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Testimonials



02.01.2020



Raw & Uncut



“After becoming aware of the "Raw and Uncut" group offered by One New Heartbeat about a month ago my life has been changed. The openness, acceptance, honesty, peace and support I feel from the people at this group has been amazing. This meeting allows me and the others to share about anything we want at any level as peers and leaders. Everyone has something different to offer and I learn so much from how others are living life, thriving and achieving their goals and dreams in the face of whatever life brings their way. I've begun to practice meditation on a deeper level than before and have more confidence that I am where I'm supposed to be right now. Over the last few years I started being involved in various forms of leadership for jobs, volunteer work and now online support groups. Being able to find a balance between sharing and supporting as a leader in a group and sharing as a peer has been difficult. I was looking for a group to support me in my own challenges. As a leader I need to be fed in order to feed, I need a group that offers support for me and teaches me ways to learn and grow. This meeting feeds my soul on a deeper level and I learn wellness tools to pass on to others when participating in the groups that I lead. Lately I have been speaking out more and participating in organizations in my area. I feel a stronger sense of purpose and connection to the world because our group members live all over the world. The fact that these meetings are available and offered online is amazing. One New Heartbeat is amazing and I appreciate everything they do to make the world a better place. “ Much Love!!!!!Thanks everyone! Athens, Georgia

“I attended The Copeland Center’s 3 programs on Microaggressions many months ago. At the end of each program Waynette shared about the Raw & Uncut group. In being a novice when it comes to being involved with the Black Lives Matter movement I immediately jumped on board to attend the group. I did not know one person when I entered that Zoom room. I needed to find a place where I could communicate with people about how angry and upset I was and how I as a white person needed to make serious changes in myself and through advocacy as well. I immediately found a cohesive group of individuals from all different walks of life – people who have achieved wellness, who are still working to achieve wellness and people at the beginning of their journeys not to mention people of all different backgrounds – race, religion, and so much more. The group has not only provided me a place to share emotion but also ask questions in a non-judgmental atmosphere. The group has become a place where people who have never met in person have gotten to know one another and care about one another. People touch base outside the group and when I haven’t been able to attend when I go back people tell me they missed me. Raw & Uncut – I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants a non-judgmental place to learn and grow”
Participant, New Jersey “

A niche space to be yourself that accepts you and supports you, Raw and Uncut is essential to my life and well-being. I look forward to these meetings every Monday and Friday, where I can speak my mind and be embraced and supported by some of the most authentic and empathetic people I’ve ever met” Participant, Virginia “I’ve never had a safer place to share my raw and uncut stories of wellness and recovery, challenges and growth, met with unconditional love and support from our group. “
Participant, Florida

When I saw One New Heartbeat start up and I got to be a small part of it, I saw more than just ambition. I felt the compassion and the strength that these individuals have to help others. After so many years of searching, I found something in me that I've been looking for in me. I've brought that knowledge with me to Costa Rica and it has been keeping me safe each minute that I live. Everyday that I leave my front door, I look for a better day. So I thank all of you for giving me a new life. Your all in my prayers each day and in my thoughts every minute.
Love, Joe Mendoza Company : USMC Retired

Peer Groups Proven to Help Veterans with Housing and Job Sustainability
by Ren Kramer
A SAMHSA conference was held for grantees and consumers of homeless housing April 23rd thru April 28th in Washington DC. As a client and receiver of a Section 8 housing voucher, I applied for and was fortunate to receive a scholarship to attend the conference. It was 3 ½ days of intense workshops involving 400 SAMHSA professionals and 36 clients. The emphasis was on client feedback on what was successful for them and what may not have worked so well. As a member of the Board of Directors for One New Heartbeat and being scheduled to take the WRAP facilitator course in June 2011, I was very interested in seeing how the WRAP program was viewed by the grantors and grantees for the homeless. Did the pros even know about WRAP? Had WRAP been successful? How had the pros implemented WRAP?  Being new to the WRAP program, I listened carefully to what was said and two messages came through loudly and clearly throughout the conference: 1) peer groups increased the sustainability of housing and jobs from 60% to 90% for client attendees and 2) the WRAP program was a highly thought of way for getting wellness skills to clients. As a strong believer in the WRAP concept, I was highly energized and have made an immediate priority and developing this as an adjunct tool for veterans in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. For me, it is an easy to teach tool that will help any age group maintain their health and mental wellness. The federal government representatives (the Surgeon General’s people that I talked with, especially) felt that the WRAP program when combined with a scheduled peer group fit their two main criteria for government approval: cost effectiveness and a strong evidence base practice success rate.
The train is at the station—let’s go for a ride!

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03.2021



Youth



Since early 2O17. the Health Ambassador Program for Youth (HAP-Y), which is a program that is a part of the Crisis Center. has benefited greatly from the support of One New Heartbeat & The Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery. Specifically, we have collaborated with Waynette Brock, CEO of One New Heartbeat, who has helped facilitate WRAP trainings for the HAP-Y participants. This is such an imperative part of the HAP-Y program, which aims to educate youth community members ages 16-24 in the areas of mental health, mental health stigma reduction, and mental wellness. The Crisis Center greatly appreciates being able to collaborate with you all by Waynette coming in and helping facilitate the WRAP trainings, we have been able to successfully train 52 youth in WRAP. We have heard great feedback from the participants, who state that they had never before known how to care for themselves but after the WRAP training, they have a stronger sense of self-care and know exactly how to use their WRAP plan for wellness. In addition to being able to train 52 youth in WRAP. by Waynette coming in and facilitating the WRAP trainings, it has encouraged three of the Crisis Center's staff to become WRAP facilitators. This is a huge success for the HAP-Y Program, the Crisis Center, Starvista, and all of San Mateo County.Cost can often be a barrier for many who would benefit from such trainings, and we are so grateful to have had One New Heartbeat work with us to remove this barrier when possible. To be able to spread the word of WRAP impacts the community in such a positive way, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to continue our collaboration.
Thank you so much for all your support, time, energy' and commitment in ensuring the wellness of members of our community.
Program Manager of StarVista's Crisis lntervention and Suicide Prevention Center.

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12.01.20



Recovering from Addictions



Addressing the opioid epidemic with early interventions and prevention strategies Self-monitoring using Taking Action & WRAP®: An individualized system for monitoring and responding to uncomfortable feelings and behaviors including addictions. Difficult feelings and behaviors are normal responses to traumatic circumstances to what is happening in your life and should not be minimized. This process is designed to help change the way we think about those areas of our lives that need to be changed, and also focuses on how to develop and keep a strong support system that fits your individual needs.


"Recovery can be confusing, frightening and elusive. At least that is my experience. Like many others, a number of inpatient and outpatient treatment programs did not provide me with ‘something’ that I needed to recover my hope and life. I heard many clichés and directives about ‘staying clean and sober’. I tried to understand my addictions and ‘issues’. Sadly, no strategy that I was offered helped me to understand how to feel better, empowered me to take control of my feelings or to manage my reactions to life’s challenges. In hindsight, after many years seeking some elusive and mysterious key that would help me to begin to live, feel, relate and exist in the world in a way that I could be comfortable with, I learned about ‘wellness’ through WRAP. It was a new concept that I had never heard of before. A part of my recovery journey is that I have become a Certified Addictions Treatment Counselor. In the process, I learned much about addictions and why they operate so powerfully in the human mind, heart and spirit ... overcoming even survival instinct. Addictions operate in the physiology, mental, emotional and spiritual realms. Many recovery paths and strategies support people to stop using substances, but many feel they stop short of facilitating processes of healing and personal empowerment. It is clear to me that WRAP offers a framework for wellness that is the most effective addiction treatment and management tool that I know of. It gives one tools they can use and proactive plans things they ‘can’ do, rather than focusing on what not to do. That is not to disparage 12 Step or any other recovery models. WRAP never does that. WRAP is simply a complimentary addition to any other strategies that a person may choose to engage in to achieve personal recovery and a life that they want for themselves. The reasons are many … and simple. Addiction behaviors are reactions to emotional stimuli that a person does not have healthy coping skills and tools to manage. WRAP offers exactly the right tools, for the right challenges, at the right time (‘when you need them’ Plans and Action Plans) that empower people to ‘respond’ to difficult feelings, rather than ‘react’ to them. Having had a personal WRAP for more than nine years (almost 20 in personal recovery), I can share that it has given me choices and options that support me having a life of peace, joy, empowerment and freedom that I had never been able to imagine before my addiction, and certainly not after it became active. The reality of having the ability to affect my own states of emotional, mental and physical wellness fuels my perspective that life becomes amazing when people are empowered with the ability to simply be well. That there is a simple plan, supported by wellness tools and actions unique to each individual’s needs is amazingly simple … and doable by anyone, regardless of past experiences. That people can use WRAP to recover their wellness, defend against difficult feelings that drive the triggers, despair, desperation and hopelessness of addictions is nothing short of miraculous. "

Current Mentee 


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" FROM CONVICT TO CEO"
HOW WRAP® & Mentoring for Re-Entering SAVED MY LIFE



(One former inmates journey from convicted felon to CEO)That’s a pretty bold statement I know but it is fitting because it’s absolutely true! I will attempt to paint the picture of a past life, littered with drug & alcohol use, exactly how it brought me to my knees, and how One New Heartbeat's WRAP® Facilitators and Mentors provided me with a set of all-encompassing tools that allowed for my health & sanity to be restored. By the time I was 30 years old, I had been using drugs and alcohol for half of my life. I was your typical teenage kid who started smoking marijuana in order to fit in socially and to feel comfortable in my own skin. Drinking was just another socially accepted norm, and for a time it seemed to have enhanced my social functioning, completely overcoming any social anxiety that an adolescent normally experiences. I did not realize that I was playing with fire at the time, because I was genetically predisposed to be an alcoholic-addict like my father before me. I was sure that I was the exception, not the rule. The progression took is easy to see from the outside looking in, but zero visibility into what was going on with me. The progression was: Marijuana & Alcohol (15 y.o.), Hallucinogens (17 y.o.), Cocaine (20 y.o.), Type II Diabetes diagnosis (23 y.o.) Methamphetamine (25 y.o.) Opiates (27 y.o.) Incarceration (30 y.o.). Throughout the course of my active addiction, I was blind to the progression which manifested itself in the form of deteriorated relationships, lost employment opportunities, health consequences (withdrawal seizures, diabetes complications), homelessness and ultimately the loss of my freedom. I found myself in jail, facing some serious time, wondering what my life had become, where it had all gone wrong. I wanted something, anything, to show me how to live, to show me how to be a decent human being. Clearly my way of living, my way of doing things, had not worked. I finally conceded to this fact, but it seemed that I was a day late and a dollar short, because I had come to the point where I had to be locked away from society, from myself. Left to my own devices, I would have surely run myself into the ground. I was both very surprised and desperately grateful to hear that services were being offered within the jail for men who wanted to change their lives. CHOICES a behavior modification program modeled after Delancey Street’s Therapeutic Community graciously took me in and allowed me to finally begin working on myself. The dedicated staff invested time, energy and various resources aimed at my recovery from my alcoholism/addiction. Between all of the 12 step meetings, Relapse Prevention classes, Resume Writing Classes, Breaking Barriers & Communication classes, I really loaded up on all sorts of ideas and concepts which laid way to how I was supposed to maintain my sobriety. One class, however, really taught me how to centralize, map-out, practice and hone-in on a necessary structured routine that I still use to today to keep my recovery alive and well. This class provided me with a hightened level of self-awareness in order to correct unhealthy thoughts which would lead to unhealthy behaviors, before it was too late. “WRAP class”, sounded appealing from the start, because of what it stands for: Wellness (I want it), Recovery (I need it), Action (I can practice it), Plan (tangible, on paper). We were completing our list of Wellness Tools with our awesome facilitator Waynette, and I remember getting excited when she said “Nothing is too big, nothing is too small to go on this list. You can pull from EVERYTHING!”. I had been exposed to so many recovery resources (12 Step AA, 12 Step NA, classes on morals, institutionalization, etc.) that it was so relieving to learn that I could centralize all positive tools in one place from all modalities, and personalize it based on what was clicking with me at that moment in early recovery. Different resources resonate differently with different people the Wellness Toolbox allowed me to capture all of it based on what felt right at the time, all without anyone saying “no, the program is supposed be like this.” The Daily Maintenance List is my all-time favorite because I use this to this day. The concept that I had to do a certain number of key things in order to maintain my mental & physical health was completely new to me, and this couldn’t have come at a better time. By the time I had gotten to jail, my diabetes had progressed to the point of insulin dependence. Needless to say, I was not a fan of poking myself with a needle to administer insulin, nor was I a fan of the rapid drops in my sugar levels, the cold sweats and shaking, all because I was new at managing this disease and jail wasn’t exactly the best environment to learn the ropes. I learned quickly that physical exercise was a critical part of my recovery process, as was maintaining a healthy diet. These were outlined on my Daily Maintenance List as specific tasks, measurable and time-bound so that I could stay on track. With the implementation of this new concept, I eventually needed to get off of insulin because I was finally leveling out to where my body wanted to be. Who would have thought that if I just dieted and exercised that it would be manageable? Well, I knew that this was expected of me as it was explained to me by a doctor 10 years prior, but as we find out in recovery, knowing is simply not enough. Making a list of Triggers was not hard we had discussed this in other classes, both internal and external, emotional and environmental. What I didn’t have was a direct plan of ACTION to take in the event that those triggers came around, or how to even know that I had even been triggered! Cuing in on the signs leading up to the Triggers eventually lead up to my second favorite part of the WRAP: Early Warning Signs. It turns out that my level of self-awareness was pretty low in that I didn’t know what it looked like when I was beginning to get angry, depressed or fearful. There were a number of physical cues that I was able to map out, which would eventually turn into behavioral cues in the later stages. The great thing about knowing my Early Warning Signs is that it is much easier to address the Warning Sign (via the action plan) when you’re aware of it on the front-end, as opposed to winding up in a heated argument with someone and wondering how it even got that far. I learned that my EWS are not as much about the desire to drink or use, as much as they are about irrational thoughts and unhealthy behaviors that eventually lead up to that dysfunctional thinking, inevitably leading me to a place dark and lonely enough to want immediate relief. During the later stages, when things are breaking down, it is imperative that I have a specific action plan to redirect my behavior, specific people that I can trust and count on in the event that I’m way off course - WRAP helped me map this out as well. I was blessed to have a mentor as Waynette taught me WRAP, that she guide me through the process of adjusting my maintenance list as my needs changed, and so today, I continue to adjust this maintenance list but I find that it is basically a part of me and that I don’t really use the paper, it’s in my head! I have a corrective action plan that safeguards against all stages of the relapse cycle and I am extremely grateful to have been taught how to use this all-encompassing plan of ACTION during a time when I was trying to navigate my way through all of the suggestions and resources that are made available in early recovery! Today, I can honestly say that I am happier than I have ever been: Relationships have been restored, trust has been developed, occupational opportunities have been dropped in my lap, professionals depend on me showing up and doing my best every day. Perhaps the most rewarding part of my life today, is that I get to carry the message of hope for those who choose to hear it, I get to be proof positive that change is possible for anyone as today I am a CEO of a multi-million dollar agency !!!!
Current Mentee




One New Heartbeat



855 Jefferson Ave #2972
Redwood City, CA 94063
650.440.0567



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