Overcoming drug addiction with group therapy, 'no judgement' and a shared lunch at the Healing Circle

Josh Calliss became addicted to painkillers after a work injury. (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Jodie Hamilton)

When Josh Calliss opened his door to the police on August 9, 2021, he learned his brother-in-law was dead from a drug overdose.

Josh had himself battled for 20 years to overcome the grip of heroin, methadone and other drugs —  and the heartbreaking loss of his relative jolted him into a second chance at his own life.

At 16, Josh, from Port Lincoln in South Australia, started taking prescription painkillers after his hand was injured in a work accident at a tuna farm.

Having lived the extreme highs and the gut-wrenching lows of opiate addiction, the death of his brother-in-law was the sword to overcome his addiction.

“Shit, that could have been me because I was living so much [more] radical compared to the way he was,” Josh, now 38, says.

“It’s just going to continue … until something really drastic happens in your life where you pull up and go, ‘Woah, this needs to stop now, otherwise I’m going to be dead or I’m going to be in jail or something is going to happen to my kids.

“I couldn’t ever live with that.”

Now, Josh shares his life story as a lived-experience counsellor at the Healing Circle, a support service in Port Lincoln helping people overcome alcohol or drug addiction.

His journey is an inspiration to others.

“For them to be able to see me change … it makes them have a bit of faith in themselves that they can do it,” Josh says.

“I’ve been off methadone since January last year (2022) and I haven’t used any meth or ice … for probably four years, nearly five, but I was still using my opiates from the doctors right up until January last year.”

Group therapy in a safe space

The Healing Circle in Port Lincoln has been running since July, 2021 and in its first year helped at least 118 people through addiction.

It is a safe space for addicts to share their struggles and to reconnect with others, and it is working.

The program, funded by Country and Outback Health through West Coast Youth and Community Services, involves group therapy rather than traditional one-on-one counselling in an office, which people found uncomfortably confronting and often logistically difficult to access.

Attending the Healing Circle in the city’s Mallee Park area is the only time some of the clients leave home.

“Sometimes the only people they see each day is their dealer,” Josh says.

A bus picks up attendees twice a week, and a quiet cuppa awaits them.

Sitting on a comfortable couch in a warm building, enjoying a shared lunch, people can open up about their thoughts and feel at home.

“We cook lunch every day and that’s a really good component of what the Healing Circle is all about,” says counsellor Jason Ramp.

“Just the interaction with everybody when they’re cooking a meal and getting a meal prepared.”

‘Like a big family’

These are ordinary people who have spiralled down a hole.

Jason says the program works because it is flexible and participation is voluntary.

Most of the clients take part in a daily check-in, sharing their progress and struggles.

One has changed his medication and is feeling anxious. Another is off to Adelaide to see old party friends and is worried about lapsing after gaining ground with his drug addiction.

Fellow addicts encourage them, offering tips to keep on their recovery path.

“There’s no judgement here,” Jason says.

“It is just like a big family and everybody knows each other and everybody supports each other.”

‘Snakes and ladders’ life

Nathan Ackers, 38, is a success story.

He came to sit at the circle after months of debilitating depression.

Like Josh, Nathan had hurt himself at work on a tuna farm and took time off to try to get better.

“I fell deeper and deeper to the point where it was really, really difficult for me just to get up out of bed in the mornings.”

Josh contacted him and invited him to the Healing Circle.

While it took him a few months to “get up and face the world”, it was the best decision of his life.

Nathan has taken to journalling to help heal and has penned a rap song about his darkest days that he hopes to record.

Having left home at 16, he’d spent 10 years partying, with no aim in life.

“I really wasted a lot of my years through drugs and alcohol,” Nathan says.

“[My life was] a bit of snakes and ladders from an early age.

“It was more about making myself forget everything and to fit in with a new crowd of people who I thought were my greatest friends at the time.”

At the Healing Circle, Nathan found a way out of his depression.

“I started thinking if I continue in this way it’s not [going] to be a fun life to live,” he says.

“I started giving life another shot. I started finding things that made me want to change my ways.

“I started teaching myself how to breakdance and that seemed to help.”

He admits talking about feelings was a hurdle.

“I didn’t think going out to talk to someone would actually improve anything,” he says.

“At the start I’d walk in with sunglasses and beanie and hoodie over my head trying to hide myself.

“After a while I started taking that beanie off, taking the hoodie off and … stopped hiding.

“I started not only talking but listening to other people in the group and it really made me sit there and think that I’m not the only person that’s struggling every day and there are also other people around me here.”

After his boss called to check on him, Nathan is back at work and continuing to journal.

He still pops into the Healing Circle — it’s like family to him.

“As I leave, I’m smiling because I’m thinking, ‘Look how much the place helped me out and I guarantee it is going to do the same for them.'”

He’s writing some more songs.

“I want to help people in life and I want to sing or rap, add a few messages of something that people could relate to.”

‘I’m not alone’

Owen Wilson is helping Josh make the day’s lunch: shepherd’s pie.

Owen has just got out of jail and is on parole for drug trafficking.

“This place has helped me find myself again,” he says.

“I’ve been addicted to ice since I was 13 or 14 years old and it has destroyed my life.

“I’ve thrown away jobs and everything for it.”

He’s now on suboxone, an opiate replacement, and says it’s allowed him to feel a bit normal.

“This really helped me not so much figure everything out, but it’s helped me have people to open up to and there are other people in similar situations to me,” Owen says.

“It has shown me I’m not alone.

“I don’t want to be stuck in and out of jail for the rest of my life.

“When I first got out of jail, the first couple of weeks I was really depressed.

“Now I’ve got something to look forward to, [to] come down and have lunch and have a chat with people and get away from everything.”

Owen has since secured a job in the fishing industry.

Reunited with children

The common factor at the Healing Circle is the pain caused by addiction, and people wanting to start over.

Two of the clients were women whose children had been removed from their care in part due to their drug addiction.

Both women had a history of abusive and violent relationships.

Maria (not her real name to protect her children’s identity) was selling methamphetamines from her shed — but not between 7pm and 10pm — when she got her children fed and to bed.

It took her three years to get her children back.

She admits selling drugs from her shed was not a healthy environment for her children.

She is grateful for the Healing Circle and particularly the lack of judgement.

“[The counsellors] here, all of them treat you like a human,” Maria says.

Karen, also not her real name, had her three children removed from her care.

Since 14, she’d been a marijuana smoker.

She used the drug to ease pain caused by back and stomach issues.

Karen is red listed for painkillers, which means she can’t access any, and is now managing her pain through exercise.

“I go swimming at the leisure centre and try and do a little bit of a gym workout,” Karen says.

After 18 months, Karen’s youngest two children are back in her care.

She continues to come to the Healing Circle.

“It’s always been my family and a safe network to come to talk about things,” she says.

“Having my kids back has helped heaps as well — that joy and happiness overrides all the pain.

“It’s been a very long journey.

“Eighteen months felt like a lifetime but I’m very proud how I’ve managed to get on top of everything and I’m enjoying life again.”

Helping each other

Clyde Copeland, 60, describes his childhood as a horror story of abuse at the hands of those who should have been providing love and care — including while in institutional care.

“I was raped in five different boys’ homes — I just thought this was all part of life,” he says.

“It wasn’t until 43 that it all came out to a psychologist.”

He says he took drugs to cope with his trauma.

“It’s all due to my past,” he says.

“It was forced upon me and took away my innocence and turned me into a person I didn’t want to be.

“And then you turn to drugs. It makes it even worse.

“I’ve been in and out of prison all my life.

“What I’ve been through I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.”

He told his story to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which released its report in December 2017.

Clyde says the Healing Circle is a supportive group.

“This place is out of this world — I actually believe I’m in a good spot,” he says.

“Everyone has time for one another and [they] talk through their problems, what you’re going through, and what they’re going through.

“We help each other, it’s just really amazing stuff.”

Forging ahead

Counsellor Jason Ramp says many graduates of the Healing Circle have been able to move on with their lives.

For Josh, it’s about being there for his kids when they need help.

“I just want to be content and live my life and see my kids grow up and turn into nice men.”

Christine Grocke, a mother of one of the former clients, is now a volunteer helper.

“Once a fortnight I put a donation aside and I’ll use that to make something,” she says.

“I was a shearers’ cook so I enjoy this type of thing.”

She says the Healing Circle brought about positive changes.

“The healthiness of the skin, the eyes, the body language,” Christine says.

“Just to see them finding the strength to [overcome their] challenges, I’m proud for them.

“There’s a common factor that can help you: knowing you’re not alone. There are others there that we can learn from.

“There’s a lot of mental issues that sometimes lead to addiction and the hardest part is getting out.

“There’s no judgement; we’re all humans.”