Faculty

Tom Farley

Community Outreach Director
Recovery.com

Tom Farley grew up in Madison, WI, and graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in Marketing. He began his career in banking and finance before running The Chris Farley Foundation (1999–2012), a nationally recognized nonprofit focused on substance abuse prevention. Through humor-based programs, he helped young people build communication skills and create supportive environments.
In 2008, Tom co-authored The Chris Farley Show, a New York Times bestseller about his late brother, comedian Chris Farley. He has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and Larry King Live to discuss addiction and recovery.
Now in recovery himself, Tom is a passionate advocate for mental health and addiction treatment. He works at Recovery.com as Community Outreach Director, connecting people with the resources they need to heal. As a speaker, he shares his journey to break stigma, inspire hope, and foster connection. Tom lives in Madison, WI.

2027 Sessions

The Story Isn't Over: The Many Stories Families Carry Through Recovery and Loss

Session Description: Families facing addiction often watch the same video of an event and walk away with entirely different stories about what happened. This session explores why. Every culture uses narrative to make sense of shared history, and families are no different. The instinct is to seek one agreed-upon version of "what happened" and treat consensus as the path to healing. But what the camera never captures, the internal experience, the fear, the shame, the love, is often what matters most. Recovery is not built on everyone agreeing to the same story; it is built on a collection of individual and family stories about the same events, each valid, each different by design, and each deserving to be heard.

Presenters bring decades of combined experience translating personal and clinical storytelling into practical tools - as a public speaker whose own story has evolved over years in front of national audiences, as an author who writes for families navigating a loved one's addiction, and as a clinician who works with families as interconnected systems rather than individual cases. Together, they offer practical ways to elicit, hold, and connect multiple family narratives without forcing consensus, approaches that hold up whether a family is in the middle of active use, early recovery, long-term recovery, or grief after a loss. Presenters will lead a live improv storytelling exercise, and attendees leave with a reframed view of "pathways to recovery": not a menu of modalities, but a group of people, each walking their own story, together.

Presenter

Wednesday, March 31 10:30–11:45 AM
1.25 Credits
Recovery Support
Faculty

Caroline Beidler

MSW
Managing Editor and Director/Founder
Recovery.com and Women's Recovery Leadership Foundation

Caroline Beidler, MSW is an author, speaker, and the Managing Editor of Recovery.com, a company that combines independent research with expert guidance on addiction and mental health treatment. Our mission is to help everyone find the best path to recovery through the most comprehensive, helpful network of treatment providers worldwide. She is the author of three books, Downstairs Church, You Are Not Your Trauma, and When You Love Someone in Recovery: A Hopeful Guide for Understanding Addiction with Nelson Books, coming Spring 2026. Her own lived experience in addiction, mental health, and trauma recovery inspires her to help others find recovery in all its varying forms. In four short years, she has built a global network of recovery supporters through her storytelling platform and accompanying newsletter, Circle of Chairs, which reaches thousands weekly. She is a creative and visionary, founding the Women’s Recovery Leadership Foundation, along with co-leading a global research initiative on family recovery with leaders around the world. Her writing is described as funny, gritty, relatable, and insightful. When she isn’t writing, speaking, or building community, Caroline lives in Eastern Tennessee with her husband and seven-year-old twins where she enjoys hiking in the mountains and building up her community’s local recovery ministry.

Faculty

Tom Farley

Community Outreach Director
Recovery.com

Tom Farley grew up in Madison, WI, and graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in Marketing. He began his career in banking and finance before running The Chris Farley Foundation (1999–2012), a nationally recognized nonprofit focused on substance abuse prevention. Through humor-based programs, he helped young people build communication skills and create supportive environments.
In 2008, Tom co-authored The Chris Farley Show, a New York Times bestseller about his late brother, comedian Chris Farley. He has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and Larry King Live to discuss addiction and recovery.
Now in recovery himself, Tom is a passionate advocate for mental health and addiction treatment. He works at Recovery.com as Community Outreach Director, connecting people with the resources they need to heal. As a speaker, he shares his journey to break stigma, inspire hope, and foster connection. Tom lives in Madison, WI.

Advisory Board

Andrew Schreier

LPC, CSAC, ICS, ICGC-II, BACC
Clinical Senior Implementation Strategist
Community Medical Services

Andrew J. Schreier is an Independent Clinical Supervisor, Clinical Substance Abuse Counselor, Licensed Professional Counselor, Board Approved Clinical Consultant, and International Certified Gambling Counselor - II. Mr. Schreier graduated from Ottawa University with a Master’s Degree in Counseling and Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Human Services. He is the Clinical Senior Implementation Strategist for Community Medical Services that provides treatments individuals with opioid use disorder. Mr. Schreier also works at New Life Resources, Inc. that provides individual counseling/therapy, children and adolescent services, couples/marital counseling, group therapy, and consultation. He presents on various topics related to substance use, mental health, gambling, clinical supervision, ethics, and various other topics to statewide and national audiences. Mr. Schreier is the host of “Talking Addiction & Recovery” Podcast that provides free CEUS for select episodes.

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