Joyce Sixsmith, MA, LADC: What Forty-Five Years in the Field Teaches You
Forty-five years in substance use counseling gives you a unique perspective. You have watched people move from crisis to stability, and have watched what factors can hinder and others that strengthen. This month's spotlight features Joyce Sixsmith, someone who has spent a career watching the long arc of recovery unfold and building structures to support it at every stage.
My name is Joyce Sixsmith, and I am entering my 45th year in the field of substance use counseling and prevention. I am the Founder and President of Ram Council Foundation Inc., a nonprofit supporting substance-free teens in New Canaan, and I serve as Connections Counselor at Darien High School, where I do both clinical work and prevention. I was a Westport resident for 27 years, where my husband and I raised our family. I now live in Norwalk, grateful for new neighbors and still very much connected to the friends I made along the way.
Outside of work, I am deeply social. I have three siblings, a husband, and two sons I adore, and I now have two daughters-in-law and three granddaughters I love like my own. I have woven their parents into our extended team as well, and the memories we are all making together have been priceless. I love gathering friends for dinners, movies, and adventures, and I recently stepped outside my comfort zone and joined a book club, which has been a fantastic outlet and a great source of learning. I am devoted to eating well and cooking from scratch, and if I could have a dance party every single day, I would. I always tell my husband I married him because he could dance.
My career in substance use counseling found me before I fully found it. During my graduate work, a supervisor mentioned that the substance use field was really coming into its own. I took that seriously, did an internship at Meridian in Stamford, and fell in love with the work. I have not looked back since. After 45 years in this field, one thing I wish more people understood is how vital and how personal support truly is. The more support an individual in recovery can access, the better. But that support has to fit the person. Some people thrive in self-help groups. Others do better in recovery coaching, individual therapy, or a combination of both. The pairing of counseling and recovery coaching is particularly powerful; together they create a safety net that is hard to replicate with either one alone. There is no single path, and the most important thing we can do is help people find the one that is actually theirs.
This is what Ram Council in New Canaan has been built to do: give teens who do not want to use alcohol or other substances a place to belong, a strong, confident peer group that is actively choosing something different. What I treasure most is watching young people from completely different social circles come together around that shared value. Kids who might never have crossed paths end up building real friendships and supporting each other through their teen years and beyond. That is what prevention looks like when it works, and what a long-term perspective can give to those in recovery: the gift to think beyond the moment to dream bigger and choose the life we want to lead alongside people we want to live it with.