Connections App
The free Connections App supports you in every step of your journey through peer support, motivations, sobriety tracking, reminders, discussion groups and connecting you with your care team.
Lindsay’s story – gets support from the safe, anonymous, peer community in the app.
CONTACT SUPPORT
Contact CHESS Health Support for any questions or issues you may have.
Meet the CHESS Health Peer Team supporting the Connections App. HAVE QUESTIONS? Start an SMS chat with a PEER
Meet Austin
Austin (he/they), National Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist, is a person in long-term recovery. He is passionate about assisting others to find their own personal path to recovery. Austin has experience with substance misuse, trauma, criminal justice system, collegiate recovery community and multiple pathways of recovery.
In his own recovery, Austin utilizes holistic methods, such as yoga, meditation, reiki, and energy work. Austin is a proud LGBTQIA+ advocate who creates safe and welcoming spaces, inclusive to diverse individuals. As a Peer Recovery Engagement Specialist with CHESS Health, he promotes wellness and partners with patients to cultivate and improve care of health for mind, body, spirit and community.
Meet Jeff
In recovery since 11/1/2018
Hello, my name is Jeff, and I am a person in long-term recovery. I am currently a certified Peer Recovery Support specialist with Seneca Health Services at our male inpatient facility in West Virginia. I have been a CHESS Health engagement specialist since august of 2020.
My Journey into recovery was not a beautiful one. In 2016 I reached a level of depression and as my mental health depleted, my addiction spiraled out of control. My mental state stopped me from ever thinking there was any other way than my SUD.
In October 2018 I caught a very serious charge and looked at recovery as another way to escape imprisonment. I did not seek recovery with the intention of thinking I had a problem; it was more the world not conforming to my will. At Recovery Point I was introduced to a 12 Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. It was through the 12 steps I regained a relationship with my higher power, realized I had taken my whole life and had nothing to offer it. It was in that moment I decided to give my life to God and helping others. I started pursuing a career in Peer Recovery and moved back to my hometown to bring recovery there where it was so desperately needed.
Coming out of treatment right before the pandemic, I knew shortly after any tool to recovery was vital as options became very scarce. Digital recovery saved me many times over the past year and has made my mission I have set out on to be a very rewarding and blessed one. I never knew what help was until it was too late, I have devoted my life to making sure that is not the same story for those behind me. Digital recovery and through my work with the Chess app has made this a dream come true.
Meet Keith
In recovery since 12/23/96
Hi my name is Keith, and I’ve been in long-term recovery now for over twenty-four years. I’ve been working with CHESS as a Consultant and Consumer Engagement Specialist for over six months now, and find it very rewarding. I have a passion for people in recovery, and a passion for what I do.
I also work as a Certified Peer Mentor for Valley Hope, which is one of the top treatment centers in the country. We have over 64 inpatient and outpatients facilities in 7 states and are consistently ranked as the best, right up there with Betty Ford and Hazeldon. The facilities that I have the pleasure of working with are also ranked number one within the Valley Hope Family. Our Help Us Help You Patient Satisfaction Survey rates are always above the 98 percentile range.
I’ve been involved with, and worked through many different recovery programs myself, including the major ones such as AA, NA, CR, (Celebrate Recovery,) Al-Anon, and I am currently working through the steps with a sponsor in the Al-Anon Family Group of Adult Children of Alcoholics. I have a sponsor and have the honor of sponsoring other men in recovery. I am also a professional magician, who has been doing magic since the age of seven. I started my own business, Magicreations, back in 2000, and have been performing in the corporate world ever since. I love magic, and I especially love being a part of our helping people turn their lives around through the encouraging, empathic, positive and supportive environment that we have created through the CHESS Connections platform. When you love what you do for a living, you never work a day in your life!
Meet Lee
Lee (she, her, hers) is a person in long-term recovery from opioids. She has struggled with depression, anxiety, and with feeling comfortable in her own skin since her teen years. These feelings of discomfort led to her using drugs to feel comfortable and okay. Lee has benefitted from different paths in her recovery, such as inpatient and outpatient rehabs, attending AA/NA, having a sponsor, medication-assisted recovery, and 12-step program. Although Lee has used varying pathways to recovery, it’s not that one didn’t work over the other, but it is Lee’s belief that she needed each of the paths to be successful in her recovery. She is a proud LGBTQIA+ advocate and is passionate about helping others and guiding them in finding their light and full potential!
Meet Mary
Mary, Certified Addiction Recovery Coach (CARC), has found where her talents and passions align with Recovery Coaching. Formerly in the field of digital media, communications, and graphic design, Mary embarked on a new path through her own recovery from alcohol. Deeply passionate about connecting with and validating other’s pain, growth, and experience, Mary has immersed herself in the spirit of recovery coaching and loves supporting and encouraging people to believe that they are worthy of their wildest dreams and that they are enough, just as they are.
Her journey to recovery truly began when she read This Naked Mind by Annie Grace and realized that she wasn’t alone in her desire to eliminate alcohol from her life. Mary’s sobriety community now includes Connections, as well as The Luckiest Club, a sobriety support group founded by the author of We, Are the Luckiest, Laura McKowen. As a Peer Recovery Engagement Specialist with CHESS Health, Mary has the pleasure of communicating directly with patients to listen, uplift, and affirm them wherever they are in their journey.
Meet Matt
Matt (he, him, his) is a Certified Recovery Peer Advocate (CRPA) in long-term recovery from Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). In addition to his personal experience with recovery, he also has extensive professional experience working in the human services field, as well as a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology. During his career, he’s worked as a case manager, coordinator of volunteers, and consultant for non-profit organizations in the United States as well as overseas, in Ireland and The Cook Islands. Among the diverse populations he has served are those who live with HIV, those with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people with mental health challenges, the unhoused, and those facing the realities of aging. Beyond human services, his interest in the world and others led him to teach English to rural northern Japanese (Akita-Prefecture) and central Vietnamese (DaNang) populations. Matt’s vocational passions stem from his experience overcoming leukemia as a child, which gave him a sense of the fragility of life and fired his urge to explore and appreciate as many things as possible during the brief time we have here on earth.
Meet Shane
In recovery since 8/9/10
My name is Shane and I’m no different than you. Despite the fact that alcoholism and addiction was quite prevalent in my family, that I loved drinking and doing drugs from the very first time I tried them, and despite dozens of other warning signs, I saw no reasons to worry. Then, like many of you, I tried opiates. It wasn’t long before I turned into someone I never imagined I was capable of becoming. My life was miserable and I saw absolutely no way out of it. I resigned to the fact that I’d die an addict. I just hoped I wouldn’t have to go through too much withdrawal on my way. I had absolutely nothing and nobody, and I had done it all to myself.
On August 9th, 2010 I finally reached out for help. And I got it. I checked into inpatient rehab and that very day I knew I was DONE. I’d had enough. I surrendered. I took every suggestion, went to outpatient, AA every single day, got a sponsor, worked the 12 steps, and my life got good, fast! Over 10 years later here I am, still grateful, still with that perspective, still vigilant, and still excited about recovery. I got a second chance at life and now I get to support others, as a peer recovery coach for CHESS Health, as they embark on their second chance. Almost all of my absolute favorite people I’ve met in recovery. We have that bond as survivors.
