The Harm Reduction Therapy Center offers free counseling services at TARC/Tenderloin Health Monday-Friday 9AM-11:30AM. It's best to show up at 9AM to avoid a wait. Here is an interview with one of their counselors, Pete Morris.

Speedometer: How did the Harm Reduction Therapy Center services at TARC start & can you talk with me a little bit about what they are?

Peter Morris: Sure, well TARC is now called Tenderloin Health and it's a combination of Continuum's programming & TARC. They hired the Harm Reduction Therapy Center to come in & provide therapy and substance abuse treatment so we've been there for about 4 years. We have five staff members including psychologists, social workers, and a nurse practitioner if a client is interested in medication.

Speedometer: If someone wanted to go to a group at TARC/Tenderloin Health what should they know about the harm reduction groups there?

Pete: You would go on Wednesday morning at 9:30AM or Thursday in the afternoon at 2PM. They are general harm reduction groups, the people who come to the groups are very diverse. A lot of the folks who use services at Tenderloin Health are also part of the Speed Project so it might be good to check in with them about what we offer.

What we do really well at Tenderloin Health is individual therapy with speed users.

Speedometer: Great. How would someone get hooked up with that?

Pete: Basically you just drop-in in the morning, any day of the week, between 9AM & 11:30 AM. The best thing to do is get there at 9AM so you'll be seen right away.

If you get there later there might be a bit of a wait; some days are busier than others. Besides the wait, we have easy, accessible, efficient, quality services, I think more so than any other agency in the city. There's no intake- no waiting list- it's just come on in, sit down, we can talk.

Speedometer: So do you have to be a client of Tenderloin Health to get therapy?

Pete: Yes, but you become a client when you get there. So you show up, you drop in, and you're a client.

Speedometer: Are there any restrictions, do you have to be positive, negative, or live in a certain neighborhood?

Pete: We welcome HIV+ people. Tenderloin Health is expanding to serve a broader clientele but they're main focus is folks who are HIV+. There are no geographic restrictions to come in for services, if you like to come to the tenderloin, then come on down!

Speedometer: So if a guy was negative & he wanted counseling services he could get them?

Pete: Absolutely. There is even case management available. It is important to point out that Tenderloin Health is mostly homeless services.

Speedometer: What would you want guys to know about what someone could expect from counseling?

Pete: We are all harm reduction folks. The 12 step model does not apply at Tenderloin Health, we don't buy into that. We really believe that drug use has a purpose in people's lives & we want to help people figure that out & we want to help them reduce the harm in their lives. We help people set attainable goals for themselves that aren't punitive in any way, to look at both the good parts of speed and the parts that could use a little assistance.

I usually start my sessions with folks who do speed by asking what they like about it, because I really want to know. We aren't green like a lot of therapists when it comes to the ins and outs of daily speed use. I think folks will have a different experience at Tenderloin Health because you will feel very connected with the therapists you see. WE get it and we get what the street economy is. We can talk explicitly about sex about drug use, needles, any of that stuff.

The thing we care most about is creating a relationship with someone. It's all done with caring, its client centered, no judgment. I think the biggest difference about Tenderloin Health is that we do not in any way push NA or AA down anyone's throat. We believe the client knows themselves better than anybody- we are lucky to be talking to them and that's pretty much where we are coming from. They can come & talk to us high if they want, that's also something that's unique about our program. You can come rip roaring high on your seventh day of a speed run while hallucinating and we will sit down with you and make sure you are okay and talk to you if that's what you need to do. We definitely accept people who are totally tweaking, come on in!

Speedometer: Would somebody see a counselor there once a month or once or week?

Pete: They can come once a week if they want. You can drop-in in the morning and if you drop in on a regular basis and start developing a good rapport with your counselor we will start making the option of appointments available to you.

Speedometer: What would you say is different about the harm reduction therapy center's approach... for guys who have maybe never been in therapy before?

Pete: The thing you are going to notice at Tenderloin Health is that it will feel different. You are going to feel like you are talking to another person. You are not going to feel like you are talking to a therapist. You're not going to feel like you are "in therapy" and that there's that stigma of "therapy" around you. You are going to feel like you are having a conversation with somebody about your drug use. We are good at connecting with guys and nothing really shocks us. You won't ever say anything to shock a harm reduction therapist. If anything we'll want to learn more about it. You'll never feel like you are being judged, we really want to get to know our clients. We think they are the experts on their lives and we just want to be witness to that.

Speedometer: What kind of feedback have you had from clients who've come?

Pete: I have a client who is a speed user in the TL & SOMA and is from here, there, and everywhere. We have been seeing each other about a year & a half now, and this person has done very well. They've gone from being homeless to having an apartment, having enough money to buy nice clothing again, and live their life. We occasionally run into each other in the neighborhood, have a casual conversation and they are very thankful they've learned how to take the stigma out of therapy for themselves and see it as a useful tool for their health. This person has not cut way back on their drug use, that's not their goal, but their life has improved. That's really the experience we are going for. We just want people's lives to improve.

Speedometer: For somebody who did want to cut down or quit using speed, if that was their goal, how would you work with somebody who wanted to reduce their use?

Pete: We'd probably take a very practical approach. Helping them identify when are the times that you are using? Where are you using? Who are you buying from? Who are you hanging out with when it comes up? Is it a bar, a sex club, a hotel room somewhere? Help them become aware of the fact that if they remove themselves from certain situations, or put their drug use off, go to a movie or do something else- just to start getting themselves some space in between runs....and we will go from there... that's how I approach things. Totally supporting them, giving them some tools to use. I recommend doing a journal sometimes- where you are writing down when you are using, when you are not using, how you felt, who has good speed, who has bad speed, did I have a good time, did I get psychotic, did I sleep too much, did I take vitamins...all those things. Really being practical about it at first.

And then, once identifying that stuff- looking at the psychological component. A lot of drug use stems from something else: depression, anxiety, trauma, a breakup. The drug use doesn't exist by itself. You wanna help people look at mental health and their drug use to try to get them to connect the dots themselves. Okay, why do I want to use? Do I want to use when I feel lonely? Do I want to use when I feel horny? A real practicality about it, its not "I'm insane and I'm out of control" its "I have choices that I can make and I want to help myself be informed about those choices."

Speedometer: Let's say somebody was thinking about experimenting with crystal meth, would it be useful for them to talk to somebody at Tenderloin Health?

Pete: I would recommend they talk to someone on the Harm Reduction Therapy Team. That's what we do, we are a substance abuse treatment program and we are all experts on drug use and the treatment of drug use. So we could tell them everything upside down and backwards about speed.

Speedometer: If someone was interested in changing from injecting to smoking, do you get a lot of people who want to change how they do drugs?

Pete: Yeah, that's definitely a goal - reducing the harm. If someone's getting abscesses all the time and it is really decreasing their quality of life they may want to take a break. A lot of our clients have had a lot of success going from shooting to smoking. If you are trying to cut back your usage it's a great start because you are not going to get as intense of a high and you are not going to be putting as much in your system. You can try it on. It's a way that you can still get high but try what it would be like to cut down. Its tough because I think people who do crystal like that intense rush- so I think its difficult to be on the drug and know that there is something that can get you higher available- but that's where we come in. We can talk people through that and help them accept that. Yeah, you're not gonna be as high this way- but your life is gonna get better, and your not going to have to go to the hospital for wound care all the time.....

Speedometer: Anything else you'd like to share with Speedometer's readers?

Pete: I think they are going to enjoy the experience of therapy regardless of whether they stop or cut down on their drug use. I think they are really going to enjoy being able to connect with somebody who listens and gets it- because I think ultimately that's all any of us wants anyways, to sit with somebody who really gets it. We can make that available for speed users at Tenderloin Health.

Speedometer: thank you very much!