Counseling begins with attending . The work of an Alcohol and Other Drug Counselor (AODC) is not to direct change, but to attend to another person's lived experience and they move through their own process of change. They witness change. They celebrate change. They may from time to time, nudge change. But they do not drive it. Attending is a disciplined form of presence. The counselor remains engaged, observant, and responsive without prematurely organizing, correcting, or t

For decades, addiction treatment and mental health care were often delivered in separate systems. A person might enter a substance use disorder (SUD) program to address alcohol or drug use, while depression, anxiety, trauma, or other mental health conditions were treated somewhere else—or sometimes not treated at all. "In the Old Days ", treatment programs grew out of AA communities. Archway Recovery Services shares this legacy. When it was founded, ARS services centered aro

I received an email today from our Community Engagement Manager, Leslie Silver. She joined our Enhanced Care Management team at a community event recently in Vacaville. She sent me the following email to express her appreciation for our ECM team. Our ECM team is at work in the community helping those living with a substance use disorder and/or co-occurring mental health diagnoses to get the help they need. Here is Leslie's email: I wanted to take a moment to share how impres