Now she helps others with their addictions
“If it was not for what I’d gone through, then I couldn’t do what I do now. I’m what’s called a mental health and addiction recovery peer support specialist. Simply by the word peer, it means that I’ve been there, done that. I realized that for the first time in my life, my path, my past, could actually become my asset.
“When I help someone as a recovery coach, I’m not as concerned about what they did in the past. What I want to know is what can I do to help them in their recovery today. I’m a barrier breaker. If there’s something standing between them and being sober today, we talk about it. We figure it out together so that I can help them through it.
“One of my passions is working with the homeless. I’ve been homeless. But never to the extent that I was during 2020. That was a very, very hard year for me. When I worked at the Sobering Center in Houston, many of our clients were homeless. One of the worst things you can do is take away hope from someone. Once someone has no hope, it’s the worst feeling in the world. So when I was able to sit down with someone, especially older people, and relate my story — that I didn’t get clean and sober until I was 57 — you could see that little spark of hope come back.
“What I do is absolutely amazing. I think it’s my purpose. I used to ask God, ‘Why? What made me walk down this path? Why did you let me do this?’ God always has an answer, a bigger picture. We only see a very small part of it. And I think the reason I had to walk down that path of drug addiction and going in and out of prison was simply because now, I can turn around to somebody else and lend them a helping hand up. It’s the most fulfilling thing.”
— Karen McKee
Karen is a recovery coach who currently serves as residential manager for a safe house at Rescue Us Mission in Houston.
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