Like any chronic illness, addiction is a disease that affects all family members. As with any devastating disease, family participants may have the opportunity to choose to either support the illness or focus on supporting recovery from it. Although you didn’t cause...

As a first responder living with a substance use disorder, neglecting self-care can affect both you and the people you’re paid to serve. In fact, first responders often become so used to serving their communities in life-saving roles that they may overlook their own...

Dr. Stacy Grossman, Psy.D. - Director of Center for Brain Recovery Brain health is essential to our overall health and wellness. Our brain is what makes us who we are and dictates how we behave, how we think, and how we feel. Keeping our brain healthy is one of the...

Dr. Anna Lisa De Lima, Ph.D., LMHC, NCC - Program Director, Center for Women's Recovery  For many people, the news of a pandemic led to increasing feelings of anxiety as our health, jobs, and normal lives were left hanging in the balance. For first responders, these...

Bart Ross | Recovery & Alumni Services Coordinator A common thought we alcoholic folks have is the idea that life will be easy when we get sober. This thought is a half-truth. Easier? Perhaps. But I like to say it in a different way. Sobriety provides a new...

Long before someone is diagnosed with a substance use disorder, multiple factors have been forming a point in their life where addiction first becomes possible. We’ll call that point a “starting line” here as a way of creating a visual for you. Today, let’s look at...

Preparing medical students for what they will face on the job is the entire mission of medical school, yet substance use disorders (SUDs) may not get equal attention during those critically important years. It’s inevitable that medical students—who will eventually...

Vanessa Brenner LMHC,QS -- Program Director  Vanessa has been working in the treatment industry since 2011 and says with certainty that this is the best team she has worked alongside. As a valuable part of the Hanley family since October 2016, she is a Licensed...

Melissa R. Eklund MS, LMHC - Program Director, Hanley Center Counseling  Melissa earned both her Bachelor of Science in psychology and her Master of Science in mental health counseling from Nova Southeastern University while focusing on the topic of addictions. A...

As the brain plays an important role in beginning and sustaining recovery, a focus on how to retrain the brain after years of drug use is important. For some people needing recovery, this may come as a surprise when their belief may be a brain damaged by substance use...

  As a middle-aged adult thinking about the effects on aging on a parent, addiction may not be one of the topics that comes to mind first yet it can be a very real threat to the health of a senior citizen. You may have ignored some warning signs of an addiction...

Kaisha A. Thomas Ph.D., LMFT, LMHC, NCC, CCMHC, SAP -- Program Director   Kaisha serves as Program Director on our main campus, working primarily with older adults. Her extensive clinical and teaching experience spans more than sixteen years, and her numerous...

My name is Lisa C, and I am an alcoholic. I am not new to recovery, as I was in a 12-Step Fellowship from April 1995 - to January 2005. Almost 10 years. Prior to this, my disease was like most. Drank, blacked out, drank, DWI, my life was miserable. At that time, I...

At an age where the use of prescription drugs is common for treatment of any number of chronic conditions, an elderly parent’s misuse of medicine might go unnoticed by family at first. Even if you’re aware of what specific meds they’re taking, you could be missing the...

One of the critical components of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction that may be overlooked by people considering treatment is counseling. The top programs in the country include it for a reason: undoing the damage from addiction requires understanding what...

Bart Ross | Recovery & Alumni Services Coordinator   “Resentment is the ‘number one’ offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else.” How and why? Resentments can appear in many different forms. Some signs that we may be harboring resentments...

In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, part of the state response in the U.S. was keeping liquor stores open. The choice confused some people, likely unaware of the impact a lack of access to alcohol would have on those currently living with alcohol addiction....

As the global pandemic of COVID-19 has made “social distancing” a household phrase in a short period of time, we’ve had to adjust every former routine behavior as we stay at home, work from home, or travel to stores for essential items. For those living with...

The appeal of a change in lifestyle during retirement rarely includes a clear view of what pitfalls can emerge in the “golden years.”  Whether you retire early or work into your late 60s or 70s, your transition in work status may precede many other changes, some...