SMART TAKES

Subject: SMART TAKES

Secular Conversions, Fight Stigma with Stories, Peer Support in Prison

Welcome to SMART TAKES, our new look monthly newsletter! We changed the name, cleaned up the format, and made a commitment to offering research news in every issue. Feedback welcome. Enjoy!

Podcast
SMART Spirit: Dr. Joe Gerstein on Secular Conversions

For more than 30 years Dr. Joseph Gerstein has been collecting stories from SMART participants about powerful emotional experiences related to their recovery journey. He has now written a captivating essay about the nature of these occurances that includes examples and analysis of what he calls "secular conversion experiences." His insight into the value of these experiences and the common elements found paints a picture of how our cognitive functions connect with the more emotive features of our lives.

In this podcast, Dr. Gerstein, SMART's Founding President and a retired professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, talks about what these experiences mean for people and how it demonstrates that there is room for everyone in tes the spirit of SMART.

Listen Now

INQUIRING MINDS...
Can the use of personal stories reduce stigma by healthcare providers toward patients with Opioid Use Disorder?

This article from The Recovery Research Institute reports on various messaging strategies that were employed in campaigns to reduce stigma by healthcare providers who treat individuals with OUD. The bottom line is that personal vignettes matter when it comes to moving beyond assumptions and prejudgments.

Read Article

Podcast
Where Passion and Purpose Collide

Nichole "Nikki" Lowder is a Program Manager at the South Carolina Department of Corrections. She brings both her lived experience and professional training to her work with incarcerated individuals who are trying to make important changes in their lives.

As Nikki began her own recovery journey, she discovered her passion for helping others who were facing similar crossroads, and made a drastic career change.

In this podcast Nikki talks about her personal struggles, the power of peer support, and how watching the ripples spread from her work brings her incredible satisfaction.

Listen Now

The journey of recovery is often filled with false starts and unsuccessful attempts to change. The Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (“Stages of Change”) envisions recovery most often as following a cyclical rather than a linear path.

This presentation will highlight the potential flaws and the helpful components that play a role in successful recycling and recovery. The goal of the presentation is to help provider and changer to learn how to find value in past unsuccessful attempts to change.

SMART is pleased to welcome professor, researcher, and author Dr. Carlo DiClemente, co-creator of the well regarded Stages of Change model, as our 2025 featured speaker. Registration is required, webinar link will be sent via email.

Find out more and register

Blog
"Dry January" and Beyond

[Guest Blog by SMART Facilitator Rick Kuplinski]

The beginning of a new year for many people is a time for resolutions, often a pledge to stop doing something (if not forever, then at least for a while). For an estimated 13 percent of American adults this includes participation in “Dry January,” which is a vow to abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages for 31 days.

Maybe you are participating, or considered participation, in this year’s Dry January, either for alcohol or another intoxicating substance, including legal cannabis. Perhaps it is because you’ve grown concerned about the costs of your something-something vs. its diminishing benefits...

SMART Recovery USA’s National Conference will be held April 3-4, 2025 at the Hilton Charlotte Airport Hotel in Charlotte, NC.

Registration and Agenda Information

This year's theme is Building Communities of Empowerment. Building on last year's conference, we intend to highlight how SMART can be at the forefront of building communities of empowerment at the local level. We have an unprecedented opportunity to make the promise of multiple pathways a reality today in more and more diverse communities.

We are thrilled to present a broad range of keynote speakers!

¡SMART Recovery está ahora en español!

SMART Recovery es un programa gratuito de grupos de ayuda mutua para aquellas personas que quieren abstenerse de cualquier comportamiento adictivo, ya sea sustancia o actividad.

Tú estás en control de tu recuperación. Con SMART Recovery, las personas encuentran el poder dentro de sí mismas para cambiar y llevar una vida sana, plena y llena de satisfacciones.

Visita nuestra página web www.smartrecovery.org.es para los horarios, herramientas, y más recursos.

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NEW SMART MERCH!

SMART Recovery Apparel & Merchandise

Don’t forget that we've launched a line of apparel and merchandise in our shop

that is available to order anytime you'd like! Show your SMART spirit with shirts, hats, coffee mugs, backpacks, laptop sleeves, and more!

Shop Now

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Help us help others by providing a gift today.

Your tax-deductible contribution to SMART supports our self-empowering, science-based, stigma-free approach to recovery. Together we can transform recovery - one unique individual at a time.

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SMART Recovery is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

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Subject: SMART TAKES