As a long time supporter of ARCHway Institute, Courtney Collier started his HOPE Fund in order to give back and continue to support ARCHway’s mission of helping individuals and families affected by substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders.

Today, Courtney is in long-term recovery. But like many facing the darkness of addiction, Courtney didn’t think he had a problem with drugs or alcohol. Using substances was more of a hobby to him. At that time, he felt they weren’t impacting his life, his job, his education, or his relationships. Drugs and alcohol were not in control. He was, and he could pick up and put down whenever he wanted.

At least that’s what he thought.

Courtney actually checked himself into outpatient treatment only to receive short-term disability to get leave from his job, and it wasn’t until he got to treatment and was trying to be compliant and not use drugs that he realized he needed help.

From there, Courtney explained he did a variety of things to get to where he is today: happy, joyous, and free in recovery. Courtney compared recovery to a salad in that it takes multiple ingredients to help someone on their journey. Lettuce isn’t a salad, just like treatment isn’t recovery. Lettuce is an ingredient in a salad, just like treatment is one step in the recovery process.

For Courtney, the ingredients included outpatient treatment, recovery housing, peer support, and his faith, a strong belief in God. All of these things came together and were part of his process, as he shared, for retraining his brain and learning to live a thriving and successful life in recovery. This was his process, and Courtney says that every person is going to have a slightly different process for their personal recovery, but that every person does need a process.

Courtney was first introduced to ARCHway through John Stuckey, one of ARCHway’s founders and a fellow peer in recovery. John was a manager at Recovery House of St. Louis, and ARCHway actually provided a scholarship that helped to pay for Courtney’s first month’s rent.

Along the way, Courtney would eventually decide he wanted to help people, as he put it, on their path to discovery and recovery from addiction. Today, he is doing just that. Courtney works for a treatment agency called Pathways, an affiliate of West Tennessee Healthcare. His official title is Telehealth Coordinator, but he also works with the court system in certain counties along with WRAP, a program for people who have experienced sexual assault and domestic violence. Courtney is a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist (CPRS) in the state of Tennessee, so he is also able to provide peer services, which enables him to relate, reach people more easily, and help keep people engaged in treatment services.