Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug Policy

Kirsten - AKA Sobriety Bestie - last had an alcoholic drink in 2009, then spent over a decade in AA. She left AA in 2020 and began doing the work of unlearning and deconstructing AA dogma, told that she was powerless, "diseased" or forever broken. Now she is dedicated to telling the truth about recovery and about how to rebuild after leaving AA.

She created her YouTube channel and podcast to be the voice, support, and truth that ...

Mary Beth O'Connor is the author of the book "From Junkie to Judge: One Woman’s Triumph Over Trauma and Addiction." She began her recovery from methamphetamine use disorder, abuse, trauma, and anxiety in 1994. She never found traditional recovery spaces such as step-based recovery programs helpful to her, and found alternative recovery spaces early on.

Six years into her recovery, Mary Beth attended UC Berkeley School of Law. She w...

Join us for a conversation with Patrick Doyle, LCSW on a conversation breaking down his own evolution in SUD treatment and his approach in coaching people who use drugs and their families to help improve their lives and address the problems that can be caused by substance use. As a licensed clinical social worker and Family Addiction Coach, Patrick Doyle has dedicated his life to helping families to navigate the challenging journ...

Harm reduction is more than "needles and Narcan" and Dee-Dee Stout is the perfect person to talk to about the evolution of harm reduction therapy. Through her own training and her experience as a person who used drugs, Dee Dee has been at the forefront of studying and teaching about harm reduction based modalities of treatment. Dee-Dee has a degrees in Psychology, Human Sexuality, and Business Management as well as an interdisci...

Jordan Scott is a person with lived experience with opioid use disorder and powerful harm reduction advocate and person who continues to uses drugs in her recovery. While initially sought recovery from her opioid use disorder through abstinence based culture, which helped her initially obtain abstinence, she has spent years unpacking and unlearning.

She joined McCauley Sexton and Dr. Taylor Nichols and to discuss her unlearning jou...

McCauley and Dr. Taylor Nichols review their first year of Recovery Reform, what they have learned and unpacked over this past year, and what they are looking for coming up in the next year.

Thank you all for listening or watching, for doing the work of unpacking substance use disorders and recovery, and for being a part of the Recovery Reform community. We truly appreciate all of you.

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Stanton Peele began working on Love and Addiction in 1970, which was then published in 1975. In these fifty years he has predicted a remarkable number of addiction trends. By now it is clear that the way in which Stanton has reframed addiction for the past four decades – sometimes facing extreme opposition – has been prescient. His central thesis has always been that addiction is not a consequence of taking drugs and drinking; rath...

Lance Dodes, MD is a psychiatrist and a Training and Supervising Analyst Emeritus with the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. He is a retired assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and prior Director of the substance use treatment unit of Harvard’s McLean Hospital and the Alcoholism Treatment Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.

He is the author or co-author of a number of journal arti...

Chad Sabora is a former lawyer with lived experience of drug use and a long-time grassroots harm reduction advocate turned subject matter expert. Starting his journey under the mentorship of some of the harm reduction movement's founders, Chad helped create underground naloxone distribution networks before it was legally sanctioned across the country. Chad embodied the spirit of one of his role models, Joe Strummer who said: ‘The f...

Sarah Laurel turned her traumatic experiences from substance use disorder and justice involvement into a powerful movement for harm reduction and the empowerment of people experiencing harms from substance use and homelessness.

She co-founded Savage Sisters Recovery initially as a residential treatment facility, and along the way went through her own process of finding harm reduction and unlearning the shame and stigma that had be...

Brandi Mac, NP is a person who dropped out of high school and ended up becoming an ICU nurse practitioner.

She joins McCauley Sexton and Taylor Nichols, MD on the Recovery Reform podcast to talk about her journey to love, acceptance, and harm reduction as the daughter of someone with substance use disorder and who has documented her daughter's journey through active use, treatment trauma, and into remission online along with her o...

Kristina Dennis is a life coach and relationship expert whose life’s work is to show people how to release events of their past so they can become free of limiting beliefs.

Kristina has worked as a coach since 1997 when she realized she had a gift for effectively helping others. As a Certified Addiction Interventionist (CAI), Kristina’s ethical and compassionate approach to individuals with trauma allows her to show people an effec...

Nicholas Crapser PhD, is the current Clinical Director of 4D Recovery in Portland, OR, which is a peer-based support for youth and adolescents seeking addiction recovery. He has a history of lived experience with substance use disorder and justice involvement, and has been a vocal advocate for improved treatment for patients with substance use disorders and re-entry services. He has an excellent TED Talk titled "The Three E's of Re...