Episode 70: Rewriting Our Stories with Meghann Perry

Explicit content warning

03/02/23 • 54 min

In this candid conversation our podcast host, Dr. Tiffany Wynn, speaks with storyteller, recovery coach and recovery advocate Meghann Perry.
They discuss:

Meghann's recovery story and how she created her storytelling workshops
Why and how the system of the recovery movement needs to be shaken up
How powerful and empowering storytelling can be in the recovery realm
The importance of women's stories

ABOUT MEGHANN PERRY
Meghann Perry, CARC, RCPF, is an award-winning Storyteller, Theater Practitioner, Facilitator, Curriculum Designer and Addiction Recovery Coach Professional. She creates unique learning, growth and performance experiences for people of all ages utilizing a blended practice of Theatre, Storytelling, and Coaching principles, and is a nationally-known educator in the field of Recovery Coaching. She has designed and facilitated countless workshops for diverse groups, including those with mental health and substance use challenges, transgender youth, adults and allies, adoptive caregivers, non-profit boards, and others. Meghann recently integrated Theatre and Storytelling practices into Youth and Young Adult residential treatment services for the MA Dept. of Public Health. She has also worked extensively with adolescents and young adults as a Recovery Coach and Theatre Practitioner.
She is the creator of the nationally-renowned Phoenix Tales Recovery Storytelling workshop which is currently under research as an evidence-based recovery support by the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice at Northeastern University. She served as an Actor, Playwright, and Facilitator of Youth Workshops with the Theatre Prevention organization Improbable Players, and now serves as the Theatre Education Consultant for the Boston-based theater organization, 2nd Act. She recently co-directed the musical, This is Treatment, about Black and brown women in a residential substance addiction treatment program, with students at Northeastern University. She holds a degree in Theatre Education from Emerson College. You can learn more about her at www.meghannperry.com.
EPISODE RESOURCES
Amplifying Women’s Stories in Recovery Advocacy
SHE RECOVERS Together Online
SHE RECOVERS in Chicago
SHE RECOVERS® Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity and a global grassroots movement serving more than 325,000 women and non-binary individuals in or seeking recovery from life challenges including mental health issues, trauma and substance use. SHE RECOVERS is dedicated to redefining recovery, inspiring hope, ending stigma and empowering women to increase their recovery capital, heal themselves and help other women to do the same.
If you found this conversation helpful please consider making a donation to our lifeline organization or sharing it with others who may benefit. We would love to also receive your rating and review of the SHE RECOVERS Podcast on your favorite platform.
Visit sherecovers.org to donate today.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
SHE RECOVERS® Foundation Headquarters is located on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Tewa people—O’gah’poh geh Owingeh (White Shell Water Place)—now present day Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In this candid conversation our podcast host, Dr. Tiffany Wynn, speaks with storyteller, recovery coach and recovery advocate Meghann Perry.
They discuss:

Meghann's recovery story and how she created her storytelling workshops
Why and how the system of the recovery movement needs to be shaken up
How powerful and empowering storytelling can be in the recovery realm
The importance of women's stories

Previous Episode

Episode 69: Using the Enneagram with Julie Dereshinsky

Julie is an International Coaches Federation (ICF) Certified Professional Coach, a SHE RECOVERS® Designated Coach, and an Accredited Integrative Enneagram Practitioner.
Julie specializes in mental health coaching, and working with high functioning, high achieving women who are questioning their relationship with alcohol. Many of the women she works with share the experience that alcohol is no longer serving them the way it used to and they are noticing an impact on their mental health.

Julie is a wife and mom to two young kids, and she spent many years questioning her own relationship with alcohol until she decided to live alcohol free in 2018. In her downtime Julie loves traveling, reading, anything true crime, spending time with her husband and children, and volunteering her time in her community.
Find Julie Dereshinsky here >> www.juliedereshinsky.com
In this episode, Julie talks about using the Enneagram as a recovery tool, how she found SHE RECOVERS, why she chose to work as a SHE RECOVERS certified coach, and how she spends her time helping other women in recovery.
The SHE RECOVERS FOUNDATION is a grassroots movement and non-profit public charity with a community of women in or seeking recovery from substance use disorders, behavioral health issues and/or life challenges. This lifeline organization connects women through its virtual platforms and in-person community networks, provides resources and supports women to develop their own holistic recovery patchworks, and empowers them to thrive and share their successes. All efforts are designed to end the stigma and shame often associated with recovery so that more women may heal and grow.
Find out more and donate here: https://sherecovers.org/

Next Episode

Episode 71: Recovery and Gender Roles with Marya Hornbacher

Gender is often a core part of identity, and like other aspects of identity, it fundamentally shapes our perception of ourselves, each other and our experiences in the world. From the earliest recovery literature to the most contemporary recovery meetings, gender roles have affected and continue to affect both individual recovery and recovery communities.
In this previously recorded episode of our educational series, Mental Health Monday, Marya Hornbacher and SHE RECOVERS Co-Founder Dr. Dawn Nickel, have an insightful, lively and engaging look at the role of gender in recovery.
Marya doesn't hold back as she speaks about being a woman in the recovery space and the difficulties that come along with this.
ABOUT MARYA:
Marya Hornbacher is an award-winning essayist, journalist, novelist, poet, and the internationally bestselling author of five books, including Wasted, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and the New York Times Bestseller Madness. She is the recipient of the Annie Dillard Award for Nonfiction, a Logan Fellowship for Social Justice Journalism, the White Award for Magazine Journalism, the ASCAP Award for Music Journalism, the Fountain House Humanitarian Award, and other distinctions. Her writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Boston Globe, Smithsonian Magazine, Crazyhorse, AGNI, Gulf Coast, The Normal School, Fourth Genre, DIAGRAM, Arts & Letters, and many others. Hornbacher is currently at work on her sixth and seventh books, a work of long-form journalism and a collection of essays.
Connect with Marya on her website.
EPISODE RESOURCES
Mental Health Monday Replaylist
SHE RECOVERS Together Online
SHE RECOVERS in Chicago
SHE RECOVERS® Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity and a global grassroots movement serving more than 325,000 women and non-binary individuals in or seeking recovery from life challenges including mental health issues, trauma and substance use. SHE RECOVERS is dedicated to redefining recovery, inspiring hope, ending stigma and empowering women to increase their recovery capital, heal themselves and help other women to do the same.
If you found this conversation helpful please consider making a donation to our lifeline organization or sharing it with others who may benefit. We would love to also receive your rating and review of the SHE RECOVERS Podcast on your favorite platform.
Visit sherecovers.org to donate today.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
SHE RECOVERS® Foundation Headquarters is located on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Tewa people—O’gah’poh geh Owingeh (White Shell Water Place)—now present day Santa Fe, New Mexico.