Supporting Addiction Recovery

When Todd Herrmann first entered Jaywalker Lodge in 2021, it was as a patient in the residential drug and alcohol treatment program. He achieved his goal of recovery and along the way, he discovered his calling to help others to do the same.

Today, Herrmann is an addiction counselor at Jaywalker. He graduated this spring from the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) Western Colorado MSW Program, where he participated in the CLIMB@DU program.

Herrmann says, “A major part of my alcoholism was years and years of, ‘What do I want to do with my life?’ I was never able to figure that out.” During treatment at Jaywalker, he benefitted from the help staff were providing and realized, “This is it! This is what I want to do.”

Jaywalker is a dual-diagnosis drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in Carbondale, Colorado. It offers residential rehabilitation, partial hospitalization and outpatient programs for men who have both substance abuse and mental health issues. Herrmann joined the staff shortly after completing the program. In 2023, he enrolled in GSSW.

He recalls, “There’s an old AA adage: Just do the next right thing. Sometimes it’s hard to know what that is, and sometimes it’s really obvious. For me, doing the Western Colorado MSW Program was the next right thing.”

Jaywalker was supportive of Herrmann’s educational journey, allowing him to fulfil his field internship requirements there while still working at the facility full time, honing his skills facilitating groups, individual therapy sessions and clinical meetings. Herrmann also earned his addiction technician certification while enrolled in the program (Jaywalker covered the expense for that credential). He anticipates receiving his addiction counseling license this fall and also plans to become a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW).

Herrmann is now a therapist in Jaywalker’s outpatient programs, where he works with men who have stabilized and been sober for approximately three months. The work is very relational and individualized, Herrmann says. “There’s a lot of work in building life skills and executive function to become thriving, successful adults. Sometimes that’s intensive therapy, sometimes it’s helping them to create a resume.”

Herrmann says one of the best things about his work at Jaywalker is “a year after coming in on the worst day of their life,” he gets to see his patients “out in the world and happy” — an experience unique to living and working in a small town.

He hopes to stay at Jaywalker long term and sees addiction treatment as a lifelong career path. Herrmann’s personal experience with addiction and recovery “allows me to relate to people who are going through similar things. It gives people hope. It’s been four and a half years since I showed up as a client — I’ve gone from being a trainwreck of an alcoholic to living a life that I love, and if I can do it, they can, too.”