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As a former competitive swimmer, Alethea learned that what separated record-breakers from others was not their bodies, but their minds.
Years later, while studying psychology, everything clicked. The mind shapes your thoughts, your feelings, your behavior, your personality. And if you understand the mind, you can help people transform. Now she runs Naisereni Wellness, a mental health organisation with 45+ therapists. She's learned one more thing: the mind lives in a body. If you're only talking to people, you're missing half the picture.
Addiction Is Trauma
After earning her degree in Counseling Psychology, Alethea pursued postgraduate training in addiction and substance use. She then spent two years working in rehabilitation settings, where one lesson became unmistakably clear: addiction is not a moral failing. More often than not, it is an attempt to cope with unresolved trauma, emotional pain, or overwhelming life experiences.
"When you help one person achieve lasting recovery, the impact extends far beyond that individual," she says. "The generational effects are enormous. In the same way addiction can be passed from one generation to another through trauma, healing can also break that cycle. Supporting one person to recover has the potential to change the future of an entire family."
The System behind recovery
For Alethea, rehabilitation is only the beginning.
"Many people leave treatment without adequate aftercare or the practical tools they need to maintain sobriety and rebuild their lives. Recovery becomes incredibly difficult when someone is expected to return to the same environment, relationships, and routines that contributed to their addiction."
She believes the real work begins after rehabilitation, but the foundation for long-term recovery must be built before treatment ends. This preparation should involve not only the individual in recovery but also the people who will support them afterward.
"Families are often overlooked," she explains. "Some rehabilitation programs don't provide enough family psychoeducation. Loved ones may believe that because someone has completed treatment, they should simply stop using substances. But addiction is a complex condition. Without understanding how it works, families may unintentionally enable harmful behaviors or create situations that increase the risk of relapse."
Recovery, she believes, is most successful when the individual and their support system heal together.
The Marriage and Family Therapist's View
Transformation, for Alethea, starts with parents. Not children. Parents.
"Between childhood and adulthood is where many of our deepest emotional wounds develop," she says. "When parents begin healing their own unresolved experiences, they reduce the likelihood of passing those patterns on to the next generation."
Parents don't need judgment. They need tools and safe spaces to talk about their challenges, to deal with the trauma they never processed, to understand how their own childhood is showing up in how they parent.
Many people parent from what they observed growing up, either repeating familiar patterns or reacting against them.
"Awareness is where change begins. When parents understand how their own childhood experiences influence the way they parent today, they become better equipped to create healthier relationships with their children.”
Puzzles and Silence
Outside of work, Alethea loves puzzles, music, travelling, reading, adventurous experiences, theater and movies. She exercises. She reads, but only the interesting books that are insightful, moving and humor her. If it's 600 pages of dense history, or fiction she's not interested.
She's ambidextrous, dominantly left-handed, but there are certain things she can only do with her right hand. Phone calls. Texting. Showering. Using a computer mouse. She can't explain why. It's just how it is.
What might surprise people about Alethea is that she's mostly introverted and her default is to do her own things in silence.
Alethea is a marriage and family therapist who specializes in addiction and family systems work. She works with individuals, corporates, churches, and institutions through Naisereni Wellness. You can find her profile here to connect. To reach out and learn more about Naisereni Wellness visit www.naisereniwellness.com.
