“Jesus take the wheel, take it from my hand, I can’t do this on my own, I’m letting go…” The words to the song that was the first to play on my radio after I prayed for God to save my life on April 2, 2013 at the age of 54. Living with lifelong Substance Use Disorder and with personal trauma stacked in my past, I was positioned in life for relapses and overdosing. At one point, I was taking over 2000 prescription pills a month. In my darkest hour, a family member told me I was a burden to my children and talked me into killing myself. In the moment before I acted, I pictured my children standing around my coffin and I prayed for a different way out. Eight years later, I am a Certified Holistic Health Counselor, Recovery Specialist, Certified Mental Health Educator, advocate, and Keynote speaker on recovery, self-care, wellness, and awareness.
Through self-care and spirituality, I found my daily journey leading me to wellness of mind, body, and spirit. Throughout my teaching and working with clients, I share these tools with others who are recovering from substance use disorders, mental health disorders, and trauma. I support and guide them through their own journey. Write Pray Recover: A Journey to Wellness through Spiritual Solutions and Self-Care is to bring that same audience to wellness. “Self care is the actions that we take to achieve wellness, and wellness is where we stand in our power.” The 36,000 word manuscript is part memoir and part recovery journal for the reader. I walk the reader through my experiences discovering and implementing tools of fearlessness, boundaries, self-care, meditation, prayer, awareness, surrender, and strength-building. Work pages with prompts allow readers to begin using my experiences to form their own path to wellness. Every recovery journey is different and Write Pray Recover is about identifying one’s own needs to make that journey as successful, sustainable, and fulfilling as it can be.
I delivered the Keynote speech on my Wellness Approach to Recovery program at the Chris Ashman Wellness and Recovery Conference in December, 2018, to 500 people, to rave reviews. In addition, I am one of the creators, along with 6 other professionals from the Mental Health Association of NYS of the Mental Health and Wellness 101 training which we created to support the newly passed (2018) Mental Health Education Law in NYS. Further, I am the sole creator of the newly developed and very popular Mental Health and Wellness Literacy Professional Development which I have been providing to educators, administrators and support staff in the surrounding school districts in Rockland and Orange County, NY.
In my first year of recovery, which began on April 3, 2013, my story as it stood then, was published in the book, “Living Passionately: 21 People Who Found Their Purpose – and How You Can Too!” My blog articles were purchased and published in an online recovery magazine called www.recoveryconnection.com.
I am eager and excited to share my journey since that time offering solutions and suggestions to a life where one can thrive post addiction and mental health disorders through spiritual solutions and self care!
Love and blessings,
Wendy
Write Pray Recover 