A Residential Shelter for Adolescent Drug Addicts

Nexus Recovery Center is a facility where addicted adolescents girls and their children come to begin their journey into a new, drug-free life.  They are provided shelter for several weeks as well as counseling, both individual and group.  They learn to live without drugs and they meet mentors who return to demonstrate that each of them can successfully survive and thrive, without drugs, in a complicated and difficult world.

So many of these young women come from cultures where out-of wedlock children are part of the norm, but the culture does not teach the educational, vocational, or personal skills necessary to provide a healthy and stimulating environment for their children.  Failure at the one thing that is supposedly thought to be the "best" experience of their lives - motherhood - frequently is one of the factors that that plays into their addiction - plus so many of their friends are in the same situation and using as well.

But motherhood is also the impetus for these young girls to lead better lives. The welfare of their children frequently is the biggest motivation to get clean – that and the fact that a judge may have offered Nexus as an alternative to prison and being separated from their children.

Dance to Live is one of the healing cogs in their road to recovery. The population changes every few months - so it is necessary to tailor our classes to those who are currently in residence.  With the children we frequently inter-mingle games with movement exercises or Yoga.  The games stress cooperation, respect for the space of others, enthusiasm, joy and pride in accomplishments.  Yoga, which requires balance and control, is frequently conducted in pairs to demonstrate that they can count on one another.

The Moms' classes are much like their children’s but demand more focus.  The movements are challenging, group exercises insist that each pairing is with a different young woman - and, yes, they dance sometimes to favorite music which is chosen by vote.  Ultimately as well as providing a safe, challenging, learning environment, we want to see smiles.  These young women have had too few opportunities to smile.

As Michelle, for whom this site is in memory, said -" I always knew I was OK when I was dancing, that things would work out after all and that tomorrow would be a brighter, new day."

May 15, 2014

This afternoon I visited the Dance To Live pre-K class at Nexus Recovery Center. I never cease to marvel that these small children have already faced such difficult lives and yet, when presented with the option of joy, display such resilience.

When the dance therapist, Lynn Moon and I arrived, the children’s faces lit up with anticipation. Of the 14 pre-K children, 8 were selected by their teachers to participate in today’s class. Lynn manages to seamlessly integrate movement and learning. For instance, today we started with a song about rocket ships. While singing the words to the song, we also simulated “countdown to launch” and then whooshing into the air with arms uplifted. The song requires body movement, using fingers to count down and attention – attention is important because many of these children have been put aside as their mom struggled with addiction.

Next - out came a bag of colored scarves. The children could wad the scarves up and catch them with various body parts called out by Lynn. Catch the scarves on their backs, on their shoulders, with their elbows, on their heads and tummies. Then Lynn reinforced colors by asking the person with the red scarf to step into the circle, do a dance and then step out --- until each color was called, responded to, and each person had an opportunity to perform.

This was followed by a game with dinosaurs. After pulling different plastic dinosaurs out of a box, Lynn asked questions about each type of dinosaur - what each type liked to eat, etc., and then the children mimicked the different shapes of the dinosaurs – like stretching out to eat the leaves high on the trees, or growling to eat meat, putting their hands on their backs to make the spikes of a Stegosaurus or flapping their arms to become a flying Pterodactyl. A book was read about dinosaurs eating at the family table and using good table manners – followed by a round of the children saying what healthy food they liked best.

Next it was the time for each child to jump up, say his or her name and then shout, “I am wonderful!!” And they mean it and feel it in that safe space.

We closed by sitting quietly, breathing in and out through our noses 5 times and sending out good thoughts to everyone in the world.

Class time – 45 minutes – attention and focus – 45 minutes!! Movement, games, learning, cooperating, taking turns, acknowledging and affirming one another – an uplifting experience – one well suited to the memory of Michelle who said:

“When I was dancing, I could be anyone. I took all my anger, the love, and the disappointment that was hidden deep inside my soul and let it burst out through my body. I always knew I was OK when I was dancing, that things would work out after all and that tomorrow would be a brighter, new day.”