I have had the honor and pleasure of working with Jim Holder off and on for 39 years. I knew Jim as a kid while we were growing up in Bishopville, South Carolina. Then, as God would have it, we came together as adults, to work together in the Florence County Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Detox Center.
Jim was a counselor/therapist and I was a young, 22 year old nurse. Jim helped wake me up to the healthier side of living as he mentored me from a "green nurse" to someone who fell in love with the alcohol and drug treatment "world".
"You can only take the patient to the level you are" or "always look at both sides of things before making a decision", Jim advised. "Don't ever make decisions while you are angry" and, on many occasions, he used my many well-meaning mistakes as lessons on how to do things to help the patients and their families.
Jim showed me a new way of thinking and acting that was 180 degrees from what I had always known. His daily "walk" and interactions with others made me hunger for more of "what he had".
The (now) Circle Park Detox Center closed after 7-8 years and our paths crossed again when he became the Director of Bruce Hall. I came as part of the initial team, as the Nurse Administrator and have continued working here for over 30 years. Jim is honest and used to really scare me with his direction, but I trusted him, even though it was painful to look at my own actions.
I think of things Jim said and how he handled things and it is etched in my way of doing things, from parenting my children and now grandchildren, to managing people and living my life.
What a wonderful gift from God when I was introduced to Jim. Jim's style is not for the thin-skinned person. Life is too short to "play games" and he definitely knows how to cut through all the red tape and focus on the real issues. Jim loves working with families and always has a laser focus on what the dysfunction is in a patient and their families.
If you want a "good dose of reality", he'll get you there in a hurry! I think of Jim as a leader, a boss and mainly, a trusted friend.
Director, Bruce Hall, an inpatient recovery program
