An evening of facilitated conversation about the challenges of supporting people with addictions while maintaining our own personal, familial and community health.
From Gregor Wilson:
We will go beyond the usual forms of advice and coaching to consider the real life experiences, family and interpersonal, and practical resources that are a vital part of sustainable healing. We will also discuss some of the wider issues — medical, cultural and educational — that addiction entails.
Families intertwined in addiction find it difficult to navigate these waters: the emotional turmoil; the slow grief of experiencing loss every day of what could have been; storms that can sink families, wreak havoc in marital relations, take a toll on siblings, and foster depression. There is a way out. Our time together is an attempt to create that map or communicate that a map does exist.
Facilitators:
Kirsten Wasson, Ph.D., is a teacher, poet, short story writer and parent. She holds a Ph.D. from Wisconsin University and has taught at Ithaca College and the Muse School in Los Angeles. She counsels families and friends of addicts and is a facilitator with PAL (Parents of Addicted Loved Ones, a national support organization in this field). She has walked alongside her son during his journey in and out of addiction, and she brings not just humanity but humor to her counseling work.
Gregory Wilson, D. Min., is a counselor and lecturer on therapeutic approaches to mental health and addiction. He earned his doctorate at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia and completed chaplaincy internships in Louisville, Kentucky. He completed his Pastoral Psychotherapy training, internships and residency at Emory University Candler School of Theology, 1993- 2000. His focus is the role of the imagination in internal development, relationships, and family and community life. He served as minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brevard in Melbourne Florida from 2003-2013 and he now farms and counsels clients in Vershire, Vermont.