You learn patience, repetition, sacrifice and how
to keep going when things become difficult.

Those lessons have stayed with me throughout my
life, but my understanding of addiction comes from
much more than athletics or discipline.

I know something about drugs because I have been
there myself.

I drank alcohol, although alcohol never became an
addiction for me. At different times in my life I
also experimented with LSD and speed. After my years
in competitive sports, I used cocaine and eventually
became hooked on it.

So when I talk with somebody who is struggling with
drugs, I am not talking about something I have only
read about.

I know how a person can make choices that gradually
begin taking them somewhere they never intended to
go. I also know that it is possible to recognize
what is happening, make a decision and start
changing direction.

That period of my life is part of who I am, and I
don’t hide it. In many ways, it gave me an
understanding of people that I could never have
learned from a book.

Later, addiction became personal in another way.

A woman I was in a relationship with became severely
addicted to drugs. Cocaine, speed, crystal meth and
crack cocaine were all part of that world.

Trying to help her was one of the hardest experiences
of my life.

I tried everything I could think of. Some things
worked for a while. Other things didn’t. There were
setbacks and some very dark periods, but I refused
to give up on her.

Today, she has been free from those drugs for many
years, and we are still in communication.

She is also involved with EverChange as a
peer recovery coach.

That matters because she knows addiction from the
inside. She knows what those dark days are like,
what it is like to make destructive choices and
what it takes to begin rebuilding your life.

Between us, we bring two different kinds of
experience to EverChange. I know what it is like
to deal with my own drug use, and I also know what
it is like to stand beside somebody whose addiction
had become extremely serious.

She brings the perspective of someone who lived
through severe addiction herself and has remained
free from those drugs for many years.

EverChange is not about trying to turn another
person into me.

People are different. Their circumstances are
different. What brought one person to addiction may
be completely different from what brought somebody
else there.

That is why communication is so important.

I have always been good at talking with people, but
more importantly, I know how to listen. I want to
understand the person in front of me before deciding
what may help them.

I consider myself an educator and a coach. I have
spent a great deal of my life studying, learning
and trying to understand why people do what they do
and how they can change direction when something in
their life is no longer working.

Sometimes a person needs information. Sometimes they
need somebody to challenge the way they are thinking.
Sometimes they simply need someone they can speak
honestly with who will listen without immediately
judging them.

That is the kind of relationship I want EverChange
to provide.

My faith in God is also an important part of who
I am.

I value education, but I don’t believe education and
wisdom are necessarily the same thing. A person can
acquire a tremendous amount of information without
necessarily understanding life or understanding
people.

For me, wisdom comes from education combined with
experience, mistakes, consequences, reflection,
faith and a commitment to truth.

Those things influence the way I communicate with
people and the way EverChange approaches personal
change.

I believe every person has free will. Nobody can
make another human being change simply by demanding
it. The individual ultimately has to decide that
they want something different and that they are
prepared to do something about it.

Our approach is personal and one-on-one.

We begin by talking. We listen to what is happening
in your life, what has happened in the past, what
you are struggling with now and where you would like
your life to go.

Then we work from there.

I bring decades of discipline, my own life
experience, education and the experience of having
dealt personally with addiction. EverChange also
benefits from the perspective of someone who has
lived through severe addiction and knows firsthand
what that road can look like.

We are not here to make your decisions for you.

We are here to talk with you, listen to you, work
with you and help you see another way forward.

You still have to take the steps.

But you don’t necessarily have to take them alone.