Professionals attend recovery training

NEWTON — Several extremely dedicated community professionals and volunteers met on Jan. 23 and 24, 2018, at the Center for Prevention and Counseling’s Recovery Community Center, simply known as ‘The Center,’ to attend a SMART Recovery Facilitator training. “SMART” stands for Self-Management and Recovery Training and was founded in 1994 in the United States, and is now found in many countries around the world, offering face-to-face and online meetings. SMART Recovery helps participants decide if they have a problem with an addictive behavior, builds their motivation to change and offers a set of proven tools and techniques to support recovery.
SMART Recovery uses a cognitive-behavioral (thinking/doing) psychotherapy called REBT which stands for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy which teaches that your thinking creates your feelings and leads you to act. By managing the beliefs and emotions that lead you to drink or use drugs, you can empower yourself to quit. This exciting and innovative two-day training was made possible, in part, through a First Energy Foundation Grant, thanks to Jackie Espinoza, the JCP&L Area Manager in Sussex County.
Participants at this SMART training in Newton included clinical, prevention and recovery staff from the Center for Prevention and Counseling, behavioral health staff from Atlantic Health and Newton Medical Center, a counselor from the Sussex County Sheriff's Office/Bureau of Corrections and several local community volunteers. Becoming SMART facilitators enables those trained to lead SMART meetings which will assist in fulfilling Center for Prevention and Counseling’s pursuit of answering the need to provide additional recovery support opportunities for individuals and families in our community. Counseling staff at The Center are looking forward to integrating SMART Recovery tools into agency treatment programs and hope that additional SMART Recovery meetings will be brought to Sussex County and beyond due to this excellent training.
SMART Recovery supports individuals who desire to abstain or are considering abstinence from any substance or activity addiction and incorporates tools based on evidence-based addiction treatments, including Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Motivational Interviewing. SMART Recovery’s mission is to offer self-empowering, science-based, face-to-face and online support groups for abstaining from any substance or activity addiction. One of the participants from the training had this to say after attending a SMART meeting, already being held at The Center, “Create a life in recovery that is so good and so happy and satisfying that you would NEVER jeopardize it by relapse.”
The Center at 65 Newton-Sparta Road in Newton, hosts SMART meetings every Monday and Wednesday evening from 7:30-8:30 p.m. These meetings are open to anyone interested in seeking or considering abstinence from any addiction. The Center also hosts a family and friends group every first and third Thursday of the month at 6:30 p.m. based on C.R.A.F.T., which is a complimentary SMART meeting for concerned significant others who want to be part of the recovery process. Interested participants in any of these recovery support meetings and other recovery friendly events and programs can find out more by going to www.centerforprevention.org and clicking on the “Recovery” tab or by calling 973-940-2966 for more information.