Briana credits her eight-month stay at CHD’s Grace House with turning her life around. “What has Grace House done for me?” she said. “Where do I start? They gave me a second chance with me and my daughter. She is 20 months old, and she was with me here the whole time here. The treatment program helped me with many things: maintaining my child custody, my sobriety, and working with the resources in the community outside of the Grace House.”

Grace House, in Northampton, is one of the few residential treatment programs designed for mothers in western Massachusetts, providing up to 14 families with a safe, nurturing environment where mothers and their children can experience success. The residents’ days are centered on recovery meetings, sessions with counselors, and group therapy.

Briana, who is in recovery from narcotics and alcohol use, knows full well that addiction runs in families, and said her father was an alcoholic. In individual and group therapy she was able to dig into the roots of her substance use, as well as coping strategies to navigate her recovery. Her favorite groups have been Relapse Prevention, Nurturing Families, Art Therapy, and Positive Vibes.

Interviewed at the end of her stay at Grace House, Briana said the experience “has made me a better mother—and a better person.” A skeptic might say that raising a child while recovering from substance use disorder would add to a mother’s anxiety, but by including children in the treatment, Grace House is able to treat the whole person. The mothers are learning skills to balance the stresses of parenting and sobriety, so family reunification during this process promotes better mental health, and reduced anxiety.

“The kids are part of your recovery and your journey here, and that to me is huge, because this is the first program where my child was with me all the time,” she said. “In any other program I’ve been, you can’t have your kids with you.”

What would Briana say to a fellow mother with a young child who is contemplating taking the same step she did and getting help? “I would say consider quitting and getting in a program like this,” she said. “Just give it a chance. For me it was a very enlightening experience.”