Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug Policy – Details, episodes & analysis

Sarah Laurel turned her traumatic experiences from substance use disorder and justice involvement into a powerful movement for harm reduction and the empowerment of people experiencing harms from substance use and homelessness.

She co-founded Savage Sisters Recovery initially as a residential treatment facility, and along the way went through her own process of finding harm reduction and unlearning the shame and stigma that had become so ingrained within society and in recovery spaces.

Through steady organic growth, she turned the non-profit into a large scale organization providing trauma-informed recovery housing, mobile harm reduction outreach, drug testing, wound care, and nationwide trainings. Operating in her hometown of Philadelphia, she and her team are operating in the region hardest hit by the increasingly dangerous drug supply, and leading the way through radial empathy and compassion.

Check out Savage Sisters at: https://savagesisters.org/

Find Savage Sisters on social media at:

https://www.tiktok.com/@savagesistersnonprofit

https://www.youtube.com/@savagesisters9069

Brandi Mac, NP is a person who dropped out of high school and ended up becoming an ICU nurse practitioner.

She joins McCauley Sexton and Taylor Nichols, MD on the Recovery Reform podcast to talk about her journey to love, acceptance, and harm reduction as the daughter of someone with substance use disorder and who has documented her daughter's journey through active use, treatment trauma, and into remission online along with her own growth and understanding.

You can find her on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram as @the_original_brandi_mac

You can find her website at https://www.brandimac.com/about

You can contact her at Brandimac.creator@gmail.com

McCauley Sexton and Dr. Taylor Nichols bring you Recovery Reform, a podcast focused on changing the narrative around substance use disorders, recovery, and harm reduction, bringing you clinical insights and alternative recovery perspectives.

The views and opinions expressed in the podcast are our own and do not represent that of our employers. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Tara Grace (Burn the Stigma Tara) became a harm reductionist out of necessity after seeing how the limitations of a 12 step recovery model was harming her and her community. She is a vocal advocate for harm reduction and recovering out loud, brining her story and harm reduction education to the community.

You can find Tara at @BurnTheStigma across social media.

Kristina Dennis is a life coach and relationship expert whose life’s work is to show people how to release events of their past so they can become free of limiting beliefs.

Kristina has worked as a coach since 1997 when she realized she had a gift for effectively helping others. As a Certified Addiction Interventionist (CAI), Kristina’s ethical and compassionate approach to individuals with trauma allows her to show people an effective path forward.

In this episode, McCauley Sexton and Dr. Taylor Nichols interview Kristina about ethical addiction interventions and recovery, and how she feels the addiction medicine and recovery communities can improve our work in this space.

Nicholas Crapser PhD, is the current Clinical Director of 4D Recovery in Portland, OR, which is a peer-based support for youth and adolescents seeking addiction recovery. He has a history of lived experience with substance use disorder and justice involvement, and has been a vocal advocate for improved treatment for patients with substance use disorders and re-entry services. He has an excellent TED Talk titled "The Three E's of Re-entry".

Dr. Taylor Nichols and McCauley Sexton interview Eddie Krumpotich, a person with lived experience, former teacher of the year, and an expert in substance use and harm reduction. He has consulted with two of the nations largest harm reduction organizations to help write and advocate for six substance use, harm reduction, and mental health bills in the states of Nebraska, Minnesota, and South Dakota.

Our hosts flip roles, and Dr. Taylor Nichols interviews co-host McCauley Sexton about his childhood, his family history of substance use, his lived experience with having a substance use disorder and in residential treatment, and how he feels he has grown and changed his perspective on harm reduction and the need to reform recovery spaces.

Our hosts flip roles, and Dr. Taylor Nichols interviews co-host McCauley Sexton about his childhood, his family history of substance use, his lived experience with having a substance use disorder and in residential treatment, and how he feels he has grown and changed his perspective on harm reduction and the need to reform recovery spaces.

In the second of two episodes, McCauley Sexton interviews Dr. Taylor Nichols on his path to medicine and how his personal experience with family connections to substance use disorders in combination with his emergency medicine training led him to an improved understanding of harm reduction and eventually to become board-certified in addiction medicine.