Eboni Jewel Sears’s life has been full of unique and interesting experiences and opportunities.  Growing up, her military family moved throughout the country; today Las Vegas, Nevada, is home. Her professional journey has taken her from being a Navy Seabee to a long-haul truck driver to currently a peer recovery support specialist at the Alternative Peer Group Las Vegas.  It’s here that she counsels teens in recovery using the SMART Recovery tools and principles. 

In this podcast, Eboni talks about:

• Being a SMART facilitator and peer recovery support specialist
• Using exchange vocabulary with the teens to bridge the gap between AA and SMART terminology
• Why she was reluctant to become a SMART facilitator and what changed her mind
• Ways she makes learning the SMART tools fun for her teen participants
• Keeping her recovery and sexual identity hidden while in the Navy
• That it’s okay to have fun in recovery
• Wanting a better life for herself and daughter
• Facilitating a SMART Recovery Online (SROL) meeting for Maladaptive Behaviors
• Working with the Las Vegas School District to get SMART Recovery into the Mission High School curriculum
• Being an African American, LGBT, Female
• SMART concepts fitting well into spiritual concepts
• 2020 being a year of change