
Mindfulness
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Connectedness
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Inner Growth

Excerpt from Coming to Harm Reduction Kicking & Screaming, 2nd Edition:
Stories of Radically Loving People Who Use Drugs.
A LITTLE HISTORY (OF AN OFTEN-OVERLOOKED PART)
OF THE HARM REDUCTION MOVEMENT
Harm Reduction & Families
Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten. …David Ogden Stiers
Treat people as if they are what they can be and you help them become
who they’re capable of being. …Johann von Goethe
Hanging out with a friend, twenty-six-year-old Danny, a white, suburban male, took a pill. One pill. One pill that contained a highly concentrated, unregulated drug used to prolong a narcotic’s effect. A few hours later he was dead. For Danny’s mother, Louise, the loss has been immeasurable. Some days she can’t shower. Others she can’t get out of bed, the absence of her son leaving her “raw.”
“It’s been a nightmare,” she says. “The cops said that they can’t really do anything about it. There are so many homicides in Baltimore [where this happened]. They said unless there’s an actual stabbing or gunshots … wounds to the body … [t]hey just don’t have the manpower.” Before adding, “I guess if you want to kill somebody, Baltimore City’s the place to do it.”
Danny, a young man who was just getting his life back together, liked to have fun, he’d still enjoy a drink or two, and this fateful night he’d thought he could keep the party going by popping a benzodiazepine. Unlike the anti-anxiety meds prescribed by a licensed physician or psychiatrist, Danny got his Xanax off the street. He split the pill with a friend, John. John lived. Danny did not.
I SEE THINGS
DIFFERENTLY
I've worked with thousands of patients and clients - including family members - for nearly 40 years. I've sought training from, and worked with, many of the top researchers & experts in addiction, health behavior change, relapse prevention, trauma, and more.
People don't resist change; they resist being changed.
—Peter Senge, PhD; MIT
If you’ve tried traditional addiction treatment or 12-Step based programs for your addiction and you'd like to try another approach - or you're curious about options other than abstinence for a change, Harm Reduction Psychotherapy may be the right alternative.
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Holistic Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (HHRP):
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Focuses on any positive change not just abstinence
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Uses multiple, science-based strategies you choose
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Honors people’s choices & lives & families’ uniqueness
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Applies change models that are trauma-informed & culturally sensitive/humble
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Meets all family members where they are - and helps them move forward when they're ready
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When life gives you lemons,
make lemonade.
—Elbert Hubbard & my mom!

What is recovery anyway? In Holistic Harm Reduction Psychotherapy, we first of all ask you to define recovery for yourself: abstinence, moderation, sober curious & everything in between are all great goals. Recovery for me encompasses 3 pivotal principles: mindfulness, connectedness, and inner growth.
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Mindfulness is the way we communicate. - with ourselves and everything else in the world around us: Are we truly living our lives, deeply aware of our goals and values? Are we seeing how our day- to-day movements align or miss our own goals & values?
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Connectedness is about surrounding ourselves with people we love, who love us, and who want the best for us, always. It may also mean having a personal spiritual connection either inside or outside of ourselves.
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Inner Growth asks, are we moving forward most of the time in our lives? Are we seeking out new adventures, new experiences, challenging our minds/bodies regularly? Harm Reduction Psychotherapy doesn’t seek to encourage perfection in behavior but rather it seeks to help make you a perfect human being: someone who makes mistakes and moves forward more compassionately because of them.
Welcome to living your own recovered life!
For a free 30-minute consultation – in person, by phone, or video platform - call or email me today at 510-919-9678 or deedeestoutconsulting@gmail.com.

The only regret I have in life
is not having made more mistakes.
—Dee-Dee Stout