A story of determination, resilience, enormous heart and daring to dream.
Alisha, 29, started using drugs in her 20s. At the time, Alisha didn’t understand that she was using drugs to suppress the trauma she experienced in her childhood.
As a mother to four children aged five, six, nine and 11, full-time rehabilitation wasn’t an option for Alisha.
While Alisha knew that she wanted to stop using drugs, she needed to find a rehabilitation program that would work with her commitments as a mother.
Alisha came across CORE – The Buttery’s community rehab program for alcohol and other drugs. CORE is offered during school hours from 9 am – 1 pm as a six-week face-to-face program or online over four weeks.
Core provides participants with group and individual therapy and addresses family and relationship issues. The program also examines neurosciences and the addicted brain and offers skills to manage distressing feelings and emotions. Furthermore, participants reduce social isolation and reconnect to a sense of belonging and purpose in their life.
Alisha says that the benefits of the program quickly flowed into every aspect of her life:
“There is not a part of my life that the program hasn’t changed. I had a severe lack of trust coming into the program, but the programs facilitators, Tanya and Geoff, showed me to trust in relationships. They taught me that it’s OK for me to be myself.”
Participating in CORE helped Alisha to improve her relationships with her four children and family. She also took the brave step of pursuing a lifelong dream of becoming a singer.
In the past 12 months, Alisha has won a singing competition, secured a 12-month recording contract through an independent production company, and will release her first music single and film clip. She is also is undertaking an online business and medical administration course.
Alisha attributes the support and skills she received as a CORE participant for helping her to get to where she is today.
“When you have a lifetime of people letting you down, the people from CORE came into my life and made a difference. They never dropped the ball on being there for me. Even when the program finished, I could call at any time and they were there for me. My whole life has improved and my relationship with my kids is amazing.”
Alisha is enjoying fulfilling a dream to make and share music.
“Music was a massive part of my life. Growing up, my love of music was the one thing that my abuser could never take from me. I want to keeping making and sharing music.
Alisha also has other aspirations to also establish a detox support centre for parents in the future.
“I’d also like to set up a support centre for parents detoxing from drugs. One of the biggest problems I had is that I didn’t have anyone to support my kids. I want to set up a place where mums and dads can come and know that their kids are being looked after when they are detoxing from drugs.
These sorts of programs are needed. This way, people can heal in the recovery process and detox can take place while children are safe.”
