Jerianne Klein tried “tough love” approaches to deal with her loved one’s substance abuse issues. Support groups and one-on-one sessions left her feeling directionless. Searching for a family-focused option that would instill hope, Jerianne discovered SMART Recovery. “I held onto every word,” she says.
SMART Recovery tools helped Jerianne and her family stay calm and rational through the “dark days and sleepless nights,” which included her loved one’s involvement with treatment court. “I was able to lean into the law enforcement community while we navigated the legal system,” Jerianne says. Her family member entered treatment court, and the treatment recommendations aligned with the Family & Friends CRAFT (Community Reinforcement And Family Training) approach. The practical application of tools and the balance of self-care with life stressors aided the coping and healing process.
“CRAFT, along with the SMART Recovery tools, have saved my family unit, my marriage and me,” she says.
These positive experiences inspired Jerianne to complete facilitator training in 2015. Later that year, she began hosting meetings at the county jail. “In the beginning, I felt awkward hosting at the jail while being a family in the treatment court system,” she says, “but the jail staff was kind and encouraging to my family.” The county jail meetings remain among her favorites to facilitate. She also alternates meetings for SMART Recovery 4 Points and Family & Friends at another location, and she welcomes cross attendance to those meetings.
Jerianne’s ability to transform her experiences with family addiction into a longstanding resource for others in similar circumstances makes her worthy of recognition. For Jerianne, fulfillment comes from knowing that she is making a difference in another family’s life. “I have people write to me or return to my group to thank me,” she says. “They are beaming as they tell me how well they are doing and how much they appreciated the SMART Recovery program. Many say it is the first time they felt they understood themselves.”
Thank you Jerianne for your dedication to SMART.
About the 25 in 25 Volunteer Recognition Program
SMART Recovery celebrates its extraordinary community of volunteers who have built a worldwide organization devoted to supporting individuals recovering from addiction and their family members and friends. These volunteers include addiction scientists and treatment professionals who designed a self-empowering 4-Point Program® and joined people with the experience of recovery and trained them to lead mutual support group meetings.
Together they have created and refined a peer-professional mutual-support group model that combines the best science for treating addiction with the lived experience of recovering from addiction – the world’s largest and only community of this kind with thousands of group meetings around the world. Each year, participants in these groups help each other recover in-person and online and online meetings led by volunteers trained how to use the SMART program.
Click here to learn more about the program and to see all who have been recognized.
