From Chaos to Stability: How Toni Thompson Rebuilt Her Life Through Drug Court

Photo courtesy of Toni Thompson, left.

Sometimes life is a twinkling, snowy white Christmas. At others, it’s a chaotic avalanche, upending everything in its path. For Toni Thompson, addiction and homelessness swept away more than 25 years of her life. To find safe, secure, stable footing she reached out to the Thurston County Drug Court program. Thompson has since established herself with a place to live, jobs which give back to the community, and a new appreciation for the small joys so many of us take for granted.

A convicted felon several times over, Thompson was facing a new prison sentence while living in places like the Jungle encampment off Martin Way. She truly found herself “at my wits end.” Her living situation, sobriety, and recovery options were running thin so she petitioned the courts to let her join the Strophy Foundation-supported program.

DUI/Drug Court helps eligible non-violent felony offenders break the cycle of substance abuse and crime. It promotes responsibility, accountability, and is a partnership between the client, recovery services, criminal justice partners, and behavioral health specialists. The program also helps with food insecurity, employment, educational resources, and even medical expenses not covered by insurance.

“In Drug Court, you’ve got people backing you right there,” says Thompson. “Compliance shows that you want something more. I begged the attorney for Drug Court because I needed to change my life and it helped me dramatically.”

She found temporary housing with the Salvation Army and soon started working for them with others in similar situations. Today she’s a shelter worker and emergency on call staff. She also works with South Sound Behavioral Hospital. Her lived experience provides a rare, vital service in often trying situations.

“I can really change the atmosphere of a room,” she explains, “because they know I’m not just there for a paycheck but I can relate to almost everyone who walks through the doors. I want to help people succeed, even if I just help one.”

Thompson has experienced self-harm, suicide attempts, addiction, and overdose. She’s spent time in jail, slept in doorways, and overcome abuse. But she understands that “you can offer all the help but they have to be ready to accept.” So, she spreads the word about Drug Court far and wide, helps program enrollees with their coursework, and supports them throughout the long journey to a new life.

Looking ahead, Thompson—now a certified peer counselor (CPC)—is thinking about continuing her studies to become a certified nursing assistant (CNA) while also applying to become an Agency Affiliated Counselor (AAC). She’s continued working with the Salvation Army for more than a year and is celebrating finally getting a driver’s license and car of her own.

“There are a lot of privileges we don’t really think are privileges until we get them,” admits Thompson. “Things like driving. But it’s been one year and eleven months since I started Drug Court and I’m proud that I’ve come pretty far.”

We can’t predict what storms may come, but having a stable, secure foundation means we’ll stand strong no matter what, especially with supporters at our side.

Update: Congratulations to Toni who received her AAC LICENSE today!

Breaking the Cycle

Clayton Musgrove. Photo by Shanna Paxton Photography for Strophy Foundation.

Breaking the Cycle: Clayton Musgrove's Journey from Generational Patterns to Personal Triumph

We’ve all inherited family traits, and they can make us recognizable to others. Your height (or lack thereof), hair and eye color, musical ability, sports prowess, and double-jointed thumbs can all be passed down. Chances are you’ve been told you’re just like mom, dad, grandpa, or Great Aunt Mary in some way.

But some traits—and recognition—are more complicated. For Clayton Musgrove, it was being called out during a visit to DUI/Drug Court where officials had worked with several other members of the family. In his case, however, time in the program brought very different results and he’s breaking out of generational patterns one day at a time.

Musgrove attended DUI/Drug court in 2015. As part of the legal wrangling, Ellen, a program director said simply “I’m going to offer you the chance at a new life,” he recalls. He chose to attend the therapeutic courts as a way to both get clean and retrain his mind and thinking patterns.

“You can’t process things when you’re loaded,” says Musgrove. “Treatment taught me how to use logic, cope, feel, and problem solve as a sober person. It takes a while for the brain to heal but it changed my life. I’ve learned how to forgive, talk it out, and look at myself; things I didn’t know before. Because of that I’m still clean and sober.”

From the start, Musgrove was told by program facilitators that it’s going to be tough, but you can do it. And the future is bright…literally. He’s now an electrician for the state of Washington with advancement opportunities ahead. “I have a good job and I’m working on things because I had the chance to invest in myself.”

The Strophy Foundation helped fund EMDR therapy to address underlying trauma. The American Psychological Association explains that EMDR uses targeted eye movement. “Unlike other treatments that focus on directly altering the emotions, thoughts, and responses resulting from traumatic experiences, EMDR therapy focuses directly on the memory and is intended to change the way the memory is stored in the brain, thus reducing and eliminating the problematic symptoms,” say APA experts.

He’s one of the founding members of the DUI/Drug Court’s meeting groups. These sessions are only open to alumni of the system and helpful both as continuing support and encouragement for new participants. “It shows them that we made it out,” says Musgrove, “That we have jobs and lives and a future.”

The key to success, says Musgrove, echoes something he learned as a national champion martial artist. “You only get out of something what you put into it. When you’re using, you’re typically so focused on the next time you can use. When you learn to focus that drive on life, we can become successful. The brain tells you it’s hard, go get loaded instead and avoid the crushing reality of responsibility. But when I look back, I see that I was so selfish and insecure, I should have just trusted the process.”

“Life isn’t easy,” admits Musgrove, “you’ll fumble but pick yourself up and learn by it. We tell new group members that this isn’t any harder than what life will throw at you. Anyone can do it if they make the decision to succeed.” And that’s advice worthy of sharing with future generations.

From Darkness to Light: Angela Turner's Journey of Transformation and Hope

Making a complete and total change in life is never easy…and often quite scary. Especially because we seldom uproot ourselves when things are going smoothly. But large-scale transitions are one way to break out of harmful habits, lifestyles, and routines to truly start a new life. For Angela Turner, the catalyst for hope was finally getting clean and sober on October 27, 2017.

Turner started Thurston County Drug Court in October 2017 with a daunting string of charges. “I was charged with eight counts of robbery and racketeering,” she recalls, “and facing 80 to 110 months in prison. I had been addicted to and abusing substances for 20 years and a vexing bane upon society and my community. I had ruined countless lives through selling and distributing drugs, stealing, lying, and deceiving anyone and everyone if it benefited me.”

Growing up with sexual trauma and a mentally ill mother, Turner started living on the streets at only 14 years old. To survive so young, she turned to drugs and crime. Parenting experts explain that at her young age, finding trouble was almost inevitable. “Because the prefrontal cortex is still developing, pre-teens and teenagers might rely on a part of the brain called the amygdala to make decisions and solve problems more than adults do. The amygdala is associated with emotions, impulses, aggression, and instinctive behavior.”

Without regular parental guidance as a child, Turner says that Drug Court is where she learned how to follow the rules. “I had never followed a rule in my life,” she admits. “I have always done what I wanted to get what I wanted as a means of survival. I also had no natural support and nowhere to live until a member of the community took me in. I was her son's drug dealer, yet she still took me and my children into her home, gave me a place to live, and supported me throughout my time in drug court.”

But the drug court staff did more than hold Turner accountable. They explained the powerful disease of addiction and mandated therapy, treatment, and 12-step meetings for support. “Once I was living clean and sober for the first time, I fell in love with life,” she says.

Through the program and continued determination to live clean, Turner went from losing custody of her children to being part of their lives again. She’s even married and owns a mini farm in Olympia’s Boston Harbor neighborhood complete with chickens, sheep, goats, and pigs.

Turner is involved with her church and volunteers to support others through their recovery. She is a Certified Peer Counselor earning a Bachelor of Applied Science in Behavioral Health and works in food security with food banks across Washington State with a background in workforce development. As she looks to the future, Turner wants to help provide housing for others working through the therapeutic recovery court system.

If anyone has stepped from darkness into light, it’s Angela Turner. But that just goes to show the power of caring, community, accountability, mentorship, and people who want to pass it on so others can change too.