Living in Recovery

April Wilson Smith, MPH, is a PhD student in Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Her research focuses on harm reduction approaches to people who use substances when they enter the healthcare system.

April's other interest in healthcare is interprofessional education and teamwork. Her work with the Jefferson Center for InterProfessional Education won the 2016 James B. Erdmann PhD award for Excellence in Interprofessional Education. She is currently building a large, multidisciplinary coalition to create an interprofessional education module for healthcare professionals in best practices for the care of people who use drugs when they present in the acute care setting.

April is a Certified SMART Recovery facilitator and founded the first SMART Recovery meeting in the Philadelphia city limits. She is also co-founder of the only Harm Reduction, Abstinence and Moderation Support meeting in Philadelphia.

April recently accepted a position as Harm Reduction Epidemiologist with Families for Sensible Drug Policy, which is a non-profit dedicated to helping families advocate for drug policies that save drug users' lives and keep families together and healthy.  Co-founder and President, Barry Lessin, is also a Pro Talk columnist . 

April graduated from Yale University in 1996. She was a union organizer for healthcare workers for 18 years before going back to school for her Master of Public Health, and spent ten years as Director of Organizing for Pennsylvania's largest nurses' union. She lives in West Philadelphia with her beautiful black cat, Loviefluffy.

Located in Portland, OR, Olivia Pennelle (Liv) is an experienced writer, journalist, and coach. She is the founder of the popular site Liv’s Recovery Kitchen, a site dedicated to helping people flourish in their recovery.

Liv is passionate about challenging limiting mentalities and empowering others to direct their own lives, health, and recovery. You can find her articles across the web on podcasts and addiction recovery websites, including The Fix, Recovery.org, Workit Health, and Ravishly. Liv was recently featured in VICE.

If you're interested in connecting with Liv, you can find her on Instagram. She also created a new Facebook group called Life After 12 Steps, where she proudly sees members thriving, rather than forcing themselves to do something that doesn’t work.

Additionally, Liv offers free resources on her website, including the e-book entitled Nourishing You, which is designed to give you the tools to achieve your health goals in straightforward language.

With over seven years of experience treating the chemically-dependent population of San Diego, Lindsay Kramer is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) that brings expertise, compassion, and perpetually-evolving insight into her work at Caroline Stewart and Associates. Lindsay graduated from the University of San Diego with her Master's degree in Marital and Family Therapy 2008, but began her work with families and their children in 2004 by providing parent education and social skills groups to hundreds of families in San Bernardino country.

A San Diego native, Lindsay continued her work with school-aged children while beginning graduate school in 2006, but found her passion in the mental health field when she initiated her clinical hours at the Phoenix House of San Diego. During this three-year period, Lindsay immersed herself in the demographic of adolescents and their families that struggled to overcome substance abuse/dependence. From there, Lindsay solidified her future as a psychotherapist as she learned that the "dual diagnosis" focus was inherently a second language due to the combination of her own family experience and resounding comfort in this often-challenging work. Lindsay then transitioned to San Diego's East County empire as she took a job as a Dual Diagnosis clinician for the county-funded nonprofit, San Diego Youth Services. Lindsay spent three more years deepening her understanding of multi-generational addiction and mental illnesses by providing outpatient services to low-income families through East County juvenile probation and school-based clinical sites. Lindsay now treats chemically-dependent adults within an inpatient/day treatment setting though the SHARP McDonald Center, which allows her to continue enhancing her passion for overall recovery and long-term growth within the individuals and families in which she serves.

Though typically provided on a long-term treatment modality, Lindsay also provides psychotherapy on a short-term, solution-focused basis. Lindsay is fluent in working with individuals, couples, and families, and loves a good therapeutic challenge. Aside from her expertise in chemical dependency/addictive behaviors, Lindsay specializes in the treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders, behavioral problems in adolescents (ranging from ADHD to conduct disorder), complex traumas (including abuse and PTSD), personality disorders, and phase of life problems. Lindsay is also always up-to-date with current drug trends that are so pervasively (and unfortunately) impacting our communities, families, and children.

Candace Plattor, M.A., R.C.C., is an Addictions Therapist in private practice.

Candace specializes in working with the family and other loved ones of people who are struggling with addiction, in her unique and signature Family Addiction Therapy Program.

Candace believes that everyone in the family is affected by addiction and everyone needs to heal. For more than 25 years, she has been helping both addicts and their loved ones understand their dysfunctional behaviors and make healthier life choices.

You can visit her website and sign up to receive Chapter 1 of her book, Loving an Addict, Loving Yourself: The Top 10 Survival Tips for Loving Someone with an Addiction, and “Like” her Facebook page.

Rita Milios, LCSW, "The Mind Mentor," combines the science of neuro-biology, traditional psychotherapy techniques, and spiritual growth techniques gleaned from ancient wisdom traditions to help people re-program old, entrenched, self-defeating habits and attitudes and successfully treat anxiety, depression, addictions (substances, people, things), eating issues, relationship issues, trauma, life transition issues and grief. Using interactive guided imagery, dreamwork, intuitive problem-solving techniques, mindfulness meditation and other holistic techniques, along with cognitive-behavioral, humanistic and psycho-education therapies, Rita facilitates a dialogue between the client’s outer (conscious) mind and inner (subconscious) mind, helping them access their own inner wisdom to get “unstuck” and attain the clarity and wisdom they need to reach their goals and move forward on their personal journey. Rita also trains clients in self-help, empowerment and spiritual growth techniques so that they can continue to learn and grow long after therapy ends. As “Mind Mentor" to individuals, groups, corporations and associations, Rita delivers workshops and trainings to clinical professionals, businesses and the public on topics including psycho-neurobiology, stress reduction, self-help modalities, spiritual growth and intuition/creativity. Her most recent presentation was on the topic of bereavement at the 2014 NASW FL Social Work Conference. Rita’s 30+ published books include Tools for Transformation, Instant Inspiration and Discovering Positive Thinking. She has also published more than 100 articles for print and web and audio/video tapes on mind/body wellness, personal transformation and creative thinking. Rita has been featured on radio & TV as an expert on mind and positive thinking, and is featured as an expert at LinktoEXPERT.com and other online speaking/consulting directories.

Helaina Hovitz is a journalist, editor, author, content strategist, mental health advocate and native New Yorker who has always had the unreasonable notion that she can help change the world.

Her memoir, After 9/11: One Girl’s Journey Through Darkness to a New Beginning, details her recovery from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and alcoholism.

Her experience has led her to a career as a journalist who writes about social good, social issues, mental health, and the ways that people are working to help make the world a better place.

Her continuing bylines appear in The New York Times, Women’s Health, Glamour, Salon, Newsday, New York Observer, Teen Vogue, VICE, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, HEALTH, Fast Company, The Fix,The Daily Meal, Tasting Table, and many others.

To connect with Helaina, visit HelainaHovitz.com, follow her on Twitter @HelainaHovitz, Facebook/com/HelainaNHovitz, or reach out on LinkedIn.