about

Sonja Riddle

When I was twelve years old I told my father it was me or the heroin. I had just set my first boundary. Although it was unclear to me at the time, in that moment my career in the helping profession began. My experience with my father’s substance use disorder, and the impact it had on my family in the decades that followed, drove me to break my silence about addiction with the hope that my story might help those still suffering. As a result, I’ve spent over a decade engaged with several of Canada’s leading residential treatment facilities where I’ve been able to work closely with families just like my own. Today I am able to share a message of hope and offer a new direction.

 

 

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

  • Master’s of Counselling Psychology
  • Bachelor’s of Social Work
  • CCPA Certified Counsellor
  • Trained Invitational Interventionist
  • Program Development and Consulting Experience

 

I have more than 10-years of experience working with families and youth in the field of addiction. Over this time, I’ve worked across the full continuum of care in several of Canada’s premiere treatment facilities and developed necessary programming for the inclusion of family healing.

 

what we do

When addiction is present in the family, loved ones find themselves feeling afraid, alone and unsure of their decisions. The below services are designed to provide peace of mind by creating a partnership that allows you to feel confident in the decisions being made about the health and wellness of you and your family. These services can work in conjunction with one another or independently, and each service is individualized to meet the unique needs of each situation.

INVITATIONAL INTERVENTION

The Invitational Intervention process works with the entire family system to establish an environment where addiction can no longer thrive. By starting with our own healing, families can implement changes that support health and wellness for themselves, while also promoting treatment engagement and recovery for the person-of-concern. This means that change can happen immediately, and we are no longer left with the helplessness of waiting for someone else to change. Unlike traditional intervention methods, your loved one is invited to participate in every step of this process. This method’s success in achieving long-term recovery lies in its dual focus on treatment entry and completion for the person-of-concern as well as family healing and education to support the treatment and recovery process.

INDIVIDUAL COUNSELLING

Are you interested in learning more about the ways you or your family have been impacted by witnessing active addiction? Do you need help talking to your kids about addiction in the home? Or maybe addressing your partner or child’s using? One-on-one counselling sessions can be arranged for youth, adults, and couples looking to better understand substance use disorder and the effect it has on the family system.

 

FAMILY MEDIATION

Do you have a loved one who is in treatment or early recovery and you’re not sure how to reintegrate as a family? The readjustment of our loved ones back into the family system after treatment requires significant support. Family Mediation is a combination of individual, couples, and whole family sessions as needed to help families heal from the traumatic impact of witnessing active addiction. The residual effects of this experience including fear, grief, sadness, anger, and nervous system dysregulation require emotional processing and re-stabilization for every member of the family. Additionally, Family Mediation is designed to help people better understand addiction as an illness and how this fundamentally changes the way we engage with it. This work focuses on understanding relapse prevention, early recovery issues, relationship repair, boundaries, communication, and available community resources.

RECOVERY COACHING

Recovery Coaching is also available to those with treatment resistant loved ones. When a loved one relapses after treatment, or simply refuses care, families are often left feeling helpless and out of options. What we know is that family members who are supported to engage in their own recovery first are more motivational than professionals alone and have the potential to significantly impact treatment engagement and outcomes. Education and healing for families provides us with the self-care and support that often gets lost in the process of witnessing active addiction. Without this guidance, families find themselves engaged in repeated patterns of ineffective behaviour that disadvantage those with substance use disorder, seriously diminish their own quality of life and contribute to burnout, exhaustion, and various stress related disorders.

LET ME COME TO YOU

Due to the invitational nature of my work, all services are provided via the Zoom platform. This means no travel and no contact necessary to access support for you and your loved ones.

our approach

Invitational Intervention is an evidence-based, best practice approach to helping resistant loved ones enter and successfully complete treatment. This technique is different from traditional methods in that it uses a non-confrontational and transparent approach specifically designed to respond to the fear, grief, guilt, and anger of those living with an addicted loved one. Unlike traditional methods, your loved one is invited to participate in each stage of the process, but treatment for the family can and should move forward with or without the participation of the person-of-concern.

 

The foundations of Invitational Intervention are based on Transitional Family Therapy which recognizes that, at their core, families are inherently healthy, competent, and resilient. I believe that, if guided in the right direction, families are actually more powerful in affecting change than are treating professionals! And, with the guidance of Family Mediation and Recovery Coaching, and its focus on long-term healing and recovery for the entire family, life after addiction is absolutely possible!

Why It Works

  • Removes blame, shame, and guilt from any one person.
  • Inclusion reduces hostility and increases treatment participation and engagement.
  • Removes the isolation and secrecy that allows addiction to progress.
  • Encourages family healing and education that supports the recovery process.
blog

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Aug 22, 2017
Almost a decade after the death of my father I am still living with the residual affects of his... Click Here To Read More

Death and Addiction: The Feelings Nobody Wants to Talk About

Jul 17, 2017
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When Helping is Harmful–The Fine Line Between Helping and Hurting

Jun 19, 2017
If you have ever loved an addict, it’s likely you’ve heard the word “enabling” before. Maybe friends, family, or... Click Here To Read More

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