Recovery Matters! Podcast

Recovery Matters Podcast Episode 43 | Scott Strode, the executive director and founder of The Phoenix, shares his tumultuous journey from a youth spent in Pennsylvania between an alcoholic father and a hardworking mother to becoming an individual deeply involved in substance use recovery. He recounts his experiences working on ships, his struggles with alcoholism, and his eventual turn towards phy...

Recovery Matters Podcast Episode 42 | Don, who has been in long-term recovery from alcoholism since 1983, shares his poignant personal story, from his early days in radio and his rock band 'The Crayons,' to his extensive career with Subway, and his transformative experience on the TV show 'Undercover Boss.' He recalls how his disclosure of his recovery journey on national TV inspired viewers such...

Recovery Matters Podcast Episode 41 | Zach shares his story of growing up in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and how his life transformed from enjoying various hobbies to struggling with addiction. Starting with marijuana and alcohol in college, his substance use escalated to opiates and heroin, leading to several legal troubles and a stint in rehab. Zach recounts his path to recovery, including pivota...

Recovery Matters Podcast Episode 40 |  Brian shares his powerful story of overcoming addiction and legal troubles to become a recovery coach manager for the Department of Corrections program with CCAR. Brian's narrative touches on his early life, emotional struggles, and his battle with alcoholism that led to professional and personal downfall, including embezzlement and incarceration. After a pro...

Recovery Matters Podcast Episode 39 | Phil and Sandy engage in a conversation with Kevin, the program coordinator for the Ocean Recovery Community Alliance (ORCA). They explore Kevin's journey in recovery, his passion for surfing, and his involvement in environmental cleanups. The discussion highlights the transformative power of engaging with nature, the sense of community fostered through ORCA e...

Phil and Sandy are joined on this episode by 10-year CCAR employee, Hartford Recovery Community Center Manager, Virginia Adams. Virginia explains how moving from school-to-school when she was younger led to an unsuccessful search for self that drew her into substance use and all the unmanageability that comes with it. A story of finding ones identity, meeting life's challenges, and finding peace t...

Our guest on this episode is Dr. Haner Hernández. He is a person in long-term recovery who has had an illustrious career, spanning more than three decades, that has included teaching at various universities, working directly and in a consulting capacity for state and federal agencies, performing one-on-one recovery support, and so much more. We hear about the racism Haner encountered at a young ag...

Rick shares his profound and challenging journey through 46 years of recovery from alcoholism. Rick recounts his violent and dangerous childhood, struggling with alcoholic parents, and finding himself in dangerous situations due to his addiction. He discusses his transformative moments, including a critical realization during a heated moment with his wife and the role of key support figures in his...

Phil and Sandy are joined on this episode by Kevin Shuler, CCAR's Emergency Department Recovery Coach Manager. What follows is an amazing discussion that will make you laugh and perhaps shed a tear. A picture of a life and a story of becoming; substance intervenes, and as is so often the case, we hear how pain and suffering forge the best version of ourselves when we pursue recovery. ----Across th...

Carmen shares her extraordinary journey from a challenging upbringing in Puerto Rico to becoming a beacon of hope and advocate for recovery in Connecticut. Carmen candidly discusses her experiences with familial instability, addiction, homelessness, and domestic abuse, all of which ultimately led her to find strength, faith, and a new purpose in life. Now a celebrated Recovery Coach, Carmen highli...

Cathy shares candidly about her 30-year journey from growing up in an environment riddled with alcoholism, through her own struggles with addiction starting in her early teens, to achieving long-term recovery and becoming a leader in the recovery community. The conversation touches on her teenage escapades, battles with addiction, her pivotal moment of seeking help, and her subsequent move to Cali...

Phil and Sandy Valentine discuss their personal journeys through long-term recovery from alcohol and other addictions. With over 30 years of recovery each, they reflect on the stages of recovery, particularly focusing on the stage they term 'fulfillment.' They examine characteristics such as finding purpose, achieving peace and serenity, reducing worry, maintaining integrity, and living with grati...

Our hosts are joined on this episode by Windham Recovery Community Center Manager, John Schwartz. John takes us on a wild ride by getting vulnerable and honest. From growing up in an affluent community where domestic disputes were the norm at home, to playing in a band with Rick James, speed-balling and maintaining a successful culinary career...this discussion checks all the boxes. Ultimately the...

CCAR Emergency Department Recovery Coach, Mindy Richardson, joins our hosts on this episode. She shares about early run-in's with the law and becoming a mother at a young age. Mindy goes on to explain how the need to earn and support herself drew her to the fast-money street lifestyle, which ultimately came to overtake her life and led to addiction. Despite many attempts to maintain recovery and a...

Our guest on this episode is Adventure Recovery founder, Tim Walsh. Tim shares how an early family tragedy led to headlong experimentation with substance use and a youth defined by anger, rebelliousness, and wandering. Ultimately, he realized the need for change and found Recovery twenty-nine years ago. We hear how he came to find solace and connection in nature, leading to the realization that im...

Joining our hosts on this episode is Shannon Egan, a woman in long-term recovery and a multiple time, award-winning grant writer and marketing and communications professional. Shannon covers everything from growing up in a Mormon family in Utah to working as journalist in Sudan and the struggle with substance that followed her on her journey. An exciting discussion that spans the globe, shedding l...

This episode features CCAR's Director of Recovery Support Services, Rebecca Allen. She shares about her seemingly innocent discovery of substances, in the form of cigarettes, and how addiction asserted itself into her life and the life of her family. A concise picture of how substance can slowly come to characterize our life, no matter where we come from, replacing the healthy passions and things...

CCAR Communications Manager, Tom Russo, joins our hosts on this episode. Tom shares how exposure to substance use and criminality gradually came to define his own behavior and his life. We hear the story of a person who was able to evade consequences for some time until the consequences he received put his life on hold, culminating in a four year prison sentence. A moving depiction of what "wearin...

Our hosts are joined on this episode by mother and daughter, Naetha Uren and Calliese Connor, CCAR Trainers who operate out of the UK. We hear the story of family recovery that spans generations and an ocean. A beautiful, honest, and enlightening picture of a family recovering in different stages - supporting one another, overcoming barriers, and establishing boundaries. Naetha and Calliese go on...

CCAR Emergency Department Recovery Coach, Barry Richardson, joins our hosts on this episode. Barry has worked with CCAR for two-plus years, serving more than 1,000 individuals in hospital Emergency Departments across Connecticut. Here, Barry shares his story of becoming, growing up in the North Carolina countryside and how the attraction to an addictive lifestyle and a long search for self started...

CCAR Department of Corrections Recovery Coach, Melissa McGee, joins our hosts on this episode for a hard-hitting discussion that documents the progressive nature of the disease of addiction and the amazing redemptive power of recovery. Melissa gets vulnerable about her struggles with alcohol and coping with the challenges of life and how she moved from the darkness of addiction into the light of r...

CCAR's Special Events Manager and Recovery Ally, Amy Albanese, joins our hosts for this episode to talk about her passion for creating special moments for others and how Recovery has been a recurring theme in her life. Amy explains how recreational use, addiction, and its' consequences stayed on the periphery of her life for some time. She goes on to discuss how she became an avid supporter of the...

Our hosts are joined this episode by CCAR Emergency Department Recovery Coach Program Manager, Jennifer Chadukiewicz. She shares how the disease of addiction came for her at a young age but also how recovery found her shortly after at the age of eighteen. What follows is the story of an adventurous life in recovery defined by family, service, and living life on life's terms. ----Across the Web----...

Our hosts are joined on this episode by CCAR's Emergency Department Recovery Coach (EDRC) Program Coordinator, Regina McGarrah. A woman who exudes positivity, hope, humility, and calm, Regina shares how progressive mental and physical health issues produced an addiction to increasingly stronger opiates prescribed to her by her doctor. She explains how these amazing challenges left her homebound fo...

Emergency Department Recovery Coach, Guy Brenan, joins our hosts on this episode. Guy has known our hosts for many years but we hear a story of divergent life paths. Guy documents the progressive nature of the disease of addiction and how it can come upon us incrementally, without us realizing quite where it is taking us. Love, maintaining, addiction, responsibility, incarceration, redemption. We'...