Stacey Karchner, a family recovery life coach through BALM (Be A Loving Mirror) Family Recovery Program, will be teaching a free course sponsored by the Opioid Coalition for family members of Clearfield and Jefferson counties who are affected by another’s substance use disorder/addiction.
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, according to Karchner.
“As a family member, it’s important to be a model of recovery, regain peace and calm, to believe that the loved one can get well and to learn only to contribute to recovery,” she said.
“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 Karchner’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.
She calls the BALM Ala-non on steroids. The course she will be teaching is a component of the BALM program consisting of 12 lessons.
Lessons include topics such as: The Crucial Role the Family Plays, Leverage and Boundaries, Stages of Change, Motivational Interviewing, Enabling versus Helping, Responding versus Reacting, Self-Care, Mindfulness, Getting Support, Brief Interventions and more.
Karchner has been a family recovery life coach for 4.5 years and has been teaching the course for 3.5 years in multiple counties with success.
Karchner 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 the chief supporter rather than the obstacle.
The course will be held at the new Recovery Center at CenClear, 64 Industrial Park Rd., in Clearfield, from 5:45 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. once a week for eight weeks. Classes will be held Monday evenings, beginning March 15.
For every one person that abuses drugs 4 – 10 others can be impacted, 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.