Jeff Krantz is a member of our White Collar Support Group that meets online on Zoom on Monday evenings. We will celebrate our 250th weekly meeting on Monday, March 29, 2021, 7 pm ET, 4 pm PT; all Fellow Travelers are invited.
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I met Jeff 5 years after I had pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and two years after I cleared probation. I reached out to him as a result of having found myself heavily burdened by the implications that my conviction had placed upon me and my family. There was no aspect of my life which hadn’t been touched by my experience of being prosecuted by the government. At a point when I thought I would have put the ordeal of my conviction behind me, I found myself more confused, isolated and lost than ever.
In my initial conversation with Jeff I recounted the events leading to my conviction and described the details surrounding my present circumstances. Jeff was an astute and thoughtful listener who left space for me to get through the story in my own time. His personal experience informed our conversation with compassion, empathy and understanding.It was, perhaps, the first time I had been able to recount the events without being asked to explain my thinking or justify my actions. I breathed a little more freely knowing that the person I was speaking to had first hand knowledge of what I had been through.
Jeff suggested that I participate in the Monday night White Collar support group where I could engage with others who had become similarly embroiled in the criminal justice system and who were at various stages of processing their experiences.
The weekly meeting is populated by a diverse group whose reliable wisdom, respite and thoughtful help, informs each session. Through their listening and the open sharing of their experiences an alchemy of healing is evinced.
Though I am still early to the group, I have found it to be a supportive, welcoming environment from which I can begin to rebuild.
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White Collar Week Podcast: An Evening with Our White Collar Support Group. The support group meeting on this podcast is different than most, because all of the 16 group members appearing have agreed to share their names, faces and very personal stories in an effort to reach out to individuals and families suffering in silence. All on the podcast are post-sentencing or back from prison. Watch on YouTube, Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and SoundCloud,link here.
