Episode 89

hey everybody and welcome to another amazing episode on this beautiful Sunday of finding Peaks your host and president founder Chris Burns more importantly and more intentionally the recovery cheerleader here at Peaks so grateful to be bringing on my guests today we have a case manager Tyler K uh there we go I love pronouncing his last name right it’s beautiful but he’s one of our case managers also a Hawaiian native repping the Hawaiian shirts there you go looking great grateful to have you on thank you absolutely and then we have another dear friend of mine Mariano Rangel and he is a residential assistant but I would say all things residential Mariano has spent years in our residential Department not because he hasn’t had the ability to promote out of it is because he’s so freaking valuable within it that we can’t let him go um so I’m so grateful to have these guys on the show I say it a lot but I’m going to say it today these folks are great professionals but what you’re going to learn throughout this show is they’re much better humans authenticity and vulnerability is the name of the game today and I want to jump in and talk a little bit about how these professionals are helping your loved ones integrate into the community and helping the early stages of their treatment program digestible for them but before that I really want to get into how Mariano got here as well as Tyler they both have a really cool recovery story on overcoming a lot of adversity shame pain trauma mental health you name it for these guys to be sitting here today it’s a true miracle and I’m just really grateful to be sitting with you guys so I want to start with my piano and just ask you how did you get to Peaks and how did you find recovery um it’s a it’s a funny story uh I went to treatment in Pueblo and I got sober there they didn’t teach me anything about any type of mental health it was all my addiction um alcoholism and that’s what they said got me to where it was after I had finished that program I had went to a sober house started there I started doing these classes it was peer recovery coach classes okay I’d met one of our ccas there his name was Joseph best Joseph best was working at Peaks I believe for two months and we started talking he’s like I think you would do really good at this place I was like well let me try it out so after I completed my pure recovery coach classes I found Peaks and uh the rest is history what year what year did you start with us uh 2000 I believe it was right before covet because they started putting ccas in mobile home or uh what was it RVs yeah and I was the guy that was actually picking up the meals the food for each property yeah and that’s how I started wow yes what an interesting way to come in and in the pandemic and out of kind of like really the lens and that was the lens for me as well when I came into treatment the lens that I had been staring through was 12-step and it is it’s a great start um what did you find when you came to Peaks that was maybe suddenly um available to you from an information or an educational perspective that maybe you hadn’t seen before um personally and professional so once again coming from knowing only about addiction and and nothing about mental health and I believe that’s when Peaks was just starting to get into the more of the mental health aspect uh I didn’t know much and I started as a 12-step person uh and all I knew about was just 12-step and then we did a lot of 12-step and I started giving my information of 12-step and that’s all I knew yeah I started seeing more of the mental health side uh as you say a lot it’s it’s not why the drug why the alcohol it’s why the pain right and I had a lot of pain it’s extreme a lot of pain that I was dealing with and I thought I just used because I like the substance sure I did but I also had a lot of pain that I was covering up yeah uh so that part I started seeing the curriculum change uh be more towards mental health once again and uh knowing the difference between the two I thought the two were completely different yeah you don’t have one without the other basically so that’s it’s hard not to compartmentalize them too especially you know I know bits and pieces of your story but you said you had a lot of pain a lot of Shame and you come in and you have this opportunity to walk through a treatment program in Pueblo in a 12-step way of life and for a moment there this is life-saving stuff this is life-changing and we really feel from a really entrenched perspective like I’m indebted to this they’ve done so much and I still say today that those men and women in the 12-step way of life did so much for me um and it’s not one without the other I think it’s a both hand proposition that we’ve talked about you know really taking care of our mental health and really kind of engaging in our community opportunity connecting with family community and culture Maybe by way of 12-step which I think is really powerful but maybe for the viewers Mariano maybe let them know how you came into such passion for this work
so the passion comes from I was talking to the gentleman there we go [Laughter] pulling up here I used to pick up my drugs and alcohol or my drugs right here at the at the the Depot right down the street at Acacia Park I used to sell drugs stuff like that um you know being on these streets I remember days of sitting there on on the on the curb in the middle of withdrawal or my addiction and looking at families walk by and I would be like man I want to be like that and I’m never going to be like that and that’s what I told myself I’m never gonna be like that and to be able to and to feel the the despair the the loneliness and seeing as these people are walking by and that’s the loneliness and the despair is where I get my passion I don’t want anybody that comes through our program to ever feel that way that I did that loneliness is is
ugly yeah it’s dark it’s miserable it’s all the all the all the words that you can think of that are negative uh those are the days that I spent and so I definitely don’t that’s where my passion comes from in my heart I lead a lot of times with my heart it’s because I don’t want anybody to ever feel that way and if you’ve ever seen me on campus I’m the guy that’s giving hugs sometimes they’re like you need to ask first and I have a hard time doing that because I’m so it’s so ingrained in me because I needed that yeah and I wish there was people out there that would do that to me at that time and so I do that a lot and um yeah that’s where my passion comes from is knowing that people are broken alone and I don’t want anybody ever feel that way yeah I mean catching before the curb catches them exactly I love that and I think that’s with the new lens and the mental health Focus that’s the opportunity we get um is we get to come in with some authentic information that fits and say man we can heal from this you’re not different than me no you don’t have this special thing no you’re not a pariah you’re part of you’re my brother you’re valuable because of not because of what you did correct right it’s powerful yeah because you are you know it’s cool man I love that man and that’s a lot a lot of the tune why I feel so impassionate to show up each and every day as well is I feel like we have a really really integrated opportunity both on the campus in the community in the IOP in our Circles of life to really to really enact really cool change just through connecting holding space it’s amazing it’s amazing so well I appreciate you checking in with that man it’s uh thank you I think it’s really important to get some context to where all that passion comes from and um you come by it honestly man and you’ve grown through a lot our clients are lucky to have you that’s for dangster definitely yeah I’m lucky that I’m there I’m able to be happy seriously yeah Tyler um a little bit of the same I just um Tyler’s one of our case managers obviously he helps um folks as they come into Peaks really on the onset of okay what does Aftercare look like who is it with where are we connected and why does it matter it’s one of those things that Peaks recovery that we probably Focus just as much on the Aftercare plan is we do the inpatient treatment plan just because we know that connective features and the integration in the community is so important but before we get to kind of what you do as a professional maybe talk a little bit about your journey not only while you’re in Hawaii but transition over over here to Colorado and your daughter and some of the powerful messages that you’ve shared with us before yeah so it’s a it’s a long story it’s been a long road but um yeah so okay we start with Hawaii I was I was homeless I was homeless I was using I’ve I’ve lost all hope there was no part of me that that wanted to get clean because I couldn’t find a reason to you know and similar to what Mariano was sharing earlier like I would sit on the bench you know and watch families walk by I would watch dads with their daughters walk by and I just hated them I hated them because why do you get to do this and I don’t yeah and I just grew you know resentment of my the position that I was in you know so it was just I didn’t want to change I thought I couldn’t change right what what led me to change was I I got arrested I got arrested I was facing a felony charge and that just that woke me up that woke me up I didn’t know what recovery was I didn’t know what it looked like the only thing I knew about like you know 12-step meetings I knew that from from movies hi my name is I’m an addict I’m an alcoholic right that’s that’s all I knew about it so I get into this recovery thing just not knowing what it where it was going to lead me who I was going to turn into or anything I just wanted to stay out of jail I get into it and it’s a whole new world that you open up to you know just a life enjoying a life without substances was unimaginable unimaginable just your regular day-to-day things without substances is unmanageable so yeah I get clean I get clean um how long were you um out there on the streets five years five years five years yeah and I think what’s important too to mention in that is you know I’m sure your family’s like you don’t need to do this right you don’t you don’t need to do that but it’s it’s when we’re in that place of loneliness and isolation and despair to your guys’s Point everything’s pretty ugly and pretty negative and it really takes great great people in a recovery Community who you introduce yourself to to Really begin to grow out of that and have some hope right
so um your experience of coming off the streets what was that like it was different yeah um I felt like I didn’t fit in yeah I felt like I would never have fit in and especially you know moving up here to Colorado to be with my daughter and her mom yeah um it’s it’s growing up in Hawaii right you see the tourists coming in and they have things they can spend their money right so being a local you know you kind of you kind of grow resentment and you kind of wish you had certain things right so now I’m moving up to Colorado to the main states and it’s like I don’t I don’t fit in here I don’t have what they have you know I got earrings I have tattoos yeah so that was a whole nother shift for me just to just to gain some confidence in myself it was yeah yeah that transition has to be tough man right it’s so much more it feels even even more simple over there and kind of the American dream if you will the intensity of which society pushes mental health into the crown is alive and well right and I never thought about it from that perspective but transitioning from a place like that it’s a little bit more simple and coming over here your ability to integrate into the community was probably really tough at least up here yeah you know I’m sure everybody’s like come on you know right right but up here it’s almost nearly impossible right right but oh that’s interesting how long after you moved here did you start working in the field a week yeah two weeks out of out of rehab I decided this is the field I wanted to go into right because I was so stuck on the streets for so long there is no way out there’s no light at the end of the tunnel I found the light I can help others find that light this is the field I need to be in yeah so I came up here knowing that I wanted to be in this field Google search treatment centers in the area I came across this I think I got a call back in a couple of days and I was that was it when did you start with us Tyler 2021 early 2021 nice yeah yeah um and a lot like Mariano I mean the Peaks and just what we do in Peaks culture too even just not with just clients but staff and team we all sit down with each other we have smoothies we have coffees we talk about what’s working in our recovery and I’ve sat down with both of these gentlemen at certain times and they’re like what does this look like and what does this look like and we’ve been able to share and exchange that information through that privileged opportunity that we’ve had over these years I’ve experienced a tremendous amount of insight which has created an opportunity for growth what is it Ben that’s really shifted I know Mariano spoke on it really well but what has it been for you that’s shifted since you’ve come to Peaks because it really does feel like both of you since the moment I met you nearly years ago now have so much more hope in your personal Journey your professional Journey your outlook your wisdom the way that you sit with people um so maybe what has that been for you has it been a personal thing or has it been professional or both I think it’s it leans more towards the professional side um for me it’s just it’s just growth how can I be better what more can I learn to to help the next man find that light at the end of the tunnel and you know if we’re talking about 12-step you know 12-step is a good foundation for me it was a good foundation it got me into the community when I moved up here right but I feel like it’s incomplete you know when we start diving down and we start saying our resentments and things like that where does that leave us you know we still got all of that to deal with yeah we said it we shed it with a sponsor right but now what do we do right so just finding that shift and trying to just complete the transition yeah it’s it’s interesting on a professional level yeah and it’s it’s beneficial on the on a personal level yeah yeah because really getting to see that that authentic opportunity to say okay resentment it is why right not because I’m having a bad day it’s because I’m generally resentful or I’m generally angry my generally my brain’s trying to keep me safe generally my brain’s trying to keep me out of feelings that I’ve detached from since a really early age why because it’s safe right right right and so I love that opportunity that we all have today to really call it what it is we get to go kind of see where that route is repair it and get this really holistic opportunity to heal right and it’s not just us this is the clients that are coming in we get to heal you get to let go and heal and not just let go right right I do love that 12-step methodology because in that it’s a counterbalancing right and one of the most cost effective things I’ve seen you guys as well is just one person struggling with their mental health sitting down with another you know and walking it through and that side of things so yeah um and I want to make sure I mentioned too that you carry a tremendous amount of pride being from Hawaii um and I think your only your only family member out here right do you have any other family members outside except for my uh my daughter and her mom yeah we’re from Hawaii so they’re from Hawaii that’s about it though okay yeah yeah I mean maybe talk to the viewers a little bit about I mean when you go to Hawaii we have a lot of um folks that come out here to treatment from Hawaii because the resources out there aren’t early and often they’re not available when they are they’re backed up or they’re oversaturated and you know what does it mean for you being out here you know a native uh Hawaiian Hawaiian and being out here in recovery and really pushing this pace and helping others so far from home I feel accomplished yeah I feel accomplished because a lot of people don’t make it out of of Hawaii yeah you know there’s so much pride there I’m Hawaiian this is this is my land this is my people I’m gonna stay here and I’m gonna I’m gonna protect it whatever that might look like you know I’m gonna stay here I’m gonna ride it out I’m going to show people what Hawaiians are right so so you get stuck in that that mindset and it’s hard to live out there yeah it’s hard yeah there’s a lot of crimes a lot of drugs there’s a lot of everything it’s small area area it’s a small area yeah and it’s it’s just hard to escape it yeah so even when you know before the shows walking around the block and you know you get a sense of Pride and accomplishment because I made it out yeah you know I drive to work coming down Old Ranch Road you can see Pike’s Peak yeah in the morning and it shines purple yeah and that’s just it just hits me like I made it out yeah and I think I want to make sure the viewers know too is like I’ve had the opportunity to sit with Tyler um in in the movement out here to Colorado isn’t an effort to walk with and help his people long term um I think it shines like a bright light and I think initially it feels and I don’t have any experience with it just sitting with you it feels like I’m doing my people or this state or this this world and this culture a disservice but then you leave and you start taking care of your mental health people start reaching out to you from back home being like hey man you look good now you’re spreading in an infectious message that the world and your people can hear so clearly and I just think it’s it’s not only already impactful um it’s going to continue to be even more impactful and you’re just getting started on that side of things yeah you know it’s exciting yeah yeah for real um Mariano talking about client culture okay specifically client coach what I want to touch on before we get out of the show and I thank you both for sharing a little bit of your story and whatnot but client culture different than the approach maybe that we used to use or maybe in in addition to the approach that we used to use what are you finding through meeting people where they’re at trauma-informed care what are you finding through meeting people where they’re at in regards to the client’s ability to settle something that I really struggle with in my early career was clients get into treatment they don’t feel safe they want to leave we got to talk them out of leaving what I found at Peaks and specifically through ural’s approach and the way that I think you meet with them on the front end you all have this ability to meet him where they’re at and they really begin to settle in a way that I haven’t seen in my career specifically over the last few years so maybe on the ground level with the client care rates since you tend to spearhead a lot of that stuff or be a part of that spearhead what have you seen on that side of things that differently that clients are really able to digest more so than kind of like being with someone instead of talking at someone potentially right I would I would say the recent finding really good ccas to start with um that are able to just have a good way of of connection also de-escalation stuff like that and being just more intentional along with now besides that having people help us along the way we have meetings I believe once a month where we’ll get a clinician in and they’ll talk about a certain uh like de-escalation last week we did anxiety actually it was a couple days ago that we did anxiety having doctors come in and teach us more about uh MDD or a certain type of uh mental health we have so many different things going on where we are getting trained on how to do things better even though we might know so a little bit sure getting a better taste and a better example of how to do things on a more professional level rather than just winging it I think that that has helped tremendously to be able to broaden ourselves as staff because at times I’ve I’ve caught myself being like I don’t know how to do this I’ve never seen this arise I’ve never seen a person with such diagnoses or you know such like that but having more training along the way has been extremely beneficial yeah I love that you hit on that man it’s when I first started in the field we were the position was called house manager it wasn’t a client carried and I love how we’ve shifted that position for good reason because you were educated you’re trained and you’re connected you’re integrated into the clinical model and everything in between I think that’s something really exceptional for CCA culture and the ability to meet meet clients where they’re at my old experience was you come in as a house manager you’re sober so you know how to do that and you just go help people be sober right and I can’t tell you how many young people I sat with and they’re just like yeah that’s not working no and I’m like well did you do this did you do this like man I just got here yeah but to your point what you all do is you move in right you guys have learned motivational interviewing you’ve learned how to hold space with an individual to walk into somebody having a mental health episode and simply just be there with them and say that sounds really freaking difficult man and they’re like yeah it is instead of saying I got a solution a lot of the times I wanted to talk yeah and it’s a lot better to just have an ear sometimes because I’ll have something we just want to be heard yeah you know and when we’re working with mental health a lot of times that’s it man it’s just been a long time since someone’s let me sit uninterrupted tell my side of things and that can be really really beneficial so I appreciate you sharing that man that’s a and it’s been a huge shift on campus that I see and I I just go for smoothies and group but clients ability to settle in the onset of treatment and throughout the integration process is exponentially better than it was five years ago and it’s really cool to be a part of man just watching people feel safe and it’s really just getting on their level yeah emotionally you know all of that it’s it’s you know you got you got this some clients who have a rough day rough week I’m leaving right now I’m gonna walk up this driveway and I’m leaving yeah okay I’m walking with you I’m gonna walk with you you know they sit down on the floor they start crying in the corner we sit down on the floor right next to them you know I’m here with you we’re in this together I know how you feel I’ve been there yeah but there’s a way out of this right yeah that’s beautiful man that’s like getting down into the manhole with them right right instead of sitting over the top that’s that empathy stuff we talk about Jason always defines it so clearly instead of being like man that’s a shitty hole you got that’s old culture right right I didn’t get here by mistake yeah I love that man you sit down with them it’s beautiful man and that’s my experience at Peaks and that for what you guys both said when you’re looking for the difference um I think that’s it right there is those subtle meaningful moments that matter that mean everything right yeah meaningful moments that matter that mean everything and um Tyler a little differently than Mariano he works with them throughout treatment and helps integrate them into the community integrate them into the IOP process what have you found and I think it has a lot to do with the work that we’re doing on ourselves too if we stay active and involved in our mental health recovery we can really feel like we’re a part of the process with these individuals that are recovering right um what have you seen throughout your job as a case manager maybe as you’ve started to dive into some personal work but really on the client side as well as like how are you finding people settle when you can meet them where they’re at
it’s creating that rapport you know creating a rapport because a lot of clients come in and they don’t even know what treatment is right right you know they don’t know what recovery is they just know they needed help and they reached out and this is what they got so it’s just it’s just guiding them through that you know and because I did my work personally you know I can speak from experience where hey when you leave our residential setting this safe environment you’re going right back into this this environment that you came from how are we going to balance this right right how we’re going to maintain the work we’re doing here transition outside how we’re going to maintain it and it’s and it’s scary it’s scary and you see the the stages of the clients they come in scared through the middle of their stay they’re right they’re nice and comfortable they got some sessions in they’re learning new things they’re intrigued now it gets towards the end and now they’re scared again yeah right because they’re going right back out so just to guide them through that process where hey if we just take this step by step we got this yeah I love that man you explain that really well and oftentimes what you’re dealing with too and I don’t think people conceptualize this a lot they just think Joey wants to leave because he’s pissed off or he doesn’t want to do Aftercare because he’s mad at his family or uh you know John doesn’t want to engage in this because I think oftentimes what you’re dealing with especially throughout a treatment episode is individual esteem and so you come in if you’re anything like me I’m batting zero I’m not batting a thousand yeah my esteem is in the tank I don’t have a lot of self-worth haven’t been seen valued and heard in years in fact I feel like someone just threw me away in a trash can and so you’re coming in trying to say hey you’re not only worthy of this 45 days but this 90 thing on the other side they’re like yeah are you kidding me like I get chills when I talk about it yeah but you’re right as the team and others begin to build individuals up they gain this certain level of resiliency and even though the fear comes back up at the end the willingness is there yeah because they’re putting themselves by that point hopefully number one in their treatment plan but it takes a lot of work to gain that esteem and that value yeah but it makes a lot of sense to me why you know people come in we hear the admissions line all the time you know so-and-so wants to come in for one week in two hours yeah it’s like and I’ve been there on the admissions I’ve been like I’m I can only I’m only gonna do a week and they’re like we’re trying to scholarship you for 30 days Chris and I’m like I’ll do two weeks you know you’re like this is free but we’re butting up against a lot of things yeah um maybe just kind of lead the viewers with the opportunity um for Hope in that transition what is kind of some of your greatest experiences
what is the greatest thing to experience on the back end of a treatment stay as a case manager like how are you fulfilled
the hope that they the hope that they they leave with right yeah because now we have a plan now we’re now we’re moving into something life is scary we all know that and we’re moving back out into it right but we got this in place we got this in place now you got people to call now you got tools to use you know what you’re doing yeah you’re you’re not going into you’re going into the same environment yes but you’re going into it a different person yeah watching that transition right it’s huge right yeah Mariana what about for you what is what is just some depth to like the experience it Peaks as a professional like what are some of your greatest gifts when somebody leaves because people sometimes say to me they say Chris ah oh what you do for a living oh it’s like it’s charity work or something I feel like I got the greatest job on Earth because I get to watch people come in Hopeless and have hope come alive right in front of me and I’ve said it before on the show my goal for every person that comes through Peaks this isn’t the teams goal is my goal is that everybody has more hope than they can remember having and that’s how I choose to remember that experience maybe for you it’s it’s similar
you know I like Tyler had stated they come in they’re just broken deer and headlights once we start showing them are what how we did it what we went through how we went through it sharing stories stuff like that you start to see this light Flicker at first then come on completely and I’ve heard many times at the end of their 30 days 45 days I want a job like you guys have because
you guys have purpose and it’s not because you’re you’re getting paid for this we can tell that this is more than getting paid this is something that I don’t know if I would do this but if I wasn’t getting paid would I still do it probably yeah uh but they start to see that they start to see that we’re not just there for a paycheck we’ve been through the depths we’ve seen the darkness now we’ve seen the light and we’re able to shed that light on somebody else and they start to see that after the the amount of days and uh I can’t tell you how many clients that I’ve reached that point with and they’re like this is something that I want to do because I like how you represent yeah so it’s got to be a cool feeling it’s it’s an amazing feeling I always remember that because we don’t we don’t ever see people coping with substances we watch them come in pretty raw and vulnerable and watch them quite literally become bright lights in front of our eyes it’s an exceptional opportunity um it really is and I really appreciate you explaining that so eloquently I think maybe what we leave the viewers with is like Peaks recovery is this opportunity to come in um and the thing maybe that’s different at Peaks isn’t something that you can see but maybe something you connect with and that you feel and then when you leave you embody so that’s what hands down Peaks is different from any other place we do this oh we live it yep we live it and that’s what everybody needs that comes through Peaks is that well I appreciate you guys coming on the show man it’s been awesome I could sit here and talk to you guys forever but we only have so much time on this Sunday to get it out and that kind of thing but um really appreciate you guys coming on again amazing professionals even better humans Mariano Tyler thank you so much to our viewers out there thank you for checking in once again on this beautiful Sunday please find us on all of your social media apps that start with apple music Spotify Tick Tock Instagram Facebook podcast you name it we’re out there we’re putting out some ticks talks this week happy recovery mental health still matters peace