My City Wellness Summer 2022

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Healing Together ... Serenity House Communities

BY CHERYL DENNISON

It’s a place of serenity and healing the natu ral way. e Serenity House Communities (SHC), for merly known as Serenity House of Flint, is a nonpro t Recovery Community Organization (RCO) that provides substance use and co-occurring disorder prevention. Founded in 2015 by Tara Mare no-Wallen, the mission of SHC is to advocate for people in recovery and provide holistic options for those recovering from substance abuse disorder, codependency and trauma. “I saw a need in our community for what we do,” Mareno-Wallen shares.

others experience success with it, as well. ere are 120 RCOs in the United States and Michigan has 13 of them. “We are the face and the voice of recovery,” she adds. SHC addresses substance abuse, codependency and trauma of any kind. Recently added to the services o ered there is Holistic Recovery Coaching. A recovery coach is a person with personal recovery experience who supports participants in their recovery e orts. e recovery coach directs people to the right resources, helps them navigate the systems that are in place, and o ers accountability, support and guidance.

e organization’s Executive Director, Mareno-Wallen worked for many years as a news and feature reporter and has been on a healing path for 15 years. She earned a Master’s Degree in Composition and Rhetoric from the University of Michigan and received training in recovery coaching in 2016 through Gene see Health System. Mareno-Wallen shared that she had tried a 12-step pro gram in dealing with her own recovery, but nothing really worked for her. She was healed with the use of holistic medi cine and founded SHC to help

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