In this episode of Headroom, we continue our conversation with Jason Riley, LPC, CAADC, exploring how recovery and personal growth are deeply influenced by community and relationships. While therapy often takes place in a one-on-one setting, true transformation is accelerated and sustained through meaningful connections. We discuss the importance of group therapy, the role of relationships in healing, and how systemic approaches in counseling emphasize the power of belonging. Addiction recovery isn’t just about individual change - it’s about rediscovering purpose within a supportive community.

In this episode of Headroom, I sit down with Jason Riley, LPC, CAADC - once my student, now my colleague in mental health - to discuss addiction, co-occurring disorders, and the role of meaning in the recovery process. Drawing inspiration from Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, we explore how addiction counseling isn’t just about helping people stop destructive behaviors but about collaboratively guiding them toward what is truly life-affirming. We discuss the importance of connection, purpose, and the shift from traditional directive approaches in addiction counseling to a more person-centered, collaborative model. People don’t change simply because they’re told to; they need a reason to pursue something better. This is part one of a two-part conversation; in the next episode, we continue our discussion on meaning, addiction, and effective therapy.

In this episode, Dr. Michael Giles, a political science professor at LCC, delves into the intersection of philosophy and political science, with a focus on political theory, which he studied extensively in graduate school. His passion for the humanities stems from a deep interest in what it means to live as a good human being.

In part two of this episode, Jim and Michael move from talking about the need to pursue a virtuous life, to talking about specific virtues philosophers and psychologists have proposed as necessary for the good life. Aristotle would submit that while living a virtuous life does not necessarily promise a happy life, but living without virtue does promise living an unhappy one., They explore some of the neuroscience of developing the ability to make healthy behaviors a positive and enduring habit, and conclude by discussing what Aristotle mean when he wrote about defining the great-souled person as one who neither overestimates or underestimates one’s potential to do, be and receive greatness.

• PDF: Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics