TSM 17-43 Still Standing After All the Tears with Valerie Silveira

October 16, 2017June 12, 2023Self Discovery Wisdom Podcast

Their Story Matters with Sara Troy and her guest Valerie Silveira, on air from October 24th

Valerie Silveira, Author of the Award-Winning Book, “Still Standing After All the Tears: Putting Back the Pieces After All Hell Breaks Loose” and Creator of the Nine Actions to Battle Your Beast. She is an author of two other books, a speaker, mentor, coach, and consultant.
In 2004, Valerie’s eighteen-year-old daughter was shot by her ex-boyfriend. Over the next decade, Jordan’s* life spun out of control and as a result, Valerie’s spiralled into darkness. She would face the heartbreaking reality that Jordan was a heroin addict and the painful truth that she is powerless to save her from her Beast.
With a heart shattered into a million pieces, a broken family, health issues, financial hardship and depression, Valerie was giving up hope of ever being happy again. At a very dark time in her life, she found a shred of hope, and a tiny bit of courage, and made a decision that probably saved her life – she decided to Stand Up & Fight. “Still Standing After All the Tears” takes you on a journey through the agony and hopelessness of losing her child over and over again to drug addiction, and into the Actions, Valerie used to battle her own Codependent Enabler Beast. Moms all over the United States, Canada, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand are following the Nine Actions and learning how to Stand Up & Fight.
Although Valerie was painfully aware of the possibility of Jordan dying from an overdose, nothing could have prepared her for that knock on the door, August 28, 2016. Her daughter, Jamie, (whom she had called Jordan), was murdered. The nightmare her family lived through in 2004, had returned. Only this time, Jamie didn’t make it.
Through the devastation of losing Jamie, of losing hope of her recovery, Valerie
has fought to regain her courage, to stand up again, and to continue her mission
of helping moms and others. She is living proof that it is possible, even in your
darkest hours, to Stand Up & Fight. Valerie has had a diverse career in finance, business operations, consulting, training and speaking. None of her business challenges came even close to that of trying helplessly to save her daughter. She uses her professional experience and her two rides on what she calls the Roller Coaster From Hell, to help others put the pieces of their life back together. Valerie has an incredibly relatable style, and her sense of humour shows through the pain. The book and the Actions are important not only for families of addicts but for anyone struggling to move through or past a traumatic life situation.
*Until Jamie’s death, Valerie chose to call her daughter “Jordan” out of respect for her story.

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Books:

“Still Standing After All the Tears: Putting Back the Pieces After All Hell Breaks
Loose”
“Still Standing After All the Tears Workbook”
“Still Standing: 90 Days of Wisdom for Moms of Addicts”
Awards & Recognition:
? Amazon #1 Bestselling in two Categories (all books)
? Reader’s Favorite 5 Star Review
? Amazon Review Average – 5 Stars (all books)
? 2015 USA Book News: Health – Psychology & Mental Health
? 2015 International Book Awards: Self-Help
? 2015 Reader’s Favorite: Non-Fiction: Self-Help
? 2015 – 2016: Reader Views – Self-Help
? 2017 Book Excellence – Addiction and Recovery

C16-51&52 Suicide is Preventable we just need to Listen & CARE

December 12, 2016August 31, 2024Self Discovery Wisdom Podcast

kevin

Choose Positive Living with Sara Troy and her guest Kevin Briggs, on air from December 20th

Tis the Season to be Jolly, but also the Season that so many people make attempts to take their own lives. Kevin Briggs, a retired California Highway Patrol Sergeant, has prevented many a soul from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge where he was a patrol cop for 23 years.

We all have mountains to climb, we all have moments when we feel despair, we all need to be heard to know that someone cares, Kevin shares how we can recognize that someone in trouble and what we can do to help them through it.

jumper_jrs_0102_jpg Briggs is a retired California Highway Patrol officer who spent many years patrolling the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. While on patrol, he encountered numerous individuals clinging to life by a thread – individuals who had lost hope and could see no way out of their current situation – ready to jump off the bridge to what they assumed was a sudden death and ending of their pain and hopelessness.

Briggs, through his compassion, gentle voice, eye contact, and his innate ability of “listening to understand” encouraged more than 200 individuals over his career to either not go over the bridge’s rail or come back to solid ground from where they had been standing precariously out on the chord of the bridge and start a new chapter in their life. These challenging, but rewarding efforts earned him the nickname “Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge.” After a 23-year career with the California Highway Patrol, Briggs retired to dedicate his life to promoting mental health awareness across the globe through Pivotal Points, an organization he founded to help Crisis Management, Suicide Prevention, and Leadership Skills.

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Briggs speaks publicly about not having the right kind of professional training to effectively assist persons in crisis when he first began work as a patrol officer. Throughout his career, he reached out to senior officers who had been in the trenches, asking for their guidance – how to approach an individual in crisis, what to say, what not to say, the tone of voice, among many other things. He sought various professional training avenues including hostage negotiator training to continue to improve his skills and abilities. Over time and using all the things he learned, Briggs found a positive way to approach people in crisis, using listening skills he practised to find the “thread” that would encourage individuals to find hope for tomorrow and allow them to make the decision to live for another day. He is a mental health consumer himself – Briggs suffers from depression related to his highway patrol officer and work leader experiences (including a motorcycle accident in which he was severely injured), as well as losing his grandfather to suicide, and other personal and family experiences.

Today, Briggs is mapping a movement as he speaks publicly about his suicide prevention and crisis encounters with people on the bridge. He shares his “Listening to Understand” skills followed up with key active listening points for anyone to use; his personal triad for healthy living; his RELEASE model to assist anyone in crisis; his crisis plan, and his own mental health struggles while serving in the Army, as a police officer, as a cancer survivor, as a family member and father, and as a leader and co-worker. Briggs spends the majority of his time speaking at training events, conferences, advocacy events and walks for mental / physical / behavioral health, college and university, first responder, law enforcement (including FBI), military, AFSP, NAMI, corporations, and other venues.

In 2015, Briggs had the privilege of working across Australia with law enforcement, mental health organizations, and Mates in Construction, which works to reduce suicide in the Australian construction industry. During his time there, he conducted 22 presentations focused on suicide prevention and crisis management.

12800384_1236928576335484_5169890834569620632_n In 2016, Briggs had the privilege of Keynote and Workshop Presenter in Aachen, Germany at the International Federation of Telephone Emergency Services (IFOTES) Conference. IFOTES offers emotional support, immediately accessible to any person suffering from loneliness, in a state of psychological crisis, or contemplating suicide by telephone, mail or chat services. At the time, there were 31 Federations from 23 countries as a member of IFOTES, working with about 22,000 voluntary workers and 1,000 professionals in the member countries.

As an international Crisis Management, Suicide Prevention, and Leadership Skills presenter, Sergeant Kevin Briggs’ story and lived experiences have been featured at the Technology, Entertainment, and Design 2014 Conference as a TEDTalk, Ciudad de Las Ideas (Mexico), Yahoo News, The New Yorker Magazine, Men’s Health Magazine, NPR’s Bob Edwards Radio Show, People Magazine, USA Today, as well as other magazines, newspapers, radio, and podcasts across the world. His first book, Guardian of the Golden Gate: Protecting the Line Between Hope and Despair, was released in July 2015.

In honor of his work, Briggs has received several awards:

2016 recipient of the National Council for Behavioral Health Visionary Leadership Award
2015 recipient of the joint American Psychiatric Association and California Psychiatric Association Warren Williams Award
2015 recipient of the Matthew Silverman Memorial Foundation Matt’s Hero Award
2013 recipient of the ASIS International Outstanding Officer Award
2013 Harvey’s Heroes Award (Steve Harvey Show)
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Public Service Award
California State Senate Resolution for Public Service
Bay Area Jefferson Award for Public Service
Heroes Award, given by the Northern California Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International
2004 International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Outstanding Service Award

Kevin is also a member of Bravo748 helping veterans find their way back into a productive meaningful life.

Buy his book

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A song of love to heal our souls

C16-42a “Just 2 Choices” revolution with Rico Racosky

October 1, 2016November 16, 2021Self Discovery Wisdom Podcast

Choose Positive Living with Sara Troy and her guest Rico Racosky, on air from October 18th.

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Philosophy of Just 2 Choices:

Just 2 Choices has its roots in both aviation and art—two of Rico’s favourite subjects as a kid. Fast-forward in life, as a pilot first for the US Air Force and now for a US major airline, Rico has applied aviation’s step-by-step processes, analytical skills and logic, as well as applied art’s visual layouts to left the Just 2 Choices materials, to make learning key information faster so people can say “I get it!” and quickly and immediately apply it to improving the quality of their lives—beginning right here, right now—with their very next choice! Prior to writing Just 2 Choices, Rico has used his aviation and art background to write and publish three “visual guidebooks” for young people on positive choice and goal setting (elementary school, middle school, and high school).

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As Rico sees it, every moment as a “Just 2 Choices Moment”—a new opportunity to make a new and better choice in life—to turn ORDINARY everyday choices into EXTRAORDINARY choices everyday to live an extraordinary life…choice by choice by choice! It’s a Choice Revolution! Thank you for checking out Just 2 Choices!

Enjoying both art and aviation, originally Rico Racosky planned to attend college to study commercial art, but made a last-minute switch to aviation. While still pursuing flying, he continued his interest in the graphic arts by writing, designing, and publishing three fully illustrated, visual guidebooks for youth on setting and achieving goals: Go Vertical! Life Has No Ceiling; dreams + action = Reality®; and d+a=R™ (see “4 kids” tab). In addition, Rico’s spent more than 20 years speaking in schools and youth programs around the USA, sharing the dreams + action = Reality philosophy that “Not one of us knows what great things we can achieve until we ricoracosky-violetshirt take positive action to find out for ourselves.” Growing up in Johnstown, PA, Rico received his undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Science) from the United States Air Force Academy and graduate degree (Masters of Science in Management) from the University of Southern California.

Rico’s professional pilot experiences span a variety of aircraft—from fighters (F-16 and A-7) to transports (C-141 and Boeing 737) to sea planes, gliders, and light air-planes. Formerly a pilot and flight instructor for the US Air Force, Rico is currently flying the Boeing 737 as a Captain for Southwest Airlines. In addition, his aviation experience includes working as a supervisor of aircraft maintenance.

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C16/26b “#StateWithoutStigMA” and the Ryan Fund for addicts.

June 12, 2016August 7, 2021Self Discovery Wisdom Podcast

Choose Positive Living with Sara Troy and her guest Ryan Skinner aired June 28th

Addiction-Stigma21

Dedicated to raising money for children who have been orphaned by parents who lost their struggle with addictions, veterans who are battling those destructive demons and the homeless, The Ryan Fund is one of the ways I have chosen to make good on my second chance at life. I was blessed with this in recovery after struggling for years with multiple addictions. The Ryan Fund is an extension of my mission to be of service, and to show people that despite the great odds, there is always hope.

When I think about how the idea for The Ryan Fund became an essential part of my life, several powerful images come to mind. When I was younger, I would drive down the highway into Boston and see a billboard with a picture of a beat up station wagon and the caption, “Apartment that Sleeps a Family of Six.” It was a wake up call to the homelessness and poverty that I had been blind to. I’ve always been a spiritual person, so I would pray to God to help me find a way to make a difference in the lives of people who lacked what I took for granted. At one point during my downward spiral of addiction, I lost my house to foreclosure and began waking up in sketchy places. This helped me understand their plight in ways I hoped I would never have to. When I entered the recovery phase, one of my goals was to give back and be a blessing to others. I began talking to addicts and those in recovery and donated extensively to numerous charities.

But there was still something more I knew I could do. The trigger to starting my own organisation, The Ryan Fund happened May 1, 2015, when I saw in the Boston Herald a photo of a 10 year old girl who had been orphaned by her parents, who died of overdoses just two weeks apart. I was immediately motivated to act. I reached out and contacted the organisation that was in charge of placing her or finding her a home. I inquired about adopting her. Because of my background of addictions, they wouldn’t let me apply. But I still wanted to give this girl and others like her a better life. That was the start of The Ryan Fund, but I have since expanded its outreach to help veterans and the homeless as well. These are our heroes who fought for our freedom and the system is letting so many of them down. They descend into addiction to help them cope with their problems and then get on a downward spiral intofull-blownn addiction. They need our help. The homeless need our help as well. I’m honoured now to have the opportunity to contribute to helping them find their way out of the darkness.

I just want to do something for these kids, veterans and the homeless – and look forward to working with The Ryan Fund to serve as many of them as possible. Working in the financial service for many years has well prepared me for the journey and challenges that lie ahead.

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download (3) Under the leadership of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and Marylou Sudders, Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, the Bay State has embarked on an extraordinary effort to become a “#StateWithoutStigMA” – using education as a tool to de-stigmatise drug misuse and addiction so that those who suffer from the chronic disease will become more likely to seek help or treatment. In her official message, Sudders writes, “Stigma hurts. Treatment works and recovery is possible.” No Massachusetts native more powerfully embodies the reality of this hope and deliverance from that darkness than Ryan Skinner.

While acknowledging that recovery is a lifelong process, Ryan is grateful that he can now share a harrowing story with a happy ending – because a handful of years ago, it easily could have ended for him in tragedy. He and some other friends he made who made it out – husbands, fathers, business owners, employees – hang out together weekly in a group Ryan and his sponsor Billy began hosting in his living room. They call their group “Dead Men on Vacation (DMOV),” because, he said, “Based on what we did to ourselves as addicts, we should all be dead.

We’re all grateful for second chances.”

download (4)

People often find it ironic when Ryan tells them that being a drug addict was the best thing that could ever have happened to him, but they understand him once he explains: “I had a terrible fall and thank God now that I can help people who are going through it. It gave me a purpose and a strong connection with divinity and my fellow human beings and in essence, made me bulletproof. When parents come to me feeling hopeless about their addicted child and tell me ‘people don’t recover,’ I tell them ‘I recovered.’ Looking back, I realize that I was cancer in the lives of my parents, the children of my ex-wife and so many others – but now my only goal is to be a blessing to people. My day to day joy comes from being there for others like so many were there for me. If one less mother can cry herself to sleep because of me and my story, I feel like everything I have been through was worth it.

I’m blessed now and want to be a blessing to others.”

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TSM 15/35 I Walked away from Addiction

August 26, 2015September 7, 2023Self Discovery Wisdom Podcast 2 Comments

Their Story Matters with Sara Troy and her guest Jayda Jay, originally aired September 1st/15

This interview is for anyone struggling who believes the life they’re living now is unchangeable. I’m living proof there is a solution to the disease of addiction. It’s up to you to choose to hear me and take your own path to recovery, it can be done.

My yesterday and my today, I am now really living and not avoiding life

8 months ago I checked myself into a detox facility where I embarked on this life long recovery journey. I was literally empty. Bankrupt in every sense of the word, in every form imaginable. Physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually & most definitely financially. Today, I am a changed person. I live a life of freedom. I don’t have to depend on a substance just to be able to get out of bed. I take care of my body, mind, my soul and spirit. My life is rich with family, friends and a support network of people who I can always trust. I am beyond grateful to be given such an amazing opportunity to live the life I was truly always meant to live. 1 out of 10 people suffers from the disease of addiction. 10% of the population. Sadly, very few take the opportunity to receive help yet it is available to us all so freely. Especially in British Columbia. Many think it’s impossible. Through education, rehabilitation, therapy & an abstinence-based recovery program I received the help I needed.

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Jayda Jay gives love advice. Originally igniting her radio and media personality flame in a BC Broadcasting College, she embarked on her personal journey of life lessons, purposeful experiences, and career path success. Her creativity, passionate flair and on-air radio abilities were encouraged in the curriculum where she developed her producing, writing, and voice skills. Thriving behind a microphone in a studio setting, Jayda was asked to co-host a Sex and Relationship Talk Show at CJSF 90.1 FM. She felt passionate, driven and intrigued discussing love topics live on-air. Jayda specialized in asking and answering listener’s taboo questions. She adored advising couples as well as singles from her perspective while researching topics and sharing her knowledge. This was the beginning of her passion-driven career path and destiny. She ultimately stumbled upon her life’s true purpose.

Too many never make it out alive. ?#?SufferingIsOptional ?#?Recovery ? #?SelfLove

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Detox centers in BC Canada 1866-658 1221. Be persistent if you want recovery, if this is what you really want to recover then keep ASKING, they want to help those who are ready for help.