A vital element of addiction recovery is surrounding oneself with a supportive sober community. This community is often built during treatment, when many clients develop connections with those with similar experiences. This community is important because recovery yields the best results when people are surrounded by others. Unfortunately, many women and mothers isolate themselves because of a sense of shame or guilt about their addictions. This does not have to be the case. At First Steps Recovery, we believe that nurturing mothers is essential in helping them achieve long-term recovery. To that end, we offer a variety of services to help mothers thrive. Part of helping mothers feel nurtured is bringing them together with others to receive support.
While building these connections during treatment is important, maintaining, strengthening, and even forming new connections post-treatment is just as essential. Through alumni programs, mothers can continue to receive hope and inspiration. Mothers often find that these alumni groups offer valuable advice for post-treatment life. Post-treatment life can be a challenging time, especially for mothers who are now attempting to re-balance home life, work life, and social life all while prioritizing sobriety.
At First Steps Recovery, this community is essential. The staff encourages clients with shared experiences to band together in a network of solidarity. This is a significant source of support for mothers as they begin to navigate a challenging phase of their recovery journey. While mothers struggle to piece together their lives, the alumni community at First Steps Recovery is there to help.
The Alumni Community at First Steps Recovery
First Steps Recovery’s alumni program acts as an extended source of care for clients entering the post-treatment stage of recovery. The alumni program is an ongoing service that clients are welcome to partake in at any point during their post-treatment life. This program helps people make the transition from treatment to their regular lives. Clients can continue to receive some types of treatment and return home afterward.
Leaving treatment and jumping back into regular life can be a shock. This transition can easily involve triggers or other overwhelming feelings. This can place the client at risk for relapse. Aftercare through the alumni program, though, helps clients learn to apply the skills, tools, and coping mechanisms they’ve acquired. This helps them avoid triggers and temptations in their daily lives. Learning how to navigate and maintain sobriety post-treatment is the ultimate goal of the alumni program. Through seeing others thrive and learning tricks and tools, clients begin to visualize a happy sober life.
When clients come together in a community, they strengthen their resolve to remain sober. At First Steps Recovery, this is accomplished through services such as group therapy. In group therapy, clients can discuss their struggles, triggers, and successes. Clients learn from each other, develop new relationships, and even enjoy themselves in new ways.
Challenges Mothers With Addiction Face
Some of the challenges mothers face with addiction are:
- Low self-worth
- Interpersonal conflicts
- Difficulties discontinuing drugs or alcohol
- Prioritizing family well-being over one’s own well-being
- Keeping emotional distance and struggling with vulnerability out of shame or guilt
- Lack of open communication and overall support
Sometimes mothers cannot pinpoint the exact root of their stressors, and having the opportunity to discuss these situations with other mothers can provide clarity. Likewise, mothers can discuss what steps they are taking or looking to take in order to overcome these challenges while maintaining sobriety. Overcoming these challenges and balancing motherhood with recovery is difficult. However, managing sobriety is easier when doing it alongside others.
Nurturing Mothers and the Alumni Community
When mothers are recovering, they have a difficult job. The alumni community knows this. Those involved with the alumni community devote themselves to nurturing mothers who need support. They know that motherhood can be challenging as is, and navigating sobriety can add stress on top of that.
First Steps Recovery acts on five core values: compassion, connection, collaboration, community, and clinical excellence. These values are embodied in a safe and secure environment where clients can pursue their healing throughout recovery. During group treatments and outings, mothers navigating post-treatment life can collaborate with each other. They can share their experiences and build community in order to promote healing and long-term sobriety. In group therapy, nurturing mothers come together to uncover underlying emotional or mental concerns regarding their post-treatment lives.
The Importance of a Network of Solidarity for Nurturing Mothers
Many women, and mothers especially, feel most motivated to pursue supportive therapy and therapeutic alliances when they have childcare support. Children’s well-being is a priority for mothers, regardless of their addiction and recovery journey. Having a stable source of support can be necessary in being able to find time for recovery-related activities.
If this has been difficult to find, women can turn to other mothers in alumni support groups and brainstorm ways to find new and better sources of support. In support groups, nurturing mothers can connect with others who understand the struggles of addiction and motherhood.
Having women-centered and women-specific treatment models, though, helps mothers overcome these struggles. Gender-specific services, especially for mothers, allow women to feel seen and heard. With our focus on nurturing mothers, we help women succeed in every part of their lives.
Here at First Steps Recovery, we understand that having women-oriented programs is crucial during all stages of recovery. For mothers, specifically, having gender-specific care catered toward them enhances a sense of comfort and community. We offer a place to be vulnerable and find hope, which is vital for mothers and their families. In safe and confidential settings, mothers can share their post-treatment experiences and feel seen and heard. Building this community is done through our alumni program, which serves as extended care post-treatment. Women are able to strengthen their sense of community through group therapy sessions and progress forward in their newly sober lifestyle. To learn more about our gender-specific care and programs for mothers, please call (844) 489-0836.
Dr. Curl is the Medical Director and primary on-site provider for First Steps Recovery. He is a Board Certified Internist and Addiction Medicine Specialist having attended the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and completing his residency at Mount Auburn Hospital with Harvard Medical School. Following several years work as an internist and physiatrist (physical medicine and rehabilitation). Dr. Curl completed the Addiction Medicine Fellowship at Howard University in Washington DC and participated as a RAM Scholar (Research in Addiction Medicine). While part of the fellowship, Dr. Curl pursued research investigating the barriers to expanding and improving medication for opioid use disorder. Following his fellowship, Dr. Curl spearheaded the Opiate Use Disorder outpatient clinic and worked in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences within the Howard University Hospital. In 2023, Dr. Curl completed his Board Certification in Addiction Medicine.
