All Posts

23rd October 2023

Our Key Principles: North Wales Recovery Communities

An example of NWRC as a whole giving back to the local community was the feeding of vulnerable people in the community, using food from the community allotment and that provided by supermarkets. The food was gathered, cooked, frozen and delivered by community...
20th October 2023

Spider-Man & Batman: Huseyin Djemil

In my  interview with Huseyin Djemil of Towards Recovery, Huseyin talks about how Andy Partington, in his new book Hope in Addiction, emphasises the distinction in the way that Spider-Man and Batman accomplish their feats. The real deal in recovery is being bitten by the spider and having that internal transformation (like Spider-Man)...
19th October 2023

What is a Recovery Carrier?: Bill White

The source and exact nature of this magnetic energy [of Recovery Carriers] is unclear; it is not something one can acquire in school or a professional training program. It is not so much what one knows or does—knowledge or actions that could be imparted by education or training—as much as who one is and how one relates to others. In listening to people describing how they “caught recovery,” there are consistent themes in how recovery carriers...
18th October 2023

Development of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC)

A very important part of James’s initial vision concerned the permeability of Penryhn House—activities would seep in and out of the place. This permeability increased over time and NWRC moved from being a singular community to an initiative with multiple communities.
17th October 2023

What Helps A Recovery Journey?: Wendy Dossett

Wendy describes herself as having a general positive attitude to life and enjoying the natural world. Her relationships with people have helped her recovery journey. Thinking about how to help other people and contributing to knowledge about addiction and recovery...
16th October 2023

A Life Remembered

Like a stained glass window, with its different elements that make the total picture, John was known to all of us through many different contexts. Yet, he had a life richer and fuller than the parts we each knew. He was known to us, this diverse and disparate community, by a variety of names; JC, John Dogs, John Quack, John Vietnam and...
13th October 2023

Building a Recovery Community, Part 3: Wulf Livingston

James Deakin started to set up challenges for NWRC members, such as a 100-mile in a week challenge, in order to make recovery visible in recovery month, and to challenge the stigmatisation of people who are addicted, or have been addicted, to drugs and alcohol.
13th October 2023

There’s a Place for Me: James Deakin

James points out that he used to be incredibly intimidated by academics at one point. He felt out of place mixing with academics at recovery-related events, but later realised that he had something to contribute. He heard academics talking about recovery-related matters in a theoretical way, but he could see how to apply these...
12th October 2023

Building a Recovery Community, Part 2: Wulf Livingston

Wulf points out that critical to the success of NWRC is that members have access to plenty of free environmental space on their doorstep. No-one has charged them for taking a walk on a beach or going up a mountain. It is more difficult to create a similar entity in a large city...
12th October 2023

Hope

'The results of that first meeting, and the effect on my life, were immense. I’m certain that there is a small element of hope—or faith or some kind of spiritual flame—that burns inside us all. I believe it’s never completely extinguished, but can become so dim that it’s almost invisible to us. It was rather like that flame was fanned by my...'
12th October 2023

Practices in 12-Step Recovery: Wendy Dossett

How can there be such an atmosphere of non-judgement when you have hard core language like ‘moral inventory’? Wendy believes that part of the reason for this is that in mutual aid recovery communities no one is better than anyone else. ‘Everyone has done the same shit.’
11th October 2023

Building a Recovery Community, Part 1: Wulf Livingston

The first of a three-part Themes series focused on building a recovery community, with my colleague Wulf Livingston using developments over time at North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) as an example. In 2015, Wulf was asked by James Deakin, the Founder of NWRC...
11th October 2023

People Need Choice & Opportunity: David McCartney

David experienced a sudden and profound change in the quality of his life, and he felt an immense gratitude for ‘having another shot of life’. At one stage, he couldn’t have cared if he had gone to sleep and not woken up. He then suddenly had his enthusiasm and spirit back...
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...
10th October 2023

A Recovery Community History: CCAR, The First Twenty Years

I’ve been following the work of Phil Valentine and his colleagues at the Connecticut Community of Addiction Recovery (CCAR), a peer-led recovery community in the US, for many years. They have been doing great things and leading the way with a number of their initiatives.