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When trying to access treatment as a mother I came across my own personal barriers.

I didn’t think I could leave my child behind for a long period of time. I also was coming from the island so I had a lot of fear around being so far away.

It became very clear right away that Westminster House was a place of healing and that included involving family and children.

I was supported almost immediately to have contact with my daughter on the phone and the invite was put out to my family to access the family program offered through the house.

Getting clean has created a relationship with my children and family I never dreamed possible.

Through my journey I was able to gain sole guardianship of my daughter and she moved to New Westminster with me. I got to make amends to my older son who my dad and step mother adopted and begin to heal our bond.

I gained the trust and more importantly the respect back of my family and that is worth more than anything else I have in my life today.

To know that i got to make and amends and stay clean and spend the last two years of my grandfather’s life with him not hurting him or disappointing him is something that means the world to me too.

I think for myself I was always weighed down with a lot of guilt and shame. Selling yourself short constantly and never being who you could truly be at the hands of addiction is hard enough but to know that you have these little lives that depend on you to be the mother they deserve can almost make it harder to get clean if you are stuck in the cycle as strange as that sounds. For me I was constantly letting my kids down and myself and refused to feel those guilt feelings for a second so I would pick up.

I knew if i could just get out of the chaos I was in for a bit I would have a chance to fight back and I did.

Westminster House is the best of both worlds in my opinion.

When you come in completely broken, sick and sad they are really there to lift you up and love you until you can start to love yourself.

They also are super committed to being in the solution and in the recovery process and pushed me in the best way possible to dig deep and begin my new life.

Nicole Larose

Westie Girl For Life

To help send a mother or daughter to treatment click HERE

To learn more about this initiative click HERE