Paul Bass Photo
Rodriguez with Zoe in Wooster Square Park.
Zoe got an extra walk through Wooster Square Park Wednesday morning so her owner could get some air before hunkering down to six hours of indoor Zoom.
Zoe, a Lhasa Apso, was one of many pooches pawing and prancing amid the park’s trees during the 9 – 10 a.m. Usually at that time of day Zoe is inside. Usually her owner, Elisa Rodriguez, starts work at 5 a.m. as a counselor at APT Foundation’s West Haven addiction clinic; she takes Zoe to the park at 1 p.m. when she gets home. (Rodriguez does take her out momentarily to the car at 5.)
But for four days this week Rodriguez is enrolled in training, over Zoom, with the New England School of Addiction. And that starts at 10 a.m. So the pair got to enjoy the park before the daily Canadian wildfire smog settled back in in earnest. (“Yesterday was bad. I have sinusitis. It affected me as soon as I walked out.”)
The training started on Monday. Wednesday’s scheduled topic was interactive trauma with people from different cultures. Thursday’s session is to cover the emergence of xylazine, which is hitting Rodriguez’s clients hard.
“A lot of people are dying from it,” Rodriguez said during a conversation on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
Rodriguez, a 62-year-old Fair Haven native, is eager to build her skills. She spent years in the grip of addiction. Her fourth round of treatment held, she said, and now she’s been clean and sober for 14 years. She has worked as a counselor at APT for the past two years. She’s studying for a master’s in addiction counseling on top of her day job.
“I see a lot of people coming to our clinic and prospering and having a good life in recovery,” she said. “There is hope. And there is help for people who want it.”
Her experience on the street helps her reach her clients, she said. Her clients help her as well: “I see the struggle they’re going through. Do I want that struggle again? No. That grounds me.”
Click on the video to watch the full conversation with Elisa Rodriguez on the“Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.
Click here and see below for other“Word on the Street” episodes.
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Congratulations and thank you to Elisa Rodriguez for becoming and staying sober, and using her experiences to help others who are suffering from addiction.