T.M. Addiction Counselling offers a compassionate ear from someone who has been there

Trevor Matkovich has the lived and professional experience to help St. Marys and area residents living with substance and other addictions.

By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Trevor Matkovich knows what it’s like to be in throes of addiction.

Now a trained mental-health and addictions counsellor with a private practice he recently started from his home in St. Marys, Matkovich was, for much of his life up until about eight years ago, addicted to drugs and alcohol. Starting in his late teens, Matkovich fell into a party lifestyle that led to heavy drug and alcohol use.

At 25, he chose to go through rehab and actually managed to kick his drug habit. His reliance on alcohol, however, continued to the point where he was drinking to excess daily, his family and friends had cut ties with him, and he couldn’t hold a job or a home.

“I had just kind of outcasted everyone,” Matkovich told the Independent. “I wanted to be alone; I didn’t want to see anyone and I ended up on the couch of a guy I knew from the bar.”

While staying on his friend’s couch, a homecare nurse who was caring for his friend noticed how sick Matkovich had become as a result of years of heavy drinking, which led to visits by an addictions counsellor from Stonehenge Therapeutic Community, an alcohol and drug treatment centre in Guelph.

“Finally, she came one day and she said, ‘You need to go to the hospital.’ I ended up going to Grand River Hospital. I was put on a ventilator, put into a coma and everything else. I basically had full organ failure; it was caused, obviously, by my liver, but because the liver takes out the poisons from your body, it could no longer do that, so the poison was just going through my blood. It was affecting my stomach, lungs, heart, everything,” Matkovich said.

He spent weeks in the hospital, lost 80 pounds, much of which was muscle mass, and his doctors told him he had as little as a day or two to live. Ultimately however, after leaving the hospital to die at home and then being re-admitted after suffering from a seizure and falling into a glass coffee table, doctors put Matkovich on a trial detox drug, which miraculously brought him back from the brink.

“If that addictions counsellor hadn’t gotten me to go to the hospital that day, I wouldn’t be here today.”

After coming face to face with the consequences of his addiction, Matkovich found the support he needed through a local Alcoholics Anonymous support group, and he has now been sober for eight years. In that time, Matkovich felt the need to give back by supporting those in situations similar to his own and opted to become an addictions and mental-health counsellor.

“I thought, ‘What can I do, given a second change, where I can give back to everyone that’s given to me?’” Matkovich said. “The first thing I was going to do was try to become a nurse, but I was so physically unable to do it, the girl at Conestoga College was like, ‘I’m sorry, but you’re not going to be able to help patients.’ I was still in really rough shape for a long time. So, I went Conestoga and I ended up going for addictions and mental-health counselling in their continuing-education (program). I was able to get that document and I actually got the President’s Award of Distinction when I graduated.”

After working several years at treatment and counselling centres in the area, Matkovich and his wife moved to St. Marys last year, shortly before his last employer, Ray of Hope in Kitchener, closed permanently. At that time, because Matkovich was dealing with another health issue that made it difficult for him to work regular hours, he opted to open his own private counselling practice from his home.

“We’ve been here about a year and a half now, and I love it. I just absolutely love the people and the town,” Matkovich said. “ … Now I have a couple flyers out in town, I’m going to speak to the high school at the end of May and the community has really embraced me. I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback.”

Through his private practice, Matkovich offers counselling for those living with addiction and their family members. He offers free, 15-minute, no-commitment phone calls to anyone who wants to get help, and he offers full counselling sessions in person at his home, in person at this clients’ homes, or virtually.

And Matkovich doesn’t just help those dealing with substance addictions. He also helps clients with addictions to gambling, gaming, sex and a range of other behavioural addictions. Though he doesn’t claim to be an expert in all addictions, he can help clients who are dealing with issues beyond his training connect with the counselling services they need.

“The hardest step is the first one,” Matkovich said. “Through that door, you open a whole new world. Give me 15 minutes of your time. It will cost you nothing and if you like what I have to say, I’m here to help.”

For more information, call Matkovich at 226-978-0451 or email him at matkovichtrevor@gmail.com.