Three members of LSR - Marty, Alicia and Gillian - gave a presentation of the basics of the Life Ring approach to sobriety to the staff at The Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in San Francisco on Friday 19th January 2001. Approximately 30 counselors were in attendance.
Marty started the ball rolling by talking about the conflict between addiction and sobriety in the brain of addicted people and how the positive reinforcement of the 'sober' or 'survivor' part is happening at the LSR meetings without any need for divine intervention. He explained what the three Ss were all about and generally covered all the fundamental issues.
Gillian talked about her experience in recovery and how, after attending many AA meetings as well as Life Ring meetings, she had happily chosen LSR as her 'natural habitat'. She explained how the members of Life Ring groups get to know one another, and form a powerful mutual support environment. She also encouraged the counselors to refer their patients to LSR meetings, especially the one that she convenes on Thursday evenings actually on their own premises.
Alicia talked very movingly of how she had found Life Ring a very supportive environment to be in, especially after struggling with the religious aspects of NA for quite a few years.
During the course of the presentation the audience gradually became more and more focused on what the speakers were saying. By the end most of them seemed genuinely interested in the program. Many of the counselors felt that the newly-published Workbook, 'Recovery By Choice", was an excellent sobriety tool to offer their patients. Having waited for some time for an opportunity to give this presentation to the Haight Ashbury staff, it was very rewarding to finally do it. And it will definitely help to spread the word among the treatment community.
-- Gillian E. 1/20/01
Ed. note: This was an hour-long formal inservice presentation for which the staff got continuing education credits. Afterward they had to fill in feedback forms. The program director has promised to copy the feedback forms and send them to me but despite my nagging and waiting for a while this has not yet happened. If and when they come I'll post a writeup here. -- Marty N. 1/30/01