How Recovery Happens
An Interview with Gloriana Hunter by Lori Ashcraft, Crestwood Behavioral Health
This article relates to MHOTRS clinics by giving a personal illustration of someone in recovery from a mental health condition who was receiving services in a clinic setting and what she found most helpful in working toward personal recovery. In this episode, Lori Ashcraft interviews Gloriana Hunter who begins by saying, “Recovery is not a straight line, it is an up and down process”. In her blog, Lori explains that recovery is personal for each person, but there are some common occurrences on this path. Research has identified four broad phases of recovery: overwhelmed by the disability, struggling with the disability, living with the disability, and living beyond the disability. This episode highlights the incredible journey of Gloriana Hunter from being a happy and energetic child, to being ready to act on suicidal despair, to being a full-time instructor and curriculum writer for Crestwood Behavioral Health. Come listen to her powerful journey.
Gloriana is an inspiration and a role model. Her personal story embodies the journey from the darkness of suicidality to the power of hope and healing in recovery. In this episode, Gloriana shares her experiences from being a high school dropout to earning a Master of Business Administration in IT and includes her transformational journey from suffering to peer specialist.
Gloriana states, “stress can even come from good things”. With authentic vulnerability, she discusses her adventure from her studies in archeology, crashes in college, and what was involved with her healing. She shares how the thought, “this is not right”, saved her life and how working with peers shifted her internal dialogue from “I can’t work” to “I can do well.” She shares how important the 1:1 peer support relationship is in people’s recovery journey.
Lori’s blog shares profound insights on what happens when we pull ourselves up from our lows. She shares about the internal process that goes on with change…that it is the intentional choice to make a change consistently over time that makes the difference. Read her blog to find out more!
This blog topic relates to Peer Support Services in a MHOTRS clinic because it illuminates the difference a peer can make in the life of another. Peers embody the hope that change, success, and satisfaction are possible. This episode shares how it is done.
Summary by Stephen Nawotniak, Alliance for Rights and Recovery (formerly NYAPRS).
© Crestwood Recovery Resilience Solutions. All rights reserved.
Viva La Evolution #013. Interview by Lori Ashcraft. Used with permission.
More About Viva La Evolution and Crestwood.
Developed by Crestwood Behavioral Health
With Contributions by the Alliance for Rights and Recovery (formerly New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services)
For PeerTAC
