My name is Joan Lewis and I do the Relationships and Parenting classes here at Awakenings I feel like the class is very beneficial and important to this environment and this culture because we are a product of our environment, of our history, our past history, and experiences and that dictates how we make our choices as of today In addition to all the coping mechanisms and recovery skills that we learn in our other classes parenting has been somewhat different because part of our recovery includes our children we've also been taught that we are a product of our environment and that goes as well for our children they see and hear a lot of things that we have doneour negative behaviors and recovery doesn't include only ourselves it has to include the whole unit in itself and know that we can't do this alone and not have them be a part of it When it comes down to relationships a relationship in the addiction world is not being in healthy relationships it's more-so the culture of doing what you need to do to get your needs met it's not always glamorous, it's not always the right thing and there's a lot of hard feelings, animosity, frustration and anger, and embarrassment and shame about the things that people have done and it all entails with relationships A lot of our groups are peer led which I kind of like because I'm learning through others and I was told something here not too long ago that resonated "you're not special" and special not in terms of, you know, a special person but special in terms of, what you're going through a lot of us are going through together and you become a family here where we kind of we discuss our kids and our experiences and it's definitely a very family oriented environment Another thing that we talk about in Parenting and Relationships is what a relationship a positive relationship looks like how do you properly communicate, how do you check yourself to make sure you're coming off right with your partner or with your children a lot of times we're unaware of our own body language and communication skills and it's easy to be negative and not even aware that you're being that way and so I try make sure that they're aware of their body language
How is it making others feel? How is it making themselves feel? and I want them to have a positive experience with relationships at the end of the day Recovery is not only you, me, it's the children, it's our family, our moms, our dads, our sisters, our brothers but predominantly our children, they're the ones that spend the most time with us they're the ones that see us at our worst and at our best they're the ones that see a lot of the things that we want to hide from others and even from ourselves and to have that available it's an amazing amazing asset
Parenting Styles
