Leadership Lab 2
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Identify · Observe · Plan · Track — A 90-minute interactive lab. You will name the F*ck It moment, learn the four-step model that interrupts it, and leave with a regulation practice built entirely in Healing Capital Language.
“The F*ck It moment lives between Observe and Plan — the hinge where the professional chooses to hold their ground.”
I did not learn leadership in a classroom. I learned it the hard way — by being the only peer in rooms full of clinicians, by watching good people burn out because nobody taught them how to navigate the system, by realizing that my lived experience was the most powerful tool I had but no one showed me how to use it.
NIH Co-Author — co-authored the CHORUS pilot study at Boston Medical Center, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports. AmeriCorps / P.A.A.R.I. — embedded with Boston Police on recovery response. MA State Legislature — testified on Section 35 reform. IC&RC Board Certified, CARC/MBSACC Certified, MA DPH Certified Recovery Coach.
"I'm not only someone who benefited from peer support — I'm evidence of what peer leadership can become."
The moment someone in recovery decides — because ONE thing went wrong — that EVERYTHING is lost.
They throw away the progress, the plan, the relationship, the work. All of it. The story collapses to: “It doesn’t matter. It never works. I’m done.”
You see it in your clients. You feel the pull of it yourself. Today we name it — and interrupt it.
Three months of progress. Gone. They stop showing up. They stop responding. Everything you built together disappears in one phone call.
“Why am I doing this? Nothing sticks. I can’t help anyone. Maybe this isn’t the right work for me.” That’s your F*ck It moment.
If you don’t have a model for your own regulation, you follow your client right into the moment. That’s not sustainable and it’s not your fault.
Four steps. One model. Built entirely in Healing Capital Language — every step produces data rather than judgment, capital rather than damage, and evidence of competence rather than confirmation of failure.
Identify
Observe
The Hinge
Plan
Track
The F*ck It moment lives between Observe and Plan — the hinge where the professional chooses to hold their ground.
Tap each step to reveal the Healing Capital Language prompt
Body. Emotion. Thought. All three. Not one. Not two. All three.
Observation creates the gap. That gap is where your authority lives.
Small. Bounded. Within your control. Restores agency without overpromising.
Evidence changes the story. One sentence per hard day.
Before you address what’s happening in your client — name what’s happening in you.
Body. Emotion. Thought. All three. Not one. Not two. All three.
Most peer professionals are trained to skip this step entirely. That’s where the depletion starts.
Not fixing. Not responding. Not analyzing. Just seeing.
Observation creates the gap between stimulus and response. That gap is where your authority lives.
What is the client actually doing — versus the story you are already telling about it?
Not a strategy. Not a solution. Not a treatment plan. ONE move.
Recovery professionals burn out because they feel responsible for outcomes they cannot control.
The plan is small, bounded, and within your control. It restores agency without overpromising.
Most peer training completely ignores this step. That’s why setbacks accumulate as failures.
Tracking builds evidence of your own competence over time. Evidence changes the story.
One sentence per hard day: Today I faced [X]. What I did was [Y]. What I learned was [Z].
“Being able to feel safe with other people is probably the single most important aspect of mental health.”
BESSEL VAN DER KOLK — Psychiatrist · The Body Keeps the Score
A client you’ve worked with for 3 months — real progress, showing up consistently — calls on a Thursday afternoon. They’ve relapsed. They’re done with services. They don’t want to hear from you. They hang up.
You sit with the phone in your hand.
What are you feeling? What is in your body? What is the first thought?
What do you actually know versus the story you’re already telling?
You can’t control whether they call back. What ONE thing is within your control?
End of day: What would you write down about what happened and what you did with it?
“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.”
BELL HOOKS — Author · Cultural Critic · Educator
This is your first entry in your Professional Healing Capital Log.
A language shift you practiced today
Something you noticed about your own response patterns
One thing you’ll do differently this week using IOPT
Close: one word from each person — what are you taking with you today?
Inner Authority & Healing Capital Language
Systems Insight & Focused Attention
YOU ARE HERE
Healing Capital & Resource Mapping
Professional Identity & Leadership
Engagement & Network Leverage
Strategic Impact & Systems Navigation
Between sessions: continue your tracking practice — one sentence per hard day. Bring those entries to Lab 3.
Session Material
The complete Lab 2 worksheet — IOPT model walkthrough, live practice scenarios, Healing Capital Language shifts, and your Professional Healing Capital Log. Everything you need in one place.
Branded version for screen · Print version for paper
Take a few minutes to reflect on what you have learned. Your responses are saved to this browser automatically — they remain private to you.
“Recovery is not a return to the person you were before addiction; it is the emergence of a new person.”
WILLIAM WHITE — Recovery Research Pioneer · Author
This lab is one piece of a six-part leadership development series. To bring The Missing Curriculum to your organization or to work directly with Tyshaun, reach out.
Visit InsightfulRecoverySolutions.org →This work is offered freely so that no one is turned away. If you have the means and want to contribute, your support keeps the labs running and accessible.
Every contribution keeps this work in the hands of people who need it.