Counselor Jackie Landler helps addicts reclaim lives

She is a co-founder of A Chance to Change, an addiction treatment center focusing on the family. The center is celebrating 30 years of service today.

Landler tells parents of addicted children to go home, dust off the photo album and look at the pictures of their little ones snuggled up in soft, footed blanket sleepers. Look at how sweet they were as you tucked them into bed, she tells them.

"Get in touch with how they never expected to be sitting in a drug counselor’s office talking about their kids stealing their wedding rings and pawning them and things like that,” Landler said.

If the client is visiting Landler at A Chance To Change because of a spouse’s alcohol or drug dependence, her request to them is similar.

She asks them to find their wedding album and get in touch with the hopes and dreams of their wedding day.

"And how much different it is now,” Landler said.

And she prescribes love letters for the chemically dependent person. These are letters to the user’s best friend and faithful companion — the chemical.

The letter typically includes narrative on "all the things you’ve meant to me. All the things you’ve added to my life.” The second portion of the letter describes how things changed and how the chemicals caused problems for the user.

The third portion is a "Dear John” letter, saying so long to the addiction.