Getting Help With Addiction Over the Holidays
The holiday season is often painted as a time of celebration, connection, and joy.
Unlocking Ashley’s Future Campaign Newsletter – November 2025
By The Numbers
Goal: $20,000,000
Amount Raised: $18,400,000
A Few Minutes With…. Aaron Bruzzese!
Aaron Bruzzese, CRPS, RPS, RCPF
Director of Patient & Community Support Services
AshleySpotlight on a Critical Pillar of the Unlocking Ashley’s Future Campaign: Enriching the Patient & Family Experience
At Ashley, we often say that recovery doesn’t happen in isolation—it happens in community, in connection, and within families who are learning, healing, and rebuilding together. Today, we spent a few minutes with Aaron Bruzzese, whose leadership in the Patient & Family Experience is helping shape one of the most essential pillars of the Unlocking Ashley’s Future Campaign.
Aaron works closely with the Recovering Together program—a vital effort that ensures families receive the same level of compassion, knowledge, and support that patients experience every day on campus. As Aaron explains, enriching the Patient & Family Experience is more important than ever.
Why Now? A Critical Moment for Families
“Patients in our care undergo a very thorough process of learning and healing over the course of their treatment,” Aaron shares. “To support the best long-term outcomes, it’s just as critical for families to receive education and opportunities to begin their own healing process.”
Families are often carrying years of fear, confusion, and emotional fatigue when they arrive at Ashley. By giving them tools, understanding, and a hopeful path forward, the Recovering Together program strengthens the entire recovery journey—not just for patients, but for everyone who loves them.
How the Campaign Brings This Vision to Life
The Unlocking Ashley’s Future Campaign is the engine behind the program’s growth.
“This campaign allows our organization to offer the most effective, evidence-based programming possible to patients and their families,” Aaron explains. “These funds help break down the financial barriers associated with delivering world-class programming that helps families heal from the impacts of addiction.”
With philanthropic support, Ashley will expand dedicated spaces for family engagement, increase staff capacity, enhance curriculum, and elevate the overall experience for families walking through some of the most difficult moments of their lives.
Hearing from Families—In Their Own Words
The impact of this work is already deeply felt.
“Both family members and patients express the value of participating in collaborative programming together during treatment,” Aaron notes. “Satisfaction survey results consistently show that the Recovering Together program exceeds the expectations of most family members who participate.”
For many, it’s the first time they feel seen. The first time they feel hopeful. The first time they hear, “You’re not alone.”
What’s Next: Enhancements That Inspire
When asked what excites him most about the program’s future, Aaron doesn’t hesitate.
“The Recovering Together program gives family members the opportunity to engage in services on Ashley’s beautiful campus, face-to-face with our dedicated staff. The value of this experience cannot be understated.”
He adds that Ashley’s grounds—a place of healing for more than 65,000 people over 42 years—bring their own form of comfort and renewal. And foundational elements, like the program’s introduction to Al-Anon, provide families with long-term support far beyond their time on campus.
How Donors and Alumni Can Continue Helping
Even once the campaign goal is reached, Aaron emphasizes that the work is ongoing.
“Combat the stigma that patients and families face by sharing your experience, strength, and hope. Attend alumni events. Stay connected through Parent Family Connection meetings. Donate as you can. Celebrate the power of recovery!”
Join Us in Building the Future
Aaron’s message is clear: when families heal together, recovery becomes stronger, more sustainable, and more full of possibility. The Patient & Family Experience is not an add-on—it is a cornerstone of Ashley’s mission and a critical pillar of the Unlocking Ashley’s Future Campaign.
You can help ensure families continue to receive this life-changing support. To stand with Ashley—supporting the Patient & Family Experience and the entire campaign—please visit:
Father Joseph Martin & “The Three Selves”
Ashley co-founder Father Joseph Martin remains one of the most influential figures in modern alcoholism recovery. After getting sober in 1958, he spent more than five decades educating people about addiction through his books, lectures, and the now-famous “Chalk Talks.” His clarity, honesty, and humor made him a trusted voice for thousands seeking sobriety.
Martin often reiterated alcohol as “cunning, baffling, and powerful,” and he understood it deeply because he had lived it. His own drinking began innocently but escalated quickly, eventually leading him into the same denial and self-deception he would later help others confront. His presentations for the military and treatment communities became widely known for their grounded wisdom—and for a simple framework he used to explain how addiction distorts a person’s sense of self.
Martin taught that every individual lives with three selves:
For those struggling with alcoholism, the first self can drift dangerously far from reality. Many convince themselves they are social drinkers or in control while evidence—missed obligations, strained relationships, and physical symptoms—suggests otherwise. Meanwhile, the second self, how others see them, often reflects the harm their drinking causes. Martin emphasized the importance of acknowledging this perspective, noting that true healing requires recognizing the pain inflicted on others, not just the pain endured.
The third self—the true self—emerges only through rigorous honesty. Martin believed that the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous help reconcile these three selves. Steps involving personal inventory and confession confront the self-deceptions of the first self, while making amends addresses the wounds seen by others. Through this process, individuals begin to close the gap between perception and reality.
Martin’s insights extend beyond addiction. Modern life often widens the gap between the three selves, especially in an age of carefully curated online identities. His message serves as a reminder that integrity—becoming whole and undivided—comes from aligning these internal and external perspectives.
Although Father Joseph Martin died in 2009 at age 84, his language, teachings, and Chalk Talks remain widely used not just at Ashley, but around the world. His legacy endures not only because he understood alcoholism as a disease, but because he offered a path toward personal reconciliation and hope. His simple but profound message still resonates: to find freedom, one must learn to understand—and ultimately unite—all three selves.
Summarized from a Grand Rapids Michigan speech (Tom Gavea, Medium Magazine April 25, 2025)
In Their Own Words
Jackie Hryncewich
Donor Relations Manager
Ashley
On Gratitude: For me, gratitude is both a practice and a gift from my higher power. I experience moments where gratitude seems to move through me. In these moments, I am humbled and filled with awe to be part of something bigger than myself.
I also experience moments where gratitude feels beyond my reach. When I am caught up in disappointment or the desire to be right. When life does not unfold in the way I think it should or planned for it to be. Practice is helpful here.
My gratitude practice is simple. I focus on my breath, I write, and I reach out to others. My practice keeps me grounded and reminds me that I have so much to be thankful for in any given moment. Today’s practice reminds me how I’m grateful to work at Ashley!
Unlocking Ashley’s Future Campaign Committee
Campaign Chairs
Jim Denvir
Board Member
John Finnerty
Board Chair
Campaign Committee Members
Nan Bender
Liz Bonner
Bryan Davis
Jimmy Fragoyannis
Dev Ganesan
Toni Griswold
Betsey Hobelmann
John Hoel
Joe Jackson
Jessie Nance
Phyllis Raskin-Hadley
Terry Smith
Rachael Teacher
Marot Williamson