family matters/families matter: a clergy conversation series on addiction and families
A collaboration with the UCC’s “Nurture the Soul,” facilitated by Rev. Erica Poellot and DeeDee Stout.
Rev. Erica Poellot
Minister of Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention Ministries, UCC; Founder and Executive Director of Faith in Harm Reduction
Psychotherapist for Harm Reduction, foudning member of California Association of Harm Reduction Therapists, and author of the book, “Coming to Harm Reduction Kicking and Screaming”
part 1 - language matters
In this webinar, we Erica Poellot and Dee-Dee Stout discuss how our language around substance use has changed and why this is crucial for us to understand before having deeper conversations about addiction. Words such as recovery, addiction, dependence, substance use disorders, enabling/codependency, harm reduction, and more are covered. We also discuss some of the history & myths of harm reduction and abstinence-only treatment.
part 2 - Supporting People Who Love People Who Use Drugs: Families & Harm Reduction.
Erica & Dee-Dee open this conversation with the question: How do we support our loved ones? Join us as we take a deep dive into the many options families have today beyond the traditional intervention that not only is rarely effective but often has lasting negative effects which can devastate families sometimes forever.
Practicing Harm Reduction for Clergy and Lay Leaders
How Changing Our Minds Helps the People We Love & Serve (and Ourselves). Erica & Dee-Dee look at the broader issue of countertransference in clergy’s work with families and others when it comes to drug use, especially illicit drug use. How does this phenomena interfere with our work? How can it help us? What are the tenets of harm reduction & harm reduction psychotherapy that anyone can use as part of an overall loving, Christ-centered approach to people who use drugs of any kind? We discuss how a harm reduction approach can give us a better and more effective way to work with those who problematically use drugs and their families and keep us aligned with our hearts.