This Local Woman’s Recovery Journey Took Her From Participant to Provider
addiction treatment helped Sara Kieffer get on the road to becoming a peer support specialist
Sheng Yang, photos by Andrea Paulseth |
Little wins. Sometimes that’s all that we need to keep us on the journey towards sobriety. Little wins, each day. To understand the road to sobriety, it’s always best to talk to someone who has faced addiction and created something beautiful out of the darkness.
A native of Cumberland, Sara Kieffer has battled with substance abuse most of her life. Starting as a young teenager smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol only propelled her life towards a dark spiral from which seemed impossible to dig out of.
“I did it to fit in, and mostly to help me cope with trauma,” she said.
All through her young adult life, she was able to hold down a job well enough to mask the signs of having a substance issue. She was even able to hold down a long career as a hotel manager while inducing herself with heavy substances. As bouts of self-harm entered her life, over-prescription of opioids created a massive opening for heroin.
“That just took everything over in my life! Heroin made me lose absolutely everything,” Sara said.
With multiple criminal charges pending starting in spring 2019, she fought hard for treatment options as opposed to jail. After being denied for over six months, she was finally accepted into treatment programs, where she excelled. Sara grabbed onto any service available to her to become and stay sober. Going through peer support meetings helped immensely, even though the COVID-19 pandemic put a big dent into it.
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That just took everything over in my life! Heroin made me lose absolutely everything.
Sara Kieffer
on her struggles with addiction
After completing treatment, she was able to secure a role as a manager for a local sober living house and was able to see firsthand how to be a part of people’s lives changing for the better. It was then that she was directed by a previous peer supporter to apply for her current position as a peer support specialist at Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, 120 S. Barstow St., Suite 100.
Sara has been proudly serving the community for close to two years now at this location and is also part of multiple programs helping Eau Claire residents become the best versions of themselves. Some of these programs include Gaining Ground Program and Renewed Strength of Eau Claire.
From being her own worst enemy to becoming the hero she was destined to be, Sara Kieffer is living proof that even though demons may win the small battles in your life, courage and true inner strength will always overcome and claim the war.
So what can you do to help destroy the stigma of substance abuse? Sara can sum it up with some wise words: “The antidote to addiction is connection. Everyone is human.”
To learn more about LSS and program services or to direct someone you love to their services, call (715) 855-5300 or visit lsswis.org. And for a complete list of Chippewa Valley social service resources follow these links for Chippewa Valley Treatment Resources and Meetings and Peer Support.
