Event Registration

Resident & Family Member Alumni are cordially invited to attend the annual

Sierra Tucson Alumni Retreat S.T.A.R. 37

Celebrating 37 Years of Reconnecting & Renewing Our Recovery!

Alumni Retreat Schedule

Registration (Begins on 7/15/2024)

The Retreat cost is $250 per person. This includes workshops, presentations, entertainment, meals from Thursday reception through Sunday brunch, transportation Friday to and from Sierra Tucson, and gift bags to take home.

Hotel Accommodations

All Retreat activities, with the exception of Friday afternoon's activities, will be held at the Westward Look Wyndham Grand Resort and Spa, which has extended discounted rates ($159 single/double occupancy and $169 for triple/quad occupancy plus tax & resort fee) until September 25, 2024 or once room block has filled. Reservations received after September 25, 2024, are subject to availability at the resort’s prevailing rate.

To make a reservation, you can either do so online or call by contacting Westward Look Resort's group reservation specialist Hilary Lietz at (520) 917-2465, and be sure to let them know you are with the Sierra Tucson Annual Retreat. Westward Look has sold out in the past, so it is a good idea to reserve your room as soon as possible! When making reservations, ask about the cancellation policy so as not to be charged a night's stay if you need to cancel.

Wyndham Grand Westward Look Resort & Spa > Property Map

A 10% discount is available on spa services at the Westward Look Sonoran Spa (520) 917-2467. It is highly recommended that you book your spa services as soon as possible to ensure availability. Be sure to mention that you are with the Sierra Tucson Annual Retreat to receive the discounted rate.

Please note that there will NOT be shuttle/bus service between other hotels and Westward Look; you will need to provide your own transportation.

Presentations 

Mattering for the Sake of Mattering (and, for no other reason)

George Daranyi, J.D.

If you mattered, for the sake of mattering and for no other reason, how would you live your life? Before answering that question we are faced with this one:

Do we matter? Do you? In the face of our histories, challenges, limitations, wounds, “diagnoses”, victories and failures, do we? And, importantly, who or what decides the answer(s) to these questions for us? It may seem that an inquiry into this subject should be left to philosophers and sages; but, maybe, this inquiry goes to the heart of how we relate to ourselves, both consciously and unconsciously.  And, maybe, we should have that conversation with a group of committed travelers, our peers, who continue their paths to recovery. George Daranyi will present the topic and the context in which it arises and then engage in a lively facilitation of the conversation. Join him in discovering the answers for yourself.

George celebrated 36 years of recovery this year. He has worked with thousands of men and women in and out of the mental health and recovery worlds for more than 30 years. He combines elements from his own recovery, his legal practice, his work with The ManKind Project and his work in the mental health field together with poetry, literature, and facilitation to create memorable transformational experiences. He devotes some of his time to the continuing development and delivery of the “Desert Wisdom” experience for men. The current focus is to help men integrate the deep masculine with the sacred feminine.

Unraveled or Unrivaled; The Role of Resilience in Recovery

Jerry Lerner, MD

Resilience is the capacity to bounce back from difficulties. This presentation explores the relationship of resilience to recovery. We will delve into what constitutes resilience, how we lose it, and how we regain and sustain it for a lifetime.

Jerry Lerner, MD is a double-boarded physician in Rehabilitation Medicine and Addiction Medicine, as well as a Certified Executive Coach. His expertise extends to the role resilience plays in wellness, integrative medicine, addiction, pain recovery, trauma, and executive effectiveness.

Following a long career in clinical care and administrative leadership, Dr. Lerner currently provides executive and life coaching, as well as resilience trainings (LernerForLife.com). He previously served at Sierra Tucson as Chief Medical Officer along with fulfilling roles as Director of the Licensed Professionals and Executives Program and Director of the Pain Recovery Program. He also served as consultant and trainer for The Meadows in the areas of Pain Informed Care and Resilience Recovery. Dr. Lerner has lectured extensively and has led workshops and trainings throughout the country on topics of resilience, pain, trauma and addiction.

Dr. Lerner enjoys thinking outside of the box, exploring leading edge approaches to wellness, resilience and recovery. He has a lifelong love of the arts; his first major in college was music and he remains an avid pianist and composer. He is married to his wonderful wife, Stephanie, is father to three delightful children - Arielle, Geneva and Gabe (d) and grandfather to Calvin and Maddie.

His new book, Unraveled to Unrivaled, is the culmination of four decades exploring resilience.

Healing Loneliness through Attachment

Alexander Danvers, PhD

Loneliness is on the rise in the U.S. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, we have a “loneliness epidemic.” Decades of research have shown that loneliness is related to problems with both mental health and physical health. As the Director of Treatment Outcomes at Sierra Tucson, I’ve found that patients are often struggling with loneliness. At the same time, research I conducted with the University of Arizona found that feeling lonely is not strongly related to spending time alone. In other words, loneliness is about how you perceive your close relationships, not just about being around other people. One way to help relationships become deeper and more meaningful is to address our attachment: the patterns of connection we have learned from childhood and partners throughout our life. This talk examines the connection between loneliness, mental health, and attachment, and suggests ways to decrease loneliness by addressing deeper patterns in how we relate to others.

Alexander Danvers, Ph.D., is a psychologist with expertise in mobile sensing, machine learning, and psychophysiology. Dr. Danvers joined Sierra Tucson in 2022 from the U.S. Army Research Labs, where he was a civilian research scientist working on mobile sensing and artificial intelligence projects. Before that, he served as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Arizona. He has taught courses in social psychology at the graduate and undergraduate levels at Oklahoma State University and Arizona State University.

At Sierra Tucson, Dr. Danvers oversees the Measurement-Based Care and Applied Neuroscience programs. His work on Measurement-Based Care involves providing customized reports on patient functioning to residents and treatment providers at Sierra Tucson, evaluating outcomes across Sierra Tucson’s various programs, and developing algorithms for predicting key treatment outcomes. His work on Applied Neuroscience involves managing a team that provides EEG brain maps, neurostimulation treatments such as TMS and tDCS, and HRV biofeedback training. In collaboration with partners in academia, he conducts research into the effectiveness of these neuroscience treatments, and into who might benefit most from specific treatment modalities. He is also responsible, in conjunction with the clinical and medical teams, for building new programming using emerging devices and technologies to treat the brain and nervous system.

Dr. Danvers received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Arizona State University in 2017. His areas of emphasis were applying dynamic systems theory to psychology, understanding the role of emotions in everyday life, and evolutionary approaches to human behavior. He has published over 25 scientific articles and book chapters, which have been collectively cited over 750 times. He has collaborated frequently across disciplines, including with law professors, anthropologists, philosophers, and medical doctors.

As someone who was inspired to enter science by reading popular press books, Dr. Danvers is also passionate about effective science communication. He has maintained an active blog at Psychology Today since 2018 titled “How Do You Know?” It explores details of the methods psychologists use to draw scientific conclusions, and has reached over half a million views.

Presentations will continue to be added Summer 2024

S.T.A.R. 37 Hosts

Tim McLeod, Director of Alumni Relations & Connect365 at (913) 269-1323 or Tim.McLeod@SierraTucson.com

Robert Lachapelle, Alumni Coordinator & Connect365 Manager at (520) 624-4000 ext. 672 or Robert.Lachapelle@SierraTucson.com.