Shows
Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyMary Beth O'Connor on finding alternative recoveryMary Beth O'Connor is the author of the book "From Junkie to Judge: One Woman’s Triumph Over Trauma and Addiction." She began her recovery from methamphetamine use disorder, abuse, trauma, and anxiety in 1994. She never found traditional recovery spaces such as step-based recovery programs helpful to her, and found alternative recovery spaces early on.
Six years into her recovery, Mary Beth attended UC Berkeley School of Law. She worked at a large firm, then litigated class action suits for the federal government. In 2014, she was appointed a federal Administrative Law Judge, a position from which she re...
2025-08-2657 minRecovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyPatrick Doyle, LCSW on Family Addiction Coaching and the evolution of SUD treatmentJoin us for a conversation with Patrick Doyle, LCSW on a conversation breaking down his own evolution in SUD treatment and his approach in coaching people who use drugs and their families to help improve their lives and address the problems that can be caused by substance use.
As a licensed clinical social worker and Family Addiction Coach, Patrick Doyle has dedicated his life to helping families to navigate the challenging journey of addiction recovery. He is an expert guide with the latest approaches for families who refuse to give up on their loved one. The core of...
2025-08-131h 01Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyKratom: Breaking Down The Plant from The ExtractsOur co-hosts McCauley Sexton and Dr. Taylor Nichols talk about "Kratom" - both the plant and the extracts such as "7-OH" or 7-Hydroxymitragynine - as well as how the active alkaloids function in your body, including binding to opioid receptors, and how to be mindful about understanding and using unregulated substances.
2025-06-2737 min
Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyThe Continuum of Care in Substance Use TreatmentCo-hosts McCauley Sexton and Dr. Taylor Nichols break down the "continuum of care" in substance use treatment and discuss their experiences from the patient and provider side of the continuum - from interventions to inpatient hospitalizations, residential treatment to outpatient or clinic based treatment.
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2025-06-051h 04Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyDee-Dee Stout on Harm Reduction TherapyHarm reduction is more than "needles and Narcan" and Dee-Dee Stout is the perfect person to talk to about the evolution of harm reduction therapy.
Through her own training and her experience as a person who used drugs, Dee Dee has been at the forefront of studying and teaching about harm reduction based modalities of treatment.
Dee-Dee has a degrees in Psychology, Human Sexuality, and Business Management as well as an interdisciplinary Master’s degree in Health Counseling for Special Populations. For nearly 25 years, Dee-Dee has been a member of the international Motivational Interviewing Network of...
2025-05-291h 13Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyJordan Scott on Unlearning and AdvocacyJordan Scott is a person with lived experience with opioid use disorder and powerful harm reduction advocate and person who continues to uses drugs in her recovery. While initially sought recovery from her opioid use disorder through abstinence based culture, which helped her initially obtain abstinence, she has spent years unpacking and unlearning.
She joined McCauley Sexton and Dr. Taylor Nichols and to discuss her unlearning journey, how she came to harm reduction, and her advocacy work.
2025-03-251h 02Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyStigma in Healthcare and RecoveryStigma: a set of negative attitudes, prejudices, or false or unfair beliefs that a society or group of people hold about specific traits or people.
The negative attitudes held against people people who use drugs or people with substance use disorders both within healthcare and within recovery spaces cause harm to people who use drugs or are seeking recovery. As a society, we have the power to change that stigma, and we should.
2025-03-041h 04Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyRecovery Reform 2024 Year in ReviewMcCauley and Dr. Taylor Nichols review their first year of Recovery Reform, what they have learned and unpacked over this past year, and what they are looking for coming up in the next year.
Thank you all for listening or watching, for doing the work of unpacking substance use disorders and recovery, and for being a part of the Recovery Reform community. We truly appreciate all of you.
If you haven't already, please subscribe and leave a comment. That's the best way for other people to find out about us, and to...
2025-01-071h 00Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyKetamine Treatment and RecoveryDr. Taylor Nichols and McCauley Sexton discuss a controversial topic - the use of ketamine in medical treatment including for mental health, such as depression and OCD, and for substance use disorders and recovery, and McCauley discusses his personal experience having received ketamine infusions.
2024-11-1243 minRecovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyViewing recovery through a harm reduction lensOur co-hosts McCauley Sexton and Taylor Nichols, MD break down the term "recovery" to better understand the meaning of recovery from substance use disorders through a harm reduction framework and how we can reclaim the term recovery from the War on Drugs.
2024-11-0159 minRecovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyStanton Peele on addiction, recovery, and breaking the disease modelStanton Peele began working on Love and Addiction in 1970, which was then published in 1975. In these fifty years he has predicted a remarkable number of addiction trends. By now it is clear that the way in which Stanton has reframed addiction for the past four decades – sometimes facing extreme opposition – has been prescient. His central thesis has always been that addiction is not a consequence of taking drugs and drinking; rather, addiction arises from the way in which these and other compelling activities fit into people’s lives and meanings.
You can find his books and his Life P...
2024-10-2741 minRecovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyDr. Lance Dodes on understanding substance use and addictive behaviorsLance Dodes, MD is a psychiatrist and a Training and Supervising Analyst Emeritus with the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. He is a retired assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and prior Director of the substance use treatment unit of Harvard’s McLean Hospital and the Alcoholism Treatment Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.
He is the author or co-author of a number of journal articles and book chapters about addiction, including The Heart of Addiction (HarperCollins, 2002), The Sober Truth (Beacon Press, 2014), and Breaking Addiction: A 7-Step Handbook for Ending Any Addiction (HarperCollins, 2011). Dr...
2024-10-1354 min
Peji's Recovery CornerHarm Reduction & Alternative Recovery w McCauley Sexton #sobrietylife #sobercurious #soberMcCauley Sexton is a consultant, harm reductionist, writer, alternative treatment industry professional, and cohost of the Recovery Reform Podcast with Dr.Taylor Nichols. McCauley offers unconditional support to people who use drugs, while respecting each individual’s autonomy.
2024-09-291h 49Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyChad Sabora on the state of harm reduction and drug policyChad Sabora is a former lawyer with lived experience of drug use and a long-time grassroots harm reduction advocate turned subject matter expert. Starting his journey under the mentorship of some of the harm reduction movement's founders, Chad helped create underground naloxone distribution networks before it was legally sanctioned across the country. Chad embodied the spirit of one of his role models, Joe Strummer who said: ‘The future is unwritten’ because at that time nobody knew naloxone would gain such acceptance in this country, but the people that needed it, needed it now. He also pioneered the first syringe acces...
2024-09-2751 minRecovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyChad Sabora on Harm Reduction as a movement for social justiceChad Sabora is a former lawyer, a person with lived experience, and a long-time grassroots harm reductionist turned policy maker. He's gone from starting underground start harm reduction organizations, importing and distributing naloxone and clean needles, to serving on the committee drafting the framework of harm reduction for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). He joins us to talk about his harm reduction journey and how he sees harm reduction today.
Harm Reduction Framework: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/harm...
Find Chad on TikTok: / chadsabora
Find Chad on YouTub...
2024-09-1055 minRecovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicySarah Laurel of Savage Sisters Recovery on finding and fighting for Harm ReductionSarah 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...
2024-08-131h 06Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyBrandi Mac, NP on her journey beyond the stigmaBrandi 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...
2024-07-2355 minRecovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyTara Grace on her path to harm reduction and alternative recoveryTara 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.
2024-06-271h 04Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyKristina Dennis, CAI on Ethical InterventionsKristina 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 feel...
2024-06-131h 02Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyNicholas Crapser, PhD on Peer-Based Support ProgramsNicholas 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".
2024-06-0558 minRecovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyEddie Krumpotich on Harm Reduction and Drug Policy ReformDr. 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.
2024-03-0658 minRecovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyInterviewing McCauley Sexton - Part 2Our 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.
2024-02-161h 00Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyInterviewing McCauley Sexton - Part 1Our 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.
2024-02-1459 minRecovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyInterviewing Dr. Nichols - Part 2In 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.
2024-02-091h 02Recovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyInterviewing Dr. Nichols - Part 1In the first 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.
2024-02-0758 minRecovery Reform: Navigating Harm Reduction, Recovery, and Drug PolicyRecovery Reform: An IntroductionMcCauley 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.
2023-12-2414 min