Meet our staff: Ria Meronek

Ria Meronek combines her skills from previous career to provide addiction treatment at the Centre.

The title on her business card really doesn’t say much. “Coordinator”, doesn’t give one the true scope of all that Ria Meronek does in one day at Calgary Counselling Centre. But the word “counselling” on the other side of the card reflects Ria’s true passion.

Since July 2007, Ria has taken on the role of increasing the capacity of addictions treatment here at the Centre through the supervision of full time counsellors, the delivery and development of training seminars regarding addictions, program planning and counselling. Although she is able to do all that and more in one day, addictions counselling wasn’t Ria’s first career choice.

Prior to becoming a counsellor, Ria obtained her Masters of Science in Physiology and worked as a biology lecturer at the University of Winnipeg. After ten years in her position she realized she didn’t want to be in academia for the rest of her life.

“I worked long and hard to get to where I was, so making the switch wasn’t an easy decision,” Ria explains. It wasn’t made lightly or quickly, but she eventually packed up her belongings in her car and drove back to her hometown, Calgary.

It was in the Women in Transition program where Ria discovered her second career path. In two years, Ria had her second degree, a Masters in Counselling Psychology from University of Gonzaga and was looking for a new job. She applied for a position at AADAC and within three weeks she was hired on.

“I didn’t set out to become an addictions counsellor. If you would have asked me what my career plans were,” says Ria with a laugh. “Even when I was thirty, I wouldn’t have considered being a counsellor. I would have told you that you needed counselling, if you’d predicted this career.”

Since coming the Centre in 2007, Ria’s training increased the confidence of counsellors to treat clients with addiction issues. It’s clear that although biology may have been Ria’s first love, counselling is her passion.

“I have seen people with seemingly insurmountable addictions, transform their lives. It takes work, it takes effort, it takes time - but they get to a place where they turn back and they actually say to me ‘I’m so thankful for my addiction. Facing the addiction was the start of the process to heal my life’,” says Ria. “To be witness to that experience, is very special.”

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