True North Recovery

!! RECOVERY MONTH STAFF SPOTLIGHT !!

Please help us celebrate Chloe Sylvester, Chief Administrative Officer. Wasilla, AK

Growing up, my mom did her best, but between my own mental health struggles and hers, consistency was hard to come by. Our home was deeply isolating, and by middle school, I tried to end my life. As the pain dragged on, I turned to drugs and alcohol. Once I started, I couldn’t stop—it was the only thing that silenced the noise on the inside. Until it didn’t.

That path carried me from my early teens to age 20, when he**in took everything from me—slowly, and then all at once. I was homeless, broken, and terrified, just waiting to be saved. My mom offered to bring me home, but on one condition: I had to get clean.

That’s how I landed in Alaska 10 years ago. I was angry, bitter, and so uncomfortable in my own skin I could barely tolerate being around people. I spent countless nights sitting on the Alano Club porch, convinced everyone inside was either crazy or lying. I couldn't comprehend how they felt real joy or actually cared about each other. It took months of just showing up before I finally let my guard down. But once I did, I found a recovery community that became my home.

It took a few tries for it to stick, but this last time was different.

Now, six years clean, I have the most beautiful family, a dream job in behavioral health, and an incredible support system. Today, I get to show up for others—sometimes because I’m called on, and sometimes just because I notice someone hurting. Giving back the same love and kindness that saved my life is the greatest blessing I have.

This journey wasn't easy. I did things I'm not proud of and hurt people along the way. But fighting through it is the most worthwhile thing I’ve ever done.

If you're struggling, just show up. Find your people. Find yourself. Someone once told me, "You never have to feel that way again." Today, I actually believe them.

!! RECOVERY MONTH STAFF HIGHLIGHT !!

Meet Dr. Caitlin Hegwood, Chief Clinical Officer at True North Recovery—and someone whose connection to recovery is both professional and deeply personal.

Caitlin’s journey into behavioral health began with her own recovery. After achieving sobriety at age 25, she redirected her career toward helping others build better lives. She began as a peer support professional, drawing on her lived experience to walk alongside people navigating addiction, mental health challenges, and involvement in the justice system.

That beginning has shaped every step of her career.

Over the years, Caitlin became an addiction counselor, mental health clinician, clinical supervisor, private practice owner, educator, author, speaker, and behavioral health leader. Today, as Chief Clinical Officer, she provides leadership across TNR’s continuum of care throughout Alaska, from crisis and withdrawal management services to residential treatment, outpatient care, peer support, and telehealth.

Her career has been guided by a simple philosophy: serve the least, the last, and the lost. She believes recovery is about more than stopping the use of drugs or alcohol—it is about connection, purpose, healing, opportunity, and building a life worth living.

Outside of TNR, Caitlin serves on the Alaska Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse and as a Subject Matter Expert for the Evidence-Based Intervention Review Panel. She is also an educator, published and contributing author, and national presenter in the behavioral health field.

For Caitlin, this work has never been simply a career. Recovery changed the direction of her life, and helping create that same possibility for others remains at the heart of why she does this work.

We’re proud to spotlight Caitlin and the lived experience, leadership, and commitment to recovery she brings to True North Recovery and communities across Alaska. 💙

🏔️ Alaska is big. Getting help shouldn’t feel impossible.

You don’t have to live near a treatment center to get meaningful support.

True North Recovery offers Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Mental Health Telehealth Services across Alaska, bringing care directly to you—wherever you call home.

Whether you're:
🌱 Ready to make a change
💙 Working to maintain your recovery
🧠 Looking for support with your mental health
🤝 Needing connection, accountability, and support

You don’t have to do it alone.

Our telehealth program provides compassionate, individualized care designed to meet people where they are and support them on the road toward recovery and wellness.

📱 Your community. Your space. Your recovery.
💻 Professional support, available in the palm of your hand!

At True North Recovery, we believe in saying YES to people seeking help for addiction and mental health.

Wherever you are in Alaska, your next step can start here.

"People Healed, Communities strengthened, Systems Transformed"

!! RECOVERY MONTH STAFF HIGHLIGHT !!

Please welcome Nick Kraska, Chief Operating Officer. Anchorage, AK

I was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska by two very wonderful parents who gave me a life full of options and opportunities. In my teen years, I chose to pursue a career in drinking and drugging. Responsibilities became secondary and feeding my addiction was the top priority. Needless to say, I was not very good at maintaining this lifestyle. After some cries for help, interventions, and treatments, I have not picked up a drug or a drink in 14 years.

I learned that my best thinking led me to dark places. That left to my own devices, I would find myself making the wrong choice. So now I choose to trust God and trust those who have walked a life I find attractive. I have made my fair share of mistakes in recovery, and God has provided me with grace I do not deserve to walk through those mistakes and reconcile my wrongs.

Today, I get to be a good husband. I get to be a good father. I get to be a role model for recovery. It sure beats the darkness I saw in addiction.

!! RECOVERY MONTH STAFF HIGHLIGHT !!

Please welcome James Savage, Director of Strategy and Public Relations. Wasilla, AK

My name is James Savage I was born and raised in the Mat-Su Valley, have been living a life of total abstinence since 7.27.2015.
I grew up in a household immersed in recovery and it did not prevent the disaster that was to come of my life. In 2008 I was working in a remote camp and was injured due to a fall from a ladder. I was left in camp for 36 hours with a severely broken foot due to bad weather and the inability for planes to fly in to get me. I was a young man who had carried life’s burdens from far too young of an age. This was the first time I was introduced to high potency op**tes, however for the first time in my life my mind was quiet.

I would go on to have multiple surgeries in an attempt to regain full use of my right foot. This led to years on pain medications in doctors’ offices, selling my injury to the highest prescriber. One day a doctor I had been using to obtain medications caught wind that I was abusing those medications. This was the beginning of a new chapter in my addiction. I quickly became a poly substance abuser in an attempt to curb the op**te withdraw that was imminent.

I spent the next 4.5 years hopelessly addicted to Methamphetamine. July of 2015, I found myself sitting in Mat-Su Pretrial again, but this time was different I didn’t want out. I didn’t want to have to run anymore, I didn’t want to lie anymore. I wanted it all to stop. Additionally there was a new challenge, I was trying to convince my loved ones and a judge that I was not mentally ill There was really only one option, come clean….

I got honest in a courtroom for the very first time in my active addiction and I was as shocked as the judge was. “Your Honor, I am an addict and I can’t stop”. These words were the key to the lock I had imposed on myself. This man must have seen the desperation all over me, 11 days later I was headed for residential treatment (knowing what I know now about our system of services in Alaska at that time, this was clearly divine intervention).

After treatment I got connected with a group of men that were living out their recovery in a way that was attractive to me. Furthermore, they were trying to help others.

We began helping others find the resources that were so desperately needed to maintain a lifestyle of recovery. I had found my freedom in service, helping others made me think of myself less. This work would become my life’s passion.

"Where there is breath, There is Hope"

Today is the day KETCHIKAN we are at the Plaza for the 9th Annual Recovery March & Resource Rally!

This is a day about community, connection, recovery, and hope. Come out and stand with those who are changing the narrative around mental health, substance use disorder, and recovery.

Schedule:
• 9:00 AM – Sign Building
• 10:00 AM–12:00 PM – Resources Fair
• 12:00–1:00 PM – Recovery Walk
• 1:00–3:00 PM – Speakers

Bring your family, friends, coworkers, and anyone who believes that recovery is possible. Come connect with local resources, hear real stories, and show your support for a stronger community.

People Healed.
Communities Strengthened.
Systems Transformed.

!! RECOVERY MONTH STAFF HIGHLIGHT!!

Please allow us to introduce Hollie Johnson, Residential Peer Support Specialist. Fairbanks, AK

For 26 years, addiction shaped my story—but it doesn’t define me.
When I surrendered my life to God and embraced recovery, He transformed my pain, mistakes, broken relationships, and consequences into purpose. My mess became my message.
Today, I celebrate three years clean and a life I once thought was impossible. God restored
what addiction stole and gave me more than I ever imagined.
I recover out loud so those still suffering know this: restoration is possible, your story isn’t over, and hope is waiting on the other side of surrender.

My scars show where I’ve been—not where I’m going. I am living proof: we do recover. ❤️‍🩹

!! RECOVERY MONTH STAFF HIGHLIGHT !!

Please welcome Sasha Tsurnos, Adult Mental Health Program Manager.

Sasha’s recovery journey began on October 11, 2007, a decision that changed the course of her life in ways she could never have imagined. She has been free from mood- and mind-altering substances since that day, and has learned that recovery is about so much more than not using. It is about learning to live life on life’s terms, healing, growing, rebuilding relationships, and discovering who you are underneath the things you once used to cope.

The 12-step recovery community played a meaningful role in her journey, where she experienced people who loved her when she didn’t know how to love herself, called her out when she needed it, celebrated successes, and walked beside her through stresses. She has learned that we don’t recover alone and sometimes the person who thinks they have nothing left to give ends up being exactly what someone else needs.

Her recovery journey eventually led Sasha to a career in behavioral health where she has the privilege of supporting individuals, families, and communities. She is passionate about peer support, lived experience, trauma-informed care, and creating spaces where people are seen as whole human beings not as diagnoses, inmate’ #, mistakes, labels, or the worst thing they’ve ever done.

Recovery has given Sasha more than she ever imagined: relationships, purpose, a career she loves, and the opportunity to continue to become the woman she was always meant to be. She is still a work in progress and grateful for every version of herself that got her here.

If you’re wondering whether you should reach out, consider this your sign: you don’t have to do this alone Your past may be part of your story, but it does not get to write the ending!

!! RECOVERY MONTH STAFF HIGHLIGHT !!

Please welcome Jessica Garrison, residential peer support specialist. Fairbanks, AK

Growing up in a broken home with parents who struggled with addiction, I learned early on to numb my feelings with drugs. Without a foundation of self-worth or self-love, I ended up in very dark places where unspeakable things happened. I tried repeatedly to get clean, but I remained miserable until I found my faith. Today, through God's grace, I love myself, I love my life, and I am blessed with the opportunity to help others find that same freedom from addiction.

God truly changed me from the inside out, and I am grateful to share that I will be celebrating six years clean this coming January. I am no longer miserable; instead, I am excited for what the future holds as I continue to serve as a Peer Support Specialist at the House of Hope.

!! RECOVERY MONTH STAFF HIGHLIGHT !!

Please help us welcome Candace Detjens, Withdrawal Management Peer Support Specialist. Wasilla, AK

For years, I lived in active addiction. My addiction took me away from my family, my friends, and the life I was meant to live. I experienced incarceration, homelessness, overdose, and spent 12 years on the run before finally returning home to Alaska. There was a time when I could not see a way out or imagine a different life for myself. But one person believed in me when I could not believe in myself, and that seed of hope helped change the course of my life. By the grace of God, my sobriety date is January 1, 2025. Through daily surrender, self-forgiveness, faith in a loving God, and making the decision not to pick up—no matter what—I have learned that the impossible can become possible.

Today, I have been given a second chance at life, and I will forever be grateful for it. I now have the privilege of working in recovery and walking alongside people in the early days of their own journey. I try to plant the same seeds of hope that were once planted in me—to encourage people when they feel defeated, show them what unconditional love can look like, and remind them that their past does not have to determine their future. Recovery has taught me that redemption is real, families can begin to heal, and lives can be rebuilt one day at a time. If you are struggling today, please know this: there is hope. Keep going. Surrender daily, forgive yourself, and don't pick up—no matter what.

Recovery is possible, and so is a life you may not yet be able to imagine.