Ex-addicts are turning lives around: Treatment called key to staying out of jail

That begins in group sessions by "processing" individual situations, clients breaking down the reasons they make choices. Often, they've been on drugs so long they missed adolescent developmental stages, said counselor Seanna Williams. She knows what that's like. She, too, missed those stages, having done drugs from ages 13 to 33.

There was nothing like DORA when she was "runnin' and gunnin"' as she calls it, back in the late '70s and '80s.

"I see this program, and on the one hand I'm so happy, then (it's) bittersweet," she said. "I can't help but think where my life would have gone (with DORA), but then I wouldn't be here. And it's amazing to work in this program."

Group discussions rarely focus on drugs but instead look at how to strengthen relationships or develop coping mechanisms and how to make good, drug-free choices — like going roller-skating.

The clients all want to share their experiences and newly gained DORA skills with children, to prevent drug use from starting.

Their first comment to kids? Drugs are fun. They are. If they weren't, why would people do them? they ask.

But the women quickly add that drugs are only "fun" for a few minutes, then the pain of addiction and destruction sets in, often for decades.

Leeson has been clean for two years but is still haunted by her drug past.

Because of her felony record, she has struggled for months to find an apartment, shelling out nearly $900 for application fees, only to be rejected time after time.

She finally got someone to take a chance on her by renting her an apartment. She told them about her two years sober and how she'll be the first DORA graduate in January.

She meets weekly with Chamberlain to report her progress. Chamberlain also gets daily e-mails from counselors regarding her attitude and attendance.

The clients trust Chamberlain. They know he wants to help them. And that motivates them to change, they say.

"I was sick of living the way I was living," Nielsen said. "Ever since I've been doing things I was supposed to do, good things (are happening)."

Nielsen has a good job in Orem now and plans to go back to school. She wants to be a nail technician or maybe open her own business.

But coming back into the community isn't easy. Many people are hesitant to love, house or employ convicted felons.

That means DORA clients must work extra hard to prove to the community that their mistakes were just that, mistakes.

"I had a problem," Nielsen said. "I'm fixing it."

Deanne Palmer, 22, is realizing just how deep her drug problems were rooted. She's coming back to DORA classes after 11 days in a residential treatment center for a drug relapse. She had been too overconfident.

"I just wasn't aware of how big of a threat everything was," she said.