Hello! My name is Sarah Scott, and I am thrilled to have recently joined Karis Community as Peer Support Specialist at the Stepping Stone Cottage… the position my good friend and former Community Member, Dan Jensen, created and carried out so beautifully. I realize it will be difficult to fill his shoes, but I intend to work hard to carry on what he has done over the past five years.
To tell you a little about myself, I am a Clinical Psychologist by training, though that will not be my role at the Cottage. After completing college in Massachusetts, and my graduate program in Philadelphia, I moved back to my native Colorado and began a career in Behavioral Medicine. However, my struggle with anxiety and Bipolar Disorder, which had begun in college, worsened and was made all the more difficult by developing an autoimmune disorder. For several years I tried hard to continue working and maintaining my life as a young adult. However, I finally got to the point where I just couldn’t work any longer, and my doctors agreed. Thus, I quit my job, sold my home, moved in with my parents, and went on disability. It was devastating, like experiencing the death of my dreams as my life fell apart.
Soon thereafter, my therapist suggested I go to a place called Karis Community. I was terrified and hesitant. While visiting family in Florida, I stood by the ocean and contemplated a decision that I had never expected to face. I understood that, rather than being a failure to go to Karis, it would take all of my strength. I knew I needed to summon this courage to give myself a chance at life.
My predecessor, Dan (and his buddy Chewy), who moved back to Minnesota in August. He was an amazing support for the Community and one of my closest friends. We already miss him dearly.
The first day I was at Karis, I was so overwhelmed by fear that I literally ran down the stairs, out the door, back to my parents’ home, and unpacked my car. The staff member who worked that night asked if I would come back and just check in with her. I did, and our talk convinced me to give it a second chance. I moved in the next day.
I had never been in an environment so honest and open about mental illness and so completely accepting. We were not known by our diagnoses. It was clear that the staff looked at and saw our true selves while simultaneously understanding the pervasiveness and immensity of our struggles.
Karis was a difficult journey for me but also life-changing. I was shocked to see how I, a psychologist, had internalized so much of society’s stigma around mental illness when it came to my own situation. Due to this stigma, I told my parents that I was moving into a community living situation to have roommates and meet new friends. However, when E.J. told me he wanted to meet with them, I panicked and told them he was my landlord. E.J. had to dispel that myth… I tell this not just because it is, in retrospect, funny, but because it demonstrates where I was at… completely unable to accept that I was grappling with serious mental illness.
By the time I moved out of Karis, 2 ½ years later, I had accepted my reality and learned the importance of community in healing from and living with mental illness. I had always dealt with it in isolation. I have heard that loneliness is the greatest social problem of our time, and those with mental illness are more likely to be isolated and lonely due to many factors, including stigma. This is just so wrong. I have been extremely impressed, over the years, how Karis continues to provide a community to its alums after leaving the program. While I have made other relationships in the nine years since I left Karis, I have also continually returned to the supportive community provided by both staff and fellow alumni.
My amazing dog Gracie! We’re always together.
I want to add that E.J. taught me about the possibility and importance of having fun while living with mental illness. I will always remember charades and BBQs. I especially recall volleyball games, led by the funny and loud E.J., joking with us about our dismal serves and missed spikes. Being goofy and enjoying myself seemed impossible and almost wrong at first. However, I learned that it is not only possible but important. This is certainly something I will be cognizant of continuing in my work at the Cottage.
In my training as a psychologist, I was never taught about the recovery model. The idea that any type of recovery from mental illness was possible was never even mentioned. Having experienced so much healing due to living in a community setting at Karis, I began to research this model. I am now a passionate believer that, while mental illness can be chronic with wide-reaching implications in one’s life, people can lead meaningful lives. Community is certainly a critical ingredient in doing so. As such, I was thrilled when Karis opened the Cottage.
Now I am excited at the unexpected privilege of working as a peer support specialist at the Cottage. I never expected to be able to be a part of Karis Community from this end. Being a part of helping others to experience their recovery, whatever that looks like for each individual, can only come from living in a community and experiencing compassion and acceptance for being exactly who you are. Yes, Karis works to help you establish structure and the skills required for independent living, but ultimately Karis makes you realize that your mental health struggles do not define you and that you matter. This was a lesson and experience that changed my life and so many of my friends’ lives. Thus, it is such an honor to be a part of supporting others in their recovery at both the cottage and the alumni group, and I am truly excited to be a “fellow traveler” on these journeys.
Me and my colleague Drew (and our furry friends, Gracie and Hank) at the Stepping Stone Cottage.
Thanks for coming back Sarah. I am so happy to hear about it. Karis saves lives. Oh my gosh. I can’t say that enough. It saved mine. You will do just fine and I know because I have seen it in you. Welcome back and bless you for your service to Karis.