Teaching in Sacramento

Dr. B. J. Davis and I had a good day Saturday Nov. 21 in Sacramento CA, teaching a group of addiction counselors about LifeRing and Choice Theory.  LifeRing convenor Robert O. in Sacramento deserves major kudos for getting the event on the calendar and getting every detail, including ample refreshments, in place on the day of the event.  Two leading members of CAADAC (the California Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors), namely regional director Pete Nielsen and regional vice-president Karl Hexberg, arranged for Continuing Education Units, email-blasted the regional membership, and prepared the paperwork, and Karl sat through the entire session.

We started at 9 am, and I began my 200-slide PowerPoint about half an hour later.  I covered basic facts about LifeRing, such as where the meetings were located and typical characteristics of our membership, and then outlined the 3-S philosophy.  I got to the end of the second S by lunch time.  It was a good interactive session with just about everyone in the room getting into the discussion and nobody falling asleep.

After lunch I finished the third S, and then Dr. Davis talked for about 45 minutes about Choice Theory and his research into Quality of Life in recovery.  Then I picked it up again and covered the LifeRing meeting format and the Recovery by Choice workbook.  I had to cut it short as we ran out of time but certainly the main points got across.  The audience were attentive the whole time.  There was lots of crosstalk, all of it positive.  Even though a number of folks present identified themselves as 12-step, there was no tension or animosity on either side.

Both Dr. Davis and I got a lot of thanks at the end, and I got a couple of inquiries about giving the LifeRing talk in other towns.  There were people from Vallejo, Petaluma, Yuba City, and other towns plus local Sacramento folks at the session.  Our only regrets were that not more people from social services agencies in the city attended, because apparently they were not included on the email lists.  We're talking about repeating this training in the spring, this time with broader advance publicity.

The whole set of my 200 slides is available for downloading at http://www.unhooked.com/trxpro/CAADAC workshop.ppt