The Body–Recovery Connection
A client sits with her counselor and names it plainly: another health crisis, another reason to give up. Chronic pain, untreated illness, a broken tooth. Each one whispers that recovery isn't worth th…
Topic
Recovery Supports
Recovery supports are the people, places, and communities that help people build and sustain a life in recovery. Coaches. Recovery houses. Community centers. Peer groups. The structures that exist long after treatment ends — or instead of treatment altogether. Journey makes these visible so people know they're there.
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Pathways and Approaches
Recovery does not follow one path. Clinical care, peer support, spiritual practices, nature-based approaches, and holistic recovery all help different people in different ways. Articles introduce a range of recovery approaches and explore why pathway plurality matters more than picking a winner.
Peer Coaching and Community
Recovery is built between people. Peer recovery coaches, recovery community centers, and the networks that hold people through early days and over years offer practical, accessible support outside of clinical treatment. Articles cover what peer coaches do, how recovery community centers work, and the everyday ways community sustains long-term recovery.
Sober Social and Community Life
A growing sober-active culture is rewriting social life in recovery. The Phoenix, sober social societies, and recovery-friendly gatherings offer connection that doesn't require a bar or a meeting. Articles point to what exists, what's growing, and how to build or find social life in recovery.
Understanding Addiction and Recovery
Addiction is treatable, and recovery is already present in communities everywhere. Much of what people learn about addiction comes through stigma, fear, or incomplete information. Articles cover the basics in plain language: how addiction works, what recovery looks like, and why connection and support matter.
Got a Craving?
Your brain is lying to you about what you need. A small dip in energy feels like crisis. Everyday stress feels overwhelming. This article explains why cravings feel so powerful, how your brain misread…
Pathways to Recovery
Someone recovers in a hospital bed. Someone else sits in a church basement. A third person decides at their kitchen table that life has to change. Each of these moments looks different, but they all p…
Surprising Truths About Addiction
Patrick Chester looked like he had everything: a wife, two kids, vacations to Hawaii. No one saw the secret eating him alive for nine years. His gambling addiction left no bruises, no visible wreckage…
Rethinking Gatherings
A conference organizer noticed attendees clustering near the bar, making small talk. Others lingered at the edges, disconnected. By shifting focus from cocktails to structured networking and creative…
Why Waiting for “Rock Bottom” Can Cost Lives
Sarah watched her brother spiral for three years while people told her to wait for rock bottom. Then he nearly died from an overdose. What nobody told her is that rock bottom is a myth, and a dangerou…
The Phoenix Building Strength and Community Through Sober Active Living
Scott Strode founded The Phoenix after recognizing that recovery needed more than abstinence. Through rock climbing, yoga, running, and weightlifting, this nonprofit builds community where people in r…
Rethinking Gatherings Recovery Friendly for Everyone
At a networking conference, a professional in recovery watched colleagues cluster around the bar while she stood alone with sparkling water. Event planners are rethinking gatherings to welcome everyon…
Breaking the Stigma
Mary read two different stories about herself. In one, she struggled alone. In the other, she was managing her condition with support. The difference changed how people saw her, her worth, and whether…
Understanding Recovery Capital
Someone loses their job and feels their recovery slipping away. Another builds strength through therapy and steady friendships. Recovery capital measures the total resources, relationships, and commun…
The Power of Community in Recovery
Maria sits in a circle of folding chairs, listening to someone describe a struggle she faced last week. She recognizes herself in the story. Later, she shares her own. This is what community recovery…
Finding Direction Navigating Recovery Through Nature’s Compass
Peter Wohl stands lost on a remote Vermont mountainside, panic rising as he realizes he cannot find his way back. Years later, beginning recovery, he faces that same disorientation: stripped of the re…
Harnessing Recovery Capital: A Strategic Approach to Well-being
Sarah knows where her next meal comes from and has a doctor's appointment scheduled. These basics once felt impossible. A recovery coach helped her see that stable housing, transportation, and trusted…
Get Moving, Feel Better: Exercise in Recovery
Marcus hasn't set foot in a gym in five years. These days, he walks his neighborhood three times a week, sometimes with a friend. What he's discovered: movement matters in recovery. Research shows eve…
Holistic Recovery: Blending Traditional & New Therapies
You're sitting with a horse, learning to brush its mane, when something shifts inside you. Holistic recovery combines traditional medical treatment with approaches like equine therapy, art, meditation…
Recovery Coaches: Their Role in Recovery
Someone sits across from a recovery coach, uncertain where to begin. The coach listens, then offers a map. Recovery coaches meet people exactly where they are, removing obstacles, connecting them to c…
Your Brain and Addiction
Scientists can now show what addiction looks like inside the brain: less active decision-making centers, dopamine systems flooded beyond normal. Understanding these physical changes matters because it…
The Role of a Peer Recovery Coach
Audra hears it often: "I just don't know how to stay sober." Her answer comes from lived experience. As a peer recovery coach, she walks alongside people exploring recovery, building trust from day on…
4 Types of Recovery Communities
Someone scrolling late at night, searching for voices that understand, discovers a recovery account with thousands of followers sharing their stories. That moment of connection reveals something resea…
Sober Social Society
A beer spilled down her back at a Disney matinee. A wine glass at a six-year-old's birthday party. When this writer stopped drinking almost four years ago, she realized alcohol wasn't just part of her…
Peer Recovery Coaches
A person in recovery sits across from someone who has walked the same painful path. The peer coach doesn't have a clinical degree, but they have something more: their own story of struggle and surviva…
Cheers to a New Sober Social Scene
Abby Ehmann watched customers at her New York City sober bar weep with gratitude over their first mocktail in years. Across the country, from football stadiums to concert venues, people in recovery an…
Three Health Benefits of Medication-Assisted Treatment
A pregnant person in recovery faces withdrawal symptoms, stigma, and fear of harming their baby. Medication-assisted treatment combined with peer support addresses these specific challenges. Research…
Kindred Spirits Camp
Every August, adults return to a Massachusetts camp to do something they thought they'd lost: play. Kindred Spirits Camp, founded in 1982, combines summer fun with recovery community. Through hiking,…
Recovery Capital
Brittany moved into a recovery residence with nothing but chaos behind her. Five years later, she owns a house, works at the Maine Association of Recovery Residences, and parents an eight-month-old so…
The Pillars of Recovery
Ron Springel knows exactly what makes a recovery residence work: it's the place where someone actually got well. This simple wisdom points to something larger. Four pillars support recovery for everyo…
Understanding the Teen Brain
A parent asks their teenager "What were you thinking?" after a risky choice, and the answer is both simple and scientific: their brain isn't finished developing yet. This piece explains why adolescent…
Recovery Community Centers Offer Good Soil for a Place to Grow
Leslie Clark didn't understand why people stayed in recovery meetings for twenty years. Now, more than thirty years into her own recovery, she sings, gardens, and writes poetry. Her story reveals what…
Recovery Residences
Josh Leonard wore out his welcome at home before finding Portland Sober Living. Two years as a resident transformed his life so completely that he stayed on as house manager. Recovery residences, from…
Medication Assistance
Sarah Siegel stood at a crossroads, feeling death hover over her shoulder as heroin gripped her life. Then a doctor offered another path: methadone. She chose it, and that choice became her choice to…