Integral recovery?
Joe Perez writes on a more integral approach to recovery. For the meanings of the color scheme, see here. Excerpt (with added bold/italics):
In amber recovery, abstinence and dependence on a Higher Power and a Higher Collective Order is the remedy. In orange recovery, building healthy ego strength in the service of rational decision-making to unmask the irrationality of addictive thoughts and behaviors is the prescription. ... Green recovery is tricky because it tends to reinforce magenta/red and often has trouble distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy versions; overall, green is capable of affirming healthy relative choices but not very good at identifying and rejecting unhealthy relative choices because there are no absolutes, fixed rules, or overarching principles. Unhealthy green is absolutely relativistic and therefore lost, dazed, and confused. Healthy green recognizes relative but meaningful choices, and therefore is able to benefit from programs that help them to affirm healthier personal and interpersonal choices. For example, mythopoetic ideas can be helpful to addicts at the green station. Green is capable of recognizing the Addict as a mythic archetype, as well as the Lover and the Frozen One or Numb One. Unhealthy green cannot tell the difference between the Lover and the Addict. Healthy green can. As green begins to transform into teal and turquoise, the distinctions between healthy and unhealthy begin to appear as hierarchical value judgments (though never simply "just the way things are" as in the amber and orange versions). ... Turquoise recovery is straightforward to define in theory. Its approach is to recognize valid partial perspectives on recovery that are appropriate to various stages and stations of life. Thus, turquoise recommends amber programs to folks in an amber station, orange programs for orange, green for green, etc. Turquoise also rejects the absolutistic claims of various recovery programs, and insofar as any program makes totalizing demands in its attempt to "win converts", then turquoise would not accept those demands without qualification. The turquoise mind is also capable of blending valid partial approaches from different stages of development into creative syntheses that are best for persons at almost any stage of recovery. ... There are reasons, however, that there aren't more recovery programs or counselors advocating Integral recovery. First, the vast majority of individuals aren't there yet, and encouraging synthetic approaches to recovery when those approaches may be working at cross-purposes is a very risky endeavor. Second, recovery is by its very nature an enterprise that requires social support, reinforcement, and mentoring. I believe strongly that recovery is not something for lone, isolated individuals. It requires engagement with others who are wrestling with similar concerns and can benefit enormously from the wisdom of peers, mentors, sponsors, and counselors. ... Thus, there is a very real sense in which the only recovery programs worth recommending are those with substantial levels of social support.



2 Comments:
John Dupuy here. I've been working on an Integral approach to recovery for sometime now. (see www.integralrecovery.com), and the only reason for that is that non-integral approaches have not been that effective. The main insight being that most non-Integral approaches to treatment are generally correct in what they affirm but err in what they neglect. In having a treatment modality that works on all four quadrants you will cover the all the essential areas that the disease has affected. By including four or five essential lines you will be able to develop essential ongoing practices that directly deal with the main causes of relapse. Integral Recovery doesn't mean recovery for people who are at Second Tier, as the progression of the disease advances, especially in the latter stages, the addict's developmental center of gravity suffers a regression to Red or lower. So Integral Recovery involves reaching people where they are at and facilitating the climb up the Spiral as Indicated for the individual. The problem with an Amber approach is that it is fine so long as the person needs to get to amber or is there. Problems arise, however, when the the individual is ready to move on to Orange, and the Amber group opposes that vertical growth. Integral Recovery is not about recovery for people at an Integral level but meeting people's needs in all four quadrants in all the essential lines at what ever level they are at.
John, thanks for your comment. All worthy points. And, by the way, great website. Keep up the good work, Hokai
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