Thanks to our alumni who have provided their testimonials!

Sage Health Centre helped me to pick up the pieces of my life that were crumbling around me.  I was looking through an alcoholic haze and had lost sight of everything that was important to me- family, friends, a 25 year career in teaching, the freedom to drive due to a DUI.  But mostly I had lost my self respect.  The people at Sage were compassionate, supportive and helped me each day to develop the tools and the belief in myself to begin to rebuild my life again.  the process of recovering from an addiction is a kind of a de- and reconstruction. You look inside, examine each individual piece, toss out the useless, rehabilitate the useful and put yourself back together again.    The staff understands the struggle of dealing with the many issues of addiction.  Being part of an aa program is an important part of the ongoing recovery process.  its about going through the steps and taking care of yourself.  One day at a time has turned into almost 2 years now!   I have my self respect and my life back.  Thank you Sage!     T.K.

I was picked up at the airport and excused myself right away and went to the bathroom and vomited in the sink. Between passing out while vertical and my reluctance to try again, I would never have made it there on my own. When asked how I was, all I could come up with was ‘sick’. After 8 days of sleeping and reading, also trying to eat again in the calm safety of detox, I was ‘dragged’ shaking and sweating to Sage Health Center. Actually almost kicking and screaming. I was afraid, of failure, of how my disease wasn’t  ready to give up. I wanted to stay and I wanted to run, but I didn’t run.  I tried to be polite through the admitting process. I felt a lot more knowledgeable than the student social worker that admitted me, my impatience was tempered by a mothering instinct, I was a nurse being nursed. Truly a superiority complex mixed with an inferiority complex, another symptom of my disease.   I was relieved to be shown to a comfortable room for my bedroom. Perhaps I could stay after all. I ventured to the  cafeteria, good food and people introduced themselves one by one, a small enough group that actually noticed me. The program ensued. I felt a sense of being part of, part of this group right away almost, however reluctant I was. My intellect was challenged by the lessons and insights , I remained  ready and willing to challenge right back, and I did. I was met with responses that were always encouraging and validating, I looked for and never once heard any negative response to a persons contribution to the group process groups.  At this  I only upped the anty and actively participated  even if only to find a loophole or   argument. My opinions were again validated, steam settled and  listened and watched. Lots going on, to relate to and to learn from.  Always the group was left with something to think about, and me in it, began to ease out of my self protective mode, and into the comfortable routine. Thinking, writing and participating, going to meetings almost daily, yoga and meditation all took time , and  I began to get quietly better. I especially liked the meditation, no harder than daydreaming, it provided me a way to get in contact with my own sense of inner peace. I would need that inner peace to face challenges ahead, and I drew on it as I took what I was learning and experiencing to heart. I found a peace that I could access instead of the mentally kicking and screaming alcoholic way I entered the Center.  I grew, however reluctantly I had begun, an enthusiasm and comfort found me. I learned and put into practice some coping skills that had eluded me in past years, always the drink was my solution, not now, I began to draw on my counsellors for their support and knowledge. Open door policy I was told, and i tested that theory out more than once. Still the challenger. I was met with acceptance and wisdom. And, above all, honesty. I cultivated my inner peace and access to it, finding calm in moments of fret. I started to think of myself as ‘in recovery’ and sober, clearer , stronger.  Looking back now, sober 4 months and 19 days, i remember the goodbye hug from my counsellor, who called me ‘sister in recovery’, that makes me feel pretty good. Panic is gone. I still attend meetings and counselling. Recovery is a process , not an endpoint. Also gone is the intense shame and guilt, in it’s place is a sense of belonging to a group of very brave people who through honesty , openness and willingness have entered into a better life with better choices. Thanks to Sage.  Oh and an endpoint. MY husband read this , and said to me, ‘It’s a good thing that you had Sage to go to then isn’t it?’  Hindsight, whew, and, yes. C.

Sage Health Centre has not only saved my life… but has given me the opportunity to live a life beyond my wildest dreams. The staff here is not only loving, compassionate and understanding, they are like family.  I have learned more about myself and addiction than any book could ever teach.  The experience and knowledge I have absorbed here is beyond my years.  I have so much gratitude for this place, I can’t emphasize enough how they’ve changed my life in so many ways.  I’ve never seen so many wonderful people work so well together.  They are a team, they are a  family and they are improving the lives of others each and every day!  Thank-you Sage for bringing my dreams to light and for believing in me and for giving me the opportunity to live a happy and healthy life full of love.  A beauty!  Thank-you for making miracles happen in my life  C.M

When I went on sick leave for MS in the fall of 2008 my addiction sensed that my daily routine which I maintained for years was gone.  It was then that I started drinking in the morning, within six months...I was a total broken individual that lived to drink and drank to live.  With the intervention of my employer, I found Sage Health Centre...the groups gave me a greater understanding of myself and my addiction...Sage Health Centre offered me a very unique program, they new which direction to guide and assist me in "doing life" again without my drug of choice...If addiction is making your life unmanagalbe, you will honour yourself by attending Sage Health Centre.  J.