Expertise and Trainings
Peter Ninemire believes that patients who suffer from the disease of addiction should know “It is not about what is wrong with you”, but rather, “what happened to you” and families need to understand that as well. Much focus in treatment is given to patients gaining an understanding of disease via interactive power point presentations, lectures and videos explaining addiction as a compulsive brain disease. Peter relates how this knowledge that he began to acquire in 2004 helped him transcend the guilt and shame he felt for years at not being able to control his behavior as it related to his marijuana and cocaine use. He believes that this knowledge is a powerful tool for those suffering from addiction. He is now able to correlate the addictive beliefs and behaviors seen in those he serves into a manifestation of this disease. He also involves the family in this educational/treatment process to help them understand and depersonalize this disease. (Please view parts of the power point below and Peter delivering it)
Neuroscience Addiction Preview.pptx
Trainings
With advance notice and scheduling, Peter is able to offer the trainings and education on the neuroscience of addiction that he has presented in wide array of venues across Kansas that include the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, Federal Public Defenders and Community Corrections retreats, Sedgwick County Permanency Coordinating Council, Juvenile Judges, Wichita State University, Employee Assistance Programs and many colleagues, as well as churches and schools. Mr. Ninemire’s presentations correlate the scientific evidence supporting addiction as a medical disease with his experiential understanding of addiction, both personally and professionally, in his past 10-plus years working with adolescents, probationers, parolees and drug court clients. He explains how the disruption between critical brain structures resulting from drug and alcohol use correlates with the physiological, psychological and sociological aspects of the biopsychosocial disease of addiction.
He demonstrates how this interface and disruption leads to the defensiveness, guilt, shame and hopelessness manifested in patients who have acquired the disease of addiction. Attendees gain the fundamental knowledge and understanding of addiction as a biopsychosocial disease that they will be able to impart to those they serve or interact with that have acquired the disease of addiction. This helps both patients and families reduce guilt and shame, and alleviate the embarrassment that too many families have about their loved ones who suffer from this disease. Lines of communication are open, enabling them to understand “what happened to them” versus the stigmatization of “what’s wrong with them.” This understanding and approach has been proven to empower patients to gain recovery and live productive, fulfilled and meaningful lives.