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LOCK HAVEN -- Stacey Karchner, a Family Recovery Life Coach through the BALM (Be A Loving Mirror) Family Recovery Program will be teaching a FREE online course for those in Clinton/Lycoming Counties who are affected by another's substance use disorder/addiction.
The course can be taken from home/online through Zoom and is sponsored by River Valley Health and Dental. BALM evolved around the fact that those with Substance Use Disorder are human beings and deserving of love just as any other person is. As a family member it's important to be a model of recovery, regain peace and calm, believe that the loved one can get well, and learn only to contribute to recovery.
The family role is crucial and can often turn the tide. Research shows when the family gets well the loved one has a much better chance at getting and staying well. The brains of those with SUD/addiction are hijacked by a drug (believing it is needed to survive) and in turn the families brains are hijacked and addicted to the loved one, obsessed with trying to control or fix and obsessed with the outcome. The family needs just as much if not more recovery than the loved one.
Because of the profound effect the BALM had on Stacey's journey, she took intense training to become a BALM Family Recovery Life Coach and help other families get to the BALM sooner than she got to it. The course Stacey will be teaching is a component of the year BALM program consisting of 12 lessons. Lessons include topics such as The Crucial Role the Family Plays, How to Use Leverage, Stages of Change, Motivational Interviewing, Enabling vs Helping, Responding vs. Reacting, Letting Go without Giving Up or Giving In, Self- Care, Mindfulness, Boundaries, Getting Support, Brief Interventions and more. Ms Karchner has been a Family Recovery Life coach for 4 1/2 years and has been teaching the course for 3 1/2 years in multiple counties with success and states that through the course she sees family members find a new perspective and learn new ways of being, acting and speaking without anger and judgement, becoming their loved ones chief supporter.
The course will be held every Thursday evening online from 5:30 to 8 p.m. once a week for eight weeks. Enrollment is free and the course will begin on Thursday, March 18. For every single person that abuses drugs, four to 10 others are impacted. As long as there is life, there is hope!
To find out more information or enroll please call Stacey Karchner at (814) 360-7590 or email her at skarchner9@gmail.com.