Goal setting helped Kimani manage her use

Kimani is a proud Aboriginal woman, a mum, and someone passionate about improving her mental and physical health.

When she arrived at one of Lives Lived Well’s residential rehabilitation centres with her young daughter, her hope was to do just that. Kimani was facing a lot of challenges when she started treatment.

She was using methamphetamine and cannabis daily, plus dealing with chronic pain that was the result of a car accident. She’d also faced trauma as a child, and family and domestic violence in different relationships as she grew older.

Her treatment began with working to understand her patterns and reason for use. Together with her clinician and a support worker, Kimani then made a plan to prevent relapse. She also went to counselling sessions and focused on goal setting and managing urges.

Kimani learned simple strategies to help her meet her goals and after finishing her program, her check-in survey showed the results of her hard work. Her depression and anxiety had dropped, and she was maintaining abstinence. But most importantly, Kimani’s day-to-day life really improved: she reported higher scores in her general health and wellbeing and was ready to go after some positive job opportunities.

*Name has been changed to protect client’s privacy. The image used is a stock image of a person for illustrative purposes only and does not, expressly or implied, portray a person with drug, alcohol or mental health problems.