On 23 April last year, I participated in an Eternal Media Podcast in Wrexham, North Wales, along with Marcus Fair (Founder of Eternal Media), Wulf Livingston, Alexandra Magson and Tony Ormond. Lucke Gabriel was in charge of filming the event. The film is one hour and 53 minutes long, but is well worth a watch.
We covered a good deal of ground including: how we had come to be in the room together; our individual connections with recovery; a far-reaching discussion on the nature of recovery and how it works, in particular with reference to Eternal Media and North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC); and how recovery communities survive in the wider system of treatment and support. We all really enjoyed how the discussion went.
In this blog post, I highlight a small part of the film which focuses on the past of the recovery journey that takes place in residential rehabs and that which occurs in Penryhn House, the residential part of NWRC.
In the first instance, Wulf describes that Penryhn House was developed so that it was porous to the outside community—people can come into Penryhn to attend mutual aid groups, for example, whilst residents of Penryhn are allowed to interact out in the community. Wulf points out that people in normal residential rehabs live in a bubble, in effect. Sooner or later, they have to come out and face the tough part of their recovery journey, the challenges that occur in everyday life in one’s community.
Marcus talks about some aspects of his time at Open Minds rehab in Wrexham. He describes experiencing a cognitive change which he puts down in large part to being with residents and staff in recovery. He goes on to describe the advantages of NWRC, one of which is being so rooted in your local community in North Wales, which is in a beautiful location. Going to beautiful places is part of the healing.
The full Podcast film can be viewed here.