Katura Recovery

Making a Difference

A young man walked on a shore littered with hundreds of starfish, beached and dying after a storm. He saw an old man ahead of him picking them up one at a time and throwing them back into the ocean as far as he could. "Why do you bother?" the young man scoffed, “you're not saving enough to make a difference." The old man listened politely. Then he bent over and picked up another starfish and sent it spinning back into the water and said, "Made a difference to that one." And so it goes with addiction. Not all will choose acupuncture as a method of helping with their recovery. But my job is to put it out there to make it available and train others so that more people will have access to it. I've been fortunate to witness the transformation of recovery using acupuncture with several people. It's awesome to help make a difference in a life stuck in addiction. So I'm just looking to make a difference in one more life... again & again & again.

Why Katura?

In March 2021, I read a short story called ‘Slum Songs’. It told about a small village that is a garbage dump in Paraguay, South America, that was so poor but many people wanted to learn to play music. They had a teacher but no instruments. I have seen in my travels, that often the poorest people tend to be very creative. These people made musical instruments out of items from their garbage. Enough to make an orchestra. They got so good at their music that cities around the world invited them to perform. The conductor said in an interview, "The world sends us garbage, and we send them beautiful music." I could relate as I read this because I knew that many in my community didn't look at addicts as having much value;
because it was felt they were weak & had no willpower. I came to learn and believe, after my NADA training, that addiction becomes a disease that alters the brain and that an addict is controlled by the drug. I witnessed how five small needles in each ear released the inner person underneath the veil of addiction and watched them come to the surface. It is a wonderful thing to see a person finally begin to realize that they have value and to see their self-esteem begins to rise. They are beginning to think better about the direction that they are going, their interaction with others, and the hope they have for a future.

That village in Paraguay is called ‘Cateura’. And like words spelled differently in other countries (color & colour), I named this organization, "Katura" Recovery. Its goal is to help to restore the value, self-esteem, and clarity of thought within. I began to envision a local organization to train personnel in Ohio and eventually nurture one or two who can catch the vision that may be inspired to train others to keep this going. With the Opioid epidemic in the US growing by over 100% in the last five years, NADA must remain an available tool in the toolbox for medical personnel, addiction counselors, and in the criminal justice settings as an alternative to medically assisted treatment or MAT. I also know that there is significant funding available for addressing this addiction treatment and for training others. My non-profit, called Katura Recovery & Training Services, is now recognized as a tax-exempt 501c(3) entity to seek funding so I can provide a community treatment facility, barrier-free, in a manner that seems to work well in thousands of locations in the U.S., around the world, AND NOW -HERE IN SANDUSKY COUNTY, OHIO.

The Development of the Katura Logo

This Katura logo began as a drawing of a tree that my son Joe scribbled on a blank postcard back in about 2007. 3 years to the day after Joe died, I had the tree tattooed on my chest over my heart After working with several clients as they progressed through their addiction with acupuncture and got to a point of stability in their sobriety and improved clarity of thought, I began to wonder how I could show that on Joe's tree. A patient in my office who had training as a horticulturist, and looked at the tree and said, it's not dead, it's dormant, so the goal before I die is to make this tree come alive with renewed life represented by the leaves drawn on it and will have tattooed on my chest in the future.

I have witnessed the transformation of an addict going from a "dormant" state of mental numbness, to a being alive in spirit and outlook for the future. Acupuncture helps to settle down and quiet the internal trash talk so that an addict can begin to relax and listen to that small voice within and see that there is a good person inside.