About the Project

Recovery Voices, developed by David Clark and Wulf Livingston, captures conversations about what works in supporting recovery from addiction, and in the development of peer-led recovery communities, from a range of individuals with lived experience, as well as friends of recovery.

We highlight common messages and learnings that come from these conversations, providing a resource for people working with, and supporting, recovery and recovery communities.

We celebrate the lives and successes of recovering people and recovery communities, and in doing so enhance the visibility of recovery and highlight what can be achieved.

We encourage the development of new peer-led recovery communities and their interaction with other initiatives.

Blogs


30th June 2026

My 2024 Talks at North Wales Recovery Communities

Tasty canapés were provided prior to my first talk, which was focused on addiction recovery and 'My Journey From Brain Chemicals to Human Connection', to an audience of around 30 people. We then had a gorgeous dinner...
29th June 2026

My New Love Affair: Marcus Fair MBE Story, Part 3

I joined and was soon inspired to write a play, which members really liked. I ended up directing the 40-minute play, which was about how drug and alcohol misuse can destroy people’s lives. I was offered a job with TAPE...

People


25th March 2024

Gary Rutherford

There is an infectious enthusiasm that runs through the interview. It is combined with a real sense of passion and drive. We hear of Gary’s own formative experiences and use. His move out of addiction and into nursing, and from this the recognition of a void in support for others. This void was initially filled in by Gary in his spare time...
15th March 2024

Tim Leighton

Tim is someone I have always admired ever since first encountering him in the stimulating environment of New Directions. In this interview, Tim shares with us his own journey into drug use, counselling, education and academia.  At its heart, however, this is very much a conversation about recovery.
19th September 2023

James Deakin, Part 2

In our first interview, James describes working as a chef, then as a mental health worker and Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) worker. Once he started working in the recovery field, James realised he could make a significant contribution. He talks about North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) and what he tells its members.

A RECOVERY COMMUNITY PROVIDES:

Hope
Understanding
A sense of belonging
Acceptance and support
Engagement in meaningful activities
Opportunity to give back to others

A RECOVERING PERSON:

Gains a stronger motivation to change
Possesses an enhanced self-esteem
Becomes an empowered citizen
Overcomes stigma (shame)
Finds a sense of purpose
Acquires a new identity

Communities


10th August 2023

Eternal Media

Eternal Media is a media production social enterprise and charity, located in Wrexham, that makes high impact documentary films. Their professional, award-winning producers empower and mentor volunteer film crews, which comprise people who are rebuilding their lives and are recovering from addiction and/or an involvement in...
10th August 2023

Towards Recovery

Towards Recovery offers a Recovery Cafe in Henley-on-Thames, as well as an online Recovery Cafe, where people recovering from addiction, can get support and encouragement. It aims to help people connect with others, re-connect with themselves and the world around them, and make sustainable changes to create a life of...
10th August 2023

North Wales Recovery Communities

North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) comprises a number of communities, including a residential rehab at Penrhyn House, Growing for Change, with its gardens and allotments, and Bwyd Da Bangor (Good Food Bangor), a community cafe/restaurant that provides the best food on the High Street. Penrhyn House offers space for various...

Stories


10th October 2023

Being Heard: Huseyin Djemil

In the film clip below, Huseyin Djemil describes a project he had previously commissioned that involved giving homeless people in Aylesbury cameras to record their experiences on the street. The project participants were given the option of being anonymous when the project report was prepared.They didn't want to be anonymous...
27th October 2023

On Being Straight: James Deakin

Living in Bangor, James decides he has to go straight. He pictures himself where he’d like to be and behaves in the appropriate way. ‘What would a straight person do in this situation?’ He gains a peace of mind from being legitimate. He doesn’t have to worry about anyone kicking in his door at six in the morning.
7th December 2023

Working in the Welsh Treatment System: Wulf Livingston

I first met Wulf in Colwyn Bay in 2000 when he was working with the treatment service CAIS. Over the course of a number of meetings in those early years of the new millennium, I found Wulf to be very well-informed and someone who really cared about the people he was...

Themes


3rd March 2024

What Helped Most?: Rhoda Emlyn-Jones OBE

'Give people no more, and no less than they need to take that journey through to an outcome they've been able to articulate with you, that they've never been able to articulate with anyone else because no one’s listening. So we really need to create that momentum, don’t we...
4th February 2025

Recovery Capital: David Best

One of the reasons for working with recovery capital is that it gave David and colleagues a metric, something they could use to count things that were meaningful in a person’s life, positive things that people would want to achieve in their recovery journey. Tools to measure outcomes of treatment only focused on the reduction...
12th September 2023

Nature of Recovery, Part 1

Huseyin Djemil says, in relation to something written in Andy Partington's book Hope in Addiction: ‘The real deal in recovery is being bitten by the spider, is having that internal transformation somehow, that makes you look at everything differently. And it changes you.’ Can you can guess who provides the tools, metaphorically speaking?

Extras


18th September 2023

‘Ruby’s Story’: Marion Kickett

It’s hard to believe that it is ten years since my good friend Michael Liu and I went out with Professor Marion Kickett to her home country in York to film her describing her life, country, culture, spirituality, family, education and resilience. Marion is a Noongar leader from the Balardong language group and is the former Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University in Perth. From our filming of Marion, Michael and I...
8th September 2023

Addiction and Psychological Pain: Gabor Maté

'It is critical to understand that although addiction is a problem it is also an attempt to solve a graver problem that is, unbearable psychic pain. To understand addiction we need to understand human pain and that takes us to focus on childhood experiences. One of the outcomes...'
14th September 2023

Healing Trauma – Overlooking Fundamental Truths: Bessel van der Kolk

The reality is that there is little evidence that mental illness is caused by specific chemical imbalances (the brain disease model), or that psychiatric drugs are actually beneficial to people in the long-term.

About us


Testimonials


  • David’s work across many decades has laid the groundwork for words and practices that today trip off the tongue, such as ‘recovery movement’ and ‘cultural trauma’. The Recovery Voices website brings his insights from the field into one home. It also invites us to the meal table within that house. He and his collaborator Wulf Livingston rightly reserve a special seat for the people and communities whose stories we must hear into full expression to move towards genuine reconciliation. Thank you, David, for your continued groundbreaking work and the wholehearted way you convene us into the heartland of an alternative future. Cormac Russell, Author of Rekindling Democracy and Co-author of The Connected Community.

  • I’m glad that this new website has been launched—it’ll help people share their experience of what it means to be human and help remind them of the simplicity of the recovery journey to wholeness. Congratulations to my friends David, Wulf, and colleagues—their dedication to helping others navigate their humanness is something I’ve long admired. Wynford Ellis Owen, Former CEO at Living Room Cardiff, Wales
  • Congratulations on the new website! Bill White (Addiction Recovery Advocate, Historian and Researcher)
  • The new resource Recovery Voices digs into the lives and experiences of people who, in recovery themselves, spend time with others seeking, or in, recovery from addictions. In identifying themes, it draws out the rich diversity of experiences, showing how there is no single 'grand narrative' of recovery, no single 'recipe', just lots of people living out their own authentic lives in ways that they greatly prefer. The site represents a tonne of voluntary work from David Clark in Australia and Wulf Livingston in Wales. Their collaboration in itself shows how recovery seeds in, and spreads from, the spaces between people in relationships. Professor Wendy Dossett, University of Chester, England
  • I’ve been learning from David’s websites for over 20 years now, and his new Recovery Voices initiative with Wulf Livingston has added a new dimension to my experiences. I love the films and through them I am ‘meeting’ new people, discovering exciting recovery community initiatives, and learning even more about recovery and related matters. It’s a little university… and it’s only just begun! Michael Scott, Australia (45 years in recovery from alcohol addiction, 40 years as a drug and alcohol treatment practitioner)