Out & About: Higher Octave Healing

On Wednesday June 9th, CHEEERS participants, led by fearless leaders Angela and Sasha took a visit to ASU’s Community Center. The group met with Higher Octave Healing, an organization dedicated to healing through music therapy. 

In this session, participants explored emotion and expression within a drum circle. Though the group’s music taste differed from swing music to hard rock, they all agreed that music is a powerful force when used to relax and calm down.

Higher Octave healing had a number of drum games planned and the participants shared lots of laughs as they tried out a completely new experience. In addition to learning a new instrument, participants were given the challenge to convey a certain emotion through purely drums and facial expression. While some emotions such as “bitterness” were difficult to guess, things like “peace” and “joy” were immediately recognizable. This activity gave participants an opportunity to work together and explore how to read others’ emotions.

The session went by quickly and by the end everyone was smiling. The participants expressed how much they loved the music therapy. One participant even declared “Music practice time is music happy time.” There is no doubt that the participants will return next week for round 2 of Higher Octave healing.

CHEEERS Welcomes New CEO, Kimberly Craig

After an extensive nationwide search and more than 120 applicants, the CHEEERS Board of Directors is pleased to announce it has selected Kimberly Craig as the new CEO. She will begin March 28, 2016.

Kimberly joins CHEEERS from Women’s Health Innovations of Arizona, a non-profit formed to meet the needs of women with mental health and substance use disorders, where she served as CEO and President. Previously, she was Vice President of Women’s and Children’s Programs for a large Arizona non-profit behavioral health organization where she developed and managed evidenced-based recovery programs for women and their families with mental health and co-occurring disorders. In 2011, Kimberly was recognized for her leadership work as one of 17 women in the nation appointed to the Women’s Addiction Services Leadership Institute.

Kimberly’s behavioral health career began in Billings, Montana. As a part of the leadership team for Rimrock Foundation, Montana’s largest freestanding behavioral health agency, she helped launch a nationally-recognized program to address drug dependence in women with children, the first of its kind in Montana. 

“I am honored and humbled to be selected as the CEO,” said Kimberly. “I look forward to building on the tremendous reputation and important work of CHEEERS in our community, and helping the organization, its staff, and the members served reach their full potential.”

With a career spanning more than 16 years, Kimberly’s lived experience, passion, and commitment to improving the lives of those with mental health and co-occurring disorders is proven and respected.

“We are excited to have Kimberly at the helm of the organization and couldn’t be more pleased with our choice,” said CHEEERS Board Chair Tonya MacBeth. “We are also grateful to all of the extremely talented candidates who made this process so competitive and to our Recruitment Committee for their rigorous review of candidate qualifications. Our Recruitment Committee included Directors from our Board, agency staff, and clients to ensure the voice and priorities of all people within CHEEERS were involved in this process.”

CHEEERS is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit peer-run, peer-driven, consumer-operated organization dedicated to providing strength-based services to adults who experience serious mental illness. Our mission is to empower individuals and families affected by behavioral health conditions to achieve a healthy and meaningful life through the use of recovery-based community services and our shared experiences.

A Visit to Phoenix International Raceway

Thanks to our friends at Phoenix International Raceway, our participants had an amazing opportunity to visit. The raceway is an exciting place and rarely do people get to see what it is like from the driver's perspective.

We were given a tour of the track, met the drivers, and even speed around in a pace car! For many of us, this was our first visit to a track and definitely an amazing adventure. It was a great experience and everyone had a fantastic time. We are very grateful to our friends at PIR and look forward to doing it again in future years.

Thanks to everyone who made this adventure possible.