Volunteer Profile: Ian B’s Journey to Healing

Ian B. is a counselor who leads a clinic team at Walk-In. He volunteers his time to make sure people in crisis can get counseling when they need it, for free.

Ian knows what it’s like to need help, because he has been through struggles himself. Those struggles started his journey to become a healer.

When he was 14 years old, Ian started using alcohol, and his use of alcohol soon became chaotic, he says. He spent many years trying to get sober, at one point checking into an inpatient treatment program.

During that time, “I really saw the saw the value of a dedicated professional showing up and walking beside me at different stages of the journey. … One counselor related to me on such a deeply human level that I realized the value of having people in your corner – particularly at a point in life where you feel you don’t deserve to have anyone in your corner.”

After studying family social sciences at the University of Minnesota, Ian first volunteered at Walk-In Counseling Center as an intern during his masters’ degree studies.

He immediately loved it. “It’s such a blessing that we have an organization like this that we get to work with,” Ian says.

One client Ian remembers well came to Walk-In while in the early stages of substance use recovery. He was navigating an array of relationship challenges at the same time, and Ian saw him for multiple sessions. “By the tenth session, he felt that he had made it over the hump. I remember thinking that he has what he needs. Should he face another challenge, he has the tools to make headway without direct support. And he knows he can come back when he needs to. … Looking back, that experience brings me a lot of joy,” Ian says.

Ian’s experience of recovery from substance use disorder has affected how he practices healing with others, he says. “As hard as that experience was, it was truly a gift. It makes it much easier to be non-judgmental, and it has allowed me to treat the clients we serve with an abundance of grace.”

But he also has to be careful not to rely too heavily on his own experience as a reference. “It is not my place to divine what the process of recovery looks like for someone else. I can remember how scary it felt, to think about never doing this (habit) again. But any life experience can feel big and undigestible. What I can do is sit in a space with them and focus on what what can do today. I like to use the metaphor of eating an elephant. How do we eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

Since becoming a lead counselor (called a team consultant) Ian has loved leading teams that have included graduate students and seasoned practitioners.

Even after the birth of his first child this summer, he keeps coming back to Walk-In. “To anyone who is thinking of being a volunteer at Walk-In, I highly recommend it. We have such a wonderful opportunity to make an impact in a way no other organization does.”