True North Recovery

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🌟 STAFF SPOTLIGHT 🌟

Tara Williams , Mental Health Clinician

At True North Recovery, we believe that the way we welcome someone into care matters. Tara embodies that belief every day.

Bright, knowledgeable, compassionate, and genuinely welcoming, Tara brings an infectious energy and warm Southern charm to every client interaction. She has a natural ability to take what can sometimes feel like a stressful or overwhelming assessment process and turn it into a comfortable, supportive conversation.

With a strong clinical foundation and a client-centered approach, Tara thoughtfully guides individuals through the assessment process while taking the time to understand their unique experiences, needs, and goals. Whether navigating complex circumstances or simply helping someone take those first steps toward support, she approaches each interaction with patience, kindness, and genuine care.

Tara’s smile may brighten the room, but it is her ability to help people feel safe, respected, heard, and welcomed that truly makes an impact.

We are grateful for the knowledge, warmth, positivity, and heart Tara brings to True North Recovery and to the people we have the privilege of serving. 💙

Thank you, Tara, for helping make the first step toward recovery feel a little less overwhelming and a lot more welcoming!

We are grateful for our amazing community!

Thank you!!!!

This month's mission spotlight is True North Recovery! When you are prompted for a "tip" at checkout, your donation supports this organization!

True North Recovery is proud to be the Keynote Sponsor of the 2026 Fall Alaska Behavioral Health Association Conference.

We’re honored to support ABHA and join behavioral health leaders, providers, advocates, and community partners from across Alaska who are working every day to strengthen behavioral health services and improve outcomes for the people and communities we serve.

Thank you to the Alaska Behavioral Health Association for the opportunity to be part of this important conference and for the work you do to advance behavioral health across Alaska.

People Healed. Communities Strengthened. Systems Transformed.

!! RECOVERY MONTH STAFF SPOTLIGHT !!

Please help us celebrate Chloe Sylvester, Chief Administrative Officer. Wasilla, AK

Growing up, my mom did her best, but between my own mental health struggles and hers, consistency was hard to come by. Our home was deeply isolating, and by middle school, I tried to end my life. As the pain dragged on, I turned to drugs and alcohol. Once I started, I couldn’t stop—it was the only thing that silenced the noise on the inside. Until it didn’t.

That path carried me from my early teens to age 20, when he**in took everything from me—slowly, and then all at once. I was homeless, broken, and terrified, just waiting to be saved. My mom offered to bring me home, but on one condition: I had to get clean.

That’s how I landed in Alaska 10 years ago. I was angry, bitter, and so uncomfortable in my own skin I could barely tolerate being around people. I spent countless nights sitting on the Alano Club porch, convinced everyone inside was either crazy or lying. I couldn't comprehend how they felt real joy or actually cared about each other. It took months of just showing up before I finally let my guard down. But once I did, I found a recovery community that became my home.

It took a few tries for it to stick, but this last time was different.

Now, six years clean, I have the most beautiful family, a dream job in behavioral health, and an incredible support system. Today, I get to show up for others—sometimes because I’m called on, and sometimes just because I notice someone hurting. Giving back the same love and kindness that saved my life is the greatest blessing I have.

This journey wasn't easy. I did things I'm not proud of and hurt people along the way. But fighting through it is the most worthwhile thing I’ve ever done.

If you're struggling, just show up. Find your people. Find yourself. Someone once told me, "You never have to feel that way again." Today, I actually believe them.

!! RECOVERY MONTH STAFF HIGHLIGHT !!

Meet Dr. Caitlin Hegwood, Chief Clinical Officer at True North Recovery—and someone whose connection to recovery is both professional and deeply personal.

Caitlin’s journey into behavioral health began with her own recovery. After achieving sobriety at age 25, she redirected her career toward helping others build better lives. She began as a peer support professional, drawing on her lived experience to walk alongside people navigating addiction, mental health challenges, and involvement in the justice system.

That beginning has shaped every step of her career.

Over the years, Caitlin became an addiction counselor, mental health clinician, clinical supervisor, private practice owner, educator, author, speaker, and behavioral health leader. Today, as Chief Clinical Officer, she provides leadership across TNR’s continuum of care throughout Alaska, from crisis and withdrawal management services to residential treatment, outpatient care, peer support, and telehealth.

Her career has been guided by a simple philosophy: serve the least, the last, and the lost. She believes recovery is about more than stopping the use of drugs or alcohol—it is about connection, purpose, healing, opportunity, and building a life worth living.

Outside of TNR, Caitlin serves on the Alaska Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse and as a Subject Matter Expert for the Evidence-Based Intervention Review Panel. She is also an educator, published and contributing author, and national presenter in the behavioral health field.

For Caitlin, this work has never been simply a career. Recovery changed the direction of her life, and helping create that same possibility for others remains at the heart of why she does this work.

We’re proud to spotlight Caitlin and the lived experience, leadership, and commitment to recovery she brings to True North Recovery and communities across Alaska. 💙

🏔️ Alaska is big. Getting help shouldn’t feel impossible.

You don’t have to live near a treatment center to get meaningful support.

True North Recovery offers Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Mental Health Telehealth Services across Alaska, bringing care directly to you—wherever you call home.

Whether you're:
🌱 Ready to make a change
💙 Working to maintain your recovery
🧠 Looking for support with your mental health
🤝 Needing connection, accountability, and support

You don’t have to do it alone.

Our telehealth program provides compassionate, individualized care designed to meet people where they are and support them on the road toward recovery and wellness.

📱 Your community. Your space. Your recovery.
💻 Professional support, available in the palm of your hand!

At True North Recovery, we believe in saying YES to people seeking help for addiction and mental health.

Wherever you are in Alaska, your next step can start here.

"People Healed, Communities strengthened, Systems Transformed"

!! RECOVERY MONTH STAFF HIGHLIGHT !!

Please welcome Nick Kraska, Chief Operating Officer. Anchorage, AK

I was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska by two very wonderful parents who gave me a life full of options and opportunities. In my teen years, I chose to pursue a career in drinking and drugging. Responsibilities became secondary and feeding my addiction was the top priority. Needless to say, I was not very good at maintaining this lifestyle. After some cries for help, interventions, and treatments, I have not picked up a drug or a drink in 14 years.

I learned that my best thinking led me to dark places. That left to my own devices, I would find myself making the wrong choice. So now I choose to trust God and trust those who have walked a life I find attractive. I have made my fair share of mistakes in recovery, and God has provided me with grace I do not deserve to walk through those mistakes and reconcile my wrongs.

Today, I get to be a good husband. I get to be a good father. I get to be a role model for recovery. It sure beats the darkness I saw in addiction.

!! RECOVERY MONTH STAFF HIGHLIGHT !!

Please welcome James Savage, Director of Strategy and Public Relations. Wasilla, AK

My name is James Savage I was born and raised in the Mat-Su Valley, have been living a life of total abstinence since 7.27.2015.
I grew up in a household immersed in recovery and it did not prevent the disaster that was to come of my life. In 2008 I was working in a remote camp and was injured due to a fall from a ladder. I was left in camp for 36 hours with a severely broken foot due to bad weather and the inability for planes to fly in to get me. I was a young man who had carried life’s burdens from far too young of an age. This was the first time I was introduced to high potency op**tes, however for the first time in my life my mind was quiet.

I would go on to have multiple surgeries in an attempt to regain full use of my right foot. This led to years on pain medications in doctors’ offices, selling my injury to the highest prescriber. One day a doctor I had been using to obtain medications caught wind that I was abusing those medications. This was the beginning of a new chapter in my addiction. I quickly became a poly substance abuser in an attempt to curb the op**te withdraw that was imminent.

I spent the next 4.5 years hopelessly addicted to Methamphetamine. July of 2015, I found myself sitting in Mat-Su Pretrial again, but this time was different I didn’t want out. I didn’t want to have to run anymore, I didn’t want to lie anymore. I wanted it all to stop. Additionally there was a new challenge, I was trying to convince my loved ones and a judge that I was not mentally ill There was really only one option, come clean….

I got honest in a courtroom for the very first time in my active addiction and I was as shocked as the judge was. “Your Honor, I am an addict and I can’t stop”. These words were the key to the lock I had imposed on myself. This man must have seen the desperation all over me, 11 days later I was headed for residential treatment (knowing what I know now about our system of services in Alaska at that time, this was clearly divine intervention).

After treatment I got connected with a group of men that were living out their recovery in a way that was attractive to me. Furthermore, they were trying to help others.

We began helping others find the resources that were so desperately needed to maintain a lifestyle of recovery. I had found my freedom in service, helping others made me think of myself less. This work would become my life’s passion.

"Where there is breath, There is Hope"