CLEARFIELD – Through funding from the local drug task force in Clearfield and Jefferson counties, Stacey Karchner, a family recovery life coach through the BALM (Be A Loving Mirror) Family Recovery Program will be teaching a free course in Clearfield for family members affected by another’s substance use disorder/addiction.
According to Karchner, BALM evolved around the fact that those with substance use disorder are human beings and deserving of love just as any other person is. At the core of BALM is loving kindness.
“The family becomes the loved one’s chief supporter rather than the obstacle. As a family member, it’s important to be a model of recovery and to 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.”
Karchner said 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, she said. Because of the profound effect the BALM had on her 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.
She calls the BALM Alanon on steroids. The course Karchner will be teaching in the community is a component of the BALM program consisting of 12 lessons.
Lessons include topics such as “The Crucial Role the Family Plays,” “Leverage and How to Use It,” “Stages of Change,” “Motivational Interviewing,” “Enabling versus Helping,” “Responding versus Reacting,” “Letting Go Without Giving Up or Giving In,” “Self-Care,” “Mindfulness,” “Setting and Sticking to Boundaries,” “Getting Support,” “Brief Interventions” and more.
Karchner has been a family recovery life coach for four years and has been teaching the course for over three years in multiple counties with success.
The course will be held at St. John’s Church in Clearfield every Thursday evening, from 5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m., for seven weeks, starting Aug. 27.
For every one person that abuses drugs, four to 10 others can be impacted. There is hope, Karchner said, adding that “as long as there is life, there is hope.”
To find out more information or enroll, please call Karchner at 814-360-7590 or e-mail her at skarchner9@gmail.com.
