovery.  She works with clients who struggle with over drinking or over drugging, and supports goals of harm reduction, moderation, and abstinence. She developed one of the first trainings in professional recovery coaching, and is currently developing a nonprofit in Kentucky to provide housing, safety, and stability to women seeking recovery. Learn more

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The Connectors Group consists of a wide range of individuals who are in positions to help other people navigate their lives better: mental health therapists, executive coaches, psychiatric nurse practitioners, supervisors and project managers, lawyers, teachers, and community organizers.

Hope Centered and Trauma Informed: Remembering Hope in a Time of Fear

Dr. Kristen Allott and Natasha Duarte interview Chan Hellman, PhD, co-author of the award-winning book “HOPE Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life”. Chan introduces the language and science of Hope and shares his insights into how we can cultivate hope during these uncertain times.

This is a recording of a live webinar.

Chan M. Hellman is a professor of social work at the University of Oklahoma and Director of The Hope Research Center. He has written more than 150 scientific publications and has presented at numerous national and international conferences worldwide. Chan has also presented his work on hope with TEDx in the Spring of 2020. Chan’s research is focused on hope as a psychological strength helping children and adults overcome trauma and adversity. Chan is the co-author of the award-winning book “Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life” with his co-author Casey Gwinn, published by Morgan James.

Is this the Diet for Me? Is it for you?

Intention

There is a lot of information on the internet and from our friends and family about new diets to try. There are systems such as weight watchers, Nutrisystem, and 30/10. There are diets that tend to be based on values: vegetarian, vegan, and paleo. There are also styles of diet, like the Mediterranean Diet and DASH; and there are diets based on convenience. Then we also factor in things like culture, economics, family traditions, personal preferences, personal health history, time in life, gender, exercise pattern and age. How do we know what is “right” for us?

So from the start, we can say that every diet is personal to the individual. What works for us when we’re 20 years old may not work for us when we have kids, a different job, or a change in where we live. “Diet” is not a box we stay in for life, it’s a dynamic choice that we make every day.

I want to start a discussion on how to know if your diet is working for you and if you make a change in your diet, how (and when) do you know that it’s a going to work for you.

One step that people often miss is considering their intention for your diet. It seems so obvious, but we actually use our diet for lots of things: to nourish our ourselves, for entertainment, to connect to family and friends, to drug ourselves in to a sugar coma, to manage our emotions, to celebrate. If we change our diet, we may be trying to change our intention about what our diet will do for us.

I believe the main goal of any diet, 80% of the time, should be nourishment, and to provide long-term and short-term health and mental clarity. Then, 20% is for celebration and connection. It’s natural to use food to manage our emotions - it works so well - but we should be working to diversify our options to self soothe.

What does it mean to have a diet that nourishes our bodies? It’s important to protect our power supply. This means that we need to meet our basic nutritional needs: Are we getting enough amino acid/protein, fats, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins and minerals, and – importantly - is there diversity in what we’re eating?

When we make changes to our diets, we should have a sense of how the nutrient content might also be changing, and how the body will respond to that change. Our bodies work hard to maintain homeostasis. If we cut our calories, the body’s natural response is to slow the metabolic rate. This is why quick weight loss diets fail: cutting significantly back on calories signals that there is famine (which means we need to hold on to our fat stores), and it also exposes our brains to stress hormones which makes us anxious, irritable or not present to our daily lives, particularly if we have a history of trauma.

Social Interactions

Eating food together is an ancient way of interacting. Depending on our jobs, families, and economics, we have more or less ability to be in control of what we eat. When we are changing our diets, we need to consider the impact our new diet will have on our ability to engage in social events. We also need to understand and be prepared to advocate for our dietary needs. Another way of thinking about this is how we can be responsible for our own choices, so that other don’t have to guess at what we need. We also need to have clear plans in place to handle holidays and special events, so that we can still enjoy the social aspects without having our diets derailed.

Personal History

In my clinical office, I often work with individuals who have significant trauma histories in their childhoods. An amazing study on the impact of Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) shows that individuals who have had a number of traumatic events in childhood are at risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. These disease risks can be lowered by our diet choices in adulthood. It’s helpful for individuals with trauma histories to have clear intentions for their diets. Restrictive diets rarely work, because the restrictions often get tangled up with feelings of being deprived. Instead, changing to a diet where they notice that they feel better (in their bodies and minds), and occasionally testing if a new routine is helpful, seems to be more effective because part of recovering from trauma is choice. Being forced - even by one’s own self - is just another trauma.

Shallow end, Deep end

Some people wade into pools from the shallow end and some just jump into the deep end. Generally, if you are going to jump all in to a radical diet change it is worth having some outside support, or a way of reflecting back an accurate picture of how the change in diet is affecting you.

What skills do you need to change your diet? How do you know if it’s working for you, and when should you check back in with yourself to be sure that it continues to meet your intentions? What if your needs or intentions change?

Listen to or watch the Connectors Group webinar - and download the handout to help you assess whether a diet is a good fit for you.

• Podcast

• Video

• Handout

Connectors Group

This Group is part of my online education for individuals and teams who want to improve their mental and physical lives. Research shows that when we develop healthy habits around eating, sleeping and moving our bodies, we have improved decision making, creative problem solving and health.

The Connectors Group consists of a wide range of people who are in positions to help other people navigate their lives better: mental health therapists, executive coaches, psychiatric nurse practitioners, supervisors and project managers, lawyers, teachers, and community organizers.

The group has been meeting on the 2nd Friday of every month, from 7:30-8:30 Pacific time, for over a year now. We cover topics such as:

• Challenges and Q&A about how to successfully connect with friends, family and colleagues
• How many of your buckets are full?
• What makes anxiety worse
• How to prevent colds and flus and how to feel better quicker if you do get sick
• Using the EcoCycle to Plan for the New Year
• How to interpret food labels - How do you know if something is healthy for you or not?
• How the Mind, Brain, Body and Relationship work together to support our lives as creative responsive individuals who live in a rapidly changing world. 
• Why it is essential to support our power supply (our Body): how and what we need to eat to have a stable Brain, a clear Mind, and connected Relationships
• Open discussion about Mind, Brain, Body and Relationship connections

May's Connectors Group (on May 12th) will be lead by guest Dr. Miranda Marti, who will be talking about Estrogen: changing the brain and body from menarche to menopause. Estrogen heralds changes not just in the physical body but in mood and libido. It also has the power to shift focus for relationships and careers, and change the salience of what the brain finds rewarding and reassuring.  For some women, these natural fluctuations of estrogen throughout life are experienced with grace, while other women may find themselves driven wild or to despair.  Dr. Marti will discuss why this occurs and how we can support hormonal changes, whether they be monthly cycles or the perimenopausal transition, with ease.

Using the EcoCycle as a Tool to Plan for the New Year

Everyone has something that they want to change or start, but sometimes we get stuck because we want to get to the mature practice before we birth the change into our actual lives. We want perfection before we have process or we have a process that has become too ridged for dynamic change. In this webinar Dr. Allott shares a handout that has helped her and her clients better see where they are in the change cycle and take actionable steps to move forward.

Connectors Group Webinar November 11 2016

Download a pdf of the EcoCycle handout

Recommendations from the November 2016 Connector's Group

(1) If you have a robust inner critic and want more curiosity and creativity, check out this very thin but robust book called Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki. It is a great book for learning to be in charge of the chatty brain. 

(2) Shannon Rude is a massage therapist in Seattle WA and a student of Kate Bowman, both of their websites are worth following. Shannon teaches individuals and group classes in the Seattle area. If you want a new way of relating to how your body moves, I suggest following their blogs and connect with Shannon when you are in Seattle.