The roots and paths of addiction are complex, adaptive, and surprising. Those seeking recovery often find themselves exploring and coming to terms with underlying mental health challenges, traumas, developmental issues, disabilities, and a wide range of related themes. It’s straightforward to think of recovery as an act of stopping — stopping using, stopping unhealthy lifestyles and behaviors — but recovery is just as much an act of starting, of reaching toward pathways of belonging, trust, and safety. And as we grapple with these underlying themes and possibilities, it becomes clear that successful recovery must involve the engagement and development of skills in the body and the mind (which are aspects of the same system). Self-regulation, mindfulness, self-awareness, empathy, and the broad suite of capacities that we call character — these become foundational aspects of the healing process as we open ourselves to them.
In this presentation I explore how we might start.