Through one of the East Texas Treatment Facility’s many treatment programs, Nadine Kelley has found the tools she needs to overcome some of life’s challenges.

“I’ve learned a lot, actually,” she says. “I was an alcoholic, so I’m learning how to deal with my emotions and some anger and some things like that in a more productive and healthy environment. It just gives me some tools to handle things that I wasn’t able to handle before.”

With motivation from staff, fellow residents, and trusted friends, Nadine has found hope for the future as she works to recover and get back home to her three boys.

“Any time that we really need a time out, they’ll let us come out into the hallway to sit down and take a time out if we need to,” Nadine explains. “Some of the staff will pull us aside, talk us through it. I had an incident where I got pretty angry the other day and they brought me out and calmed me down and reminded me what I have waiting for me [at home], like my kids, and what’s really important, and why I’m here.”

The Intermediate Sanction Facility (ISF) program has also given her more confidence in herself and helped heal some of the pain she’s dealt with throughout her life.

“It’s actually given me the tools to do those things because now I know that I can handle life without being under some kind of influence,” she says.

“I can handle it sober. That was my issue before – I had a lot of trauma that I hadn’t dealt with, didn’t want to deal with, so I used alcohol to kind of numb those things. Now, by the time I’ll be home, it’ll be a year. So, I will have been sober for a year. Now that I’ve been able to work through those traumatic experiences by talking to psych here, the counselors, help me through some of those traumas, so now it doesn’t feel necessary to numb it.”

When asked to summarize her experience in ISF, Nadine couldn’t help but emphasize how much stronger she has become because of the program.

“You got to go through it to get through it. I will say it has made me stronger and a better woman and person altogether, so I’d say it was a good experience overall.”