Free Self-Care Workshop For Family Of People Struggling With Addiction

Community Corner

Free Self-Care Workshop For Family Of People Struggling With Addiction Guests coping with loved ones struggling with addiction can treat themselves to sound therapy, gentle yoga, and a lecture on spirituality.

ISLIP, NY — Families of loved ones struggling with addiction need to take care of themselves too, and a free family wellness workshop is coming to Islip.

The workshops will offer numerous healing and tools for self-care for people coping with a loved one's struggles with substance abuse, including sound healing, yoga, and meditation.

The workshop will take place on Saturday, Dec. 14, from noon to 4 p.m. at the Suffolk County Environmental Center at the Scully Estate in Islip. It is sponsored by the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Families in Support of Treatment, and Gabriel's Giving Tree, an organization that helps local families with the costs of burying loved ones who died from drug overdoses .

The agenda includes light refreshments; sound healing with Himalayan singing bowls, chimes, and other vibrational healing instruments with Vinny Posillico; gentle yoga with Christianne Gentry, a certified trauma-trained yoga and meditation instructor; and a lecture and book discussion by Adelphi University's Interfaith and Spiritual Director, Michael Hoffner, author of "God's Presence in the Present."

Guests may also visit the Scully Estate's Serenity Garden wind phone, a Japanese tradition that offers a way for people to connect with loved ones they've lost.

Wind phones originated in Japan in 2010 when Itaru Sasaki was grieving a cousin who died of cancer. Sasaki found an old-fashioned phone booth, installed an old rotary phone, and put it in his garden. It was there he felt connected to his cousin and found comfort while grieving. He named it, Kaze No Denwa, aka the "Telephone of the Wind."

Events are free, but registration is required by emailing or calling 631-786-0368.

The Suffolk County Environmental Center is located at 550 South Bay Avenue in Islip.