Shane Gerlach

Topics: Communication, Creativity and Cons, Education, Medicine/Healing, Prison Reform, South Dakota, Trauma

Community: Sioux Falls

Program Types: Speakers Bureau, Virtual Program(s)

yanktonirishred@siouxpercon.com | 605-661-8852 | siouxpercon.com

Surviving Trauma
Surviving his own vices turned out to be the easy part. With over 30 years clean from amphetamines Gerlach can proudly say he is in recovery. He didn’t realize that surviving self-inflicted trauma would be easy as compared to the trauma of debilitating illnesses. Gerlach shares his personal journey through infertility, Graves’ disease, disability, death of his father, his bride’s breast cancer diagnosis, his son’s stage four brain cancer diagnosis and how he learned to survive.

Second Chances
In his line of work Gerlach sees the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. He is a fulltime outpatient addiction counselor in Sioux Falls, primarily working with Criminal Justice Initiative clients from Correctional Behavioral Health, State Parole, 2nd Circuit Court Probation and Drug Court, and Federal Probation. In this presentation he shares the barriers his clients face, the stigma of addiction and how his own recovery from addiction helps him in his profession.

Acceptance Through a Nerd Convention
On May 19th, 2015, Gerlach sent a Facebook Message to a friend that would change his life for the next 9 years. That message led to his becoming one of the co-founders for the fan convention, SiouxperCon. In this presentation, he will share how a fan convention became a place of acceptance, empowerment, validation, safety and community. It’s here that the marginalized can feel accepted and in community, no matter their fandom.