Meet a champion: Gillian Biggerstaff brings joy and healing through therapeutic recreation at Rosecrance Jackson Centers

When someone walks through the doors of residential treatment, they are doing something incredibly brave. They are choosing hope. They are choosing change. They are choosing themselves.

At Rosecrance Jackson Centers, Gillian Biggerstaff has the privilege of walking alongside men, women, and adolescents in that courageous season of rebuilding.

As the lead therapeutic recreation specialist, Biggerstaff creates intentional spaces where recovery comes to life — not just in conversation, but in experience. Therapeutic recreation is where clients rediscover joy. It’s where they try something new without fear of judgment. It’s where they reconnect with parts of themselves that may have felt lost along the way.

Through art, movement, mindfulness, recreation, and meaningful connection, clients begin to remember who they are — and who they want to become.

Biggerstaff has always approached healing through a whole-person lens. Before weaving therapeutic recreation into residential treatment at RJC, she served clients in private practice, focusing on living an aligned life through movement, functional health, and integrative wellness.

Over time, her work naturally evolved. She saw that true healing is not only physical — it is social, cognitive, emotional, creative, and spiritual. Therapeutic recreation is a bridge that brings all of those dimensions together.

She believes creativity is a powerful pathway to healing. In her programs, visual and expressive arts become tools for reflection. Mindfulness practices build emotional regulation. Recreational experiences create sober memories. Movement reconnects clients to their bodies. And each small success becomes a building block of confidence and hope.

In her words:

“I am honored to walk alongside clients as they build meaningful recovery toolboxes filled with newly discovered self-awareness, coping skills, values, and dreams for the future. By offering engaging sober-living experiences, I strive to empower them to build life skills for success and ultimately rebuild lives they genuinely love living. My goal is to offer hope and connection to a recovery-focused path for our clients.”

At its heart, Therapeutic Recreation for recovery is about more than activities.
It’s about helping people rediscover their identity, their strengths, and their capacity for a beautiful future.

And Biggerstaff is honored to be part of that journey.