Recovery Group participants are always encouraged to talk of and from their own experience – to use only the ‘I’ word. When I first started in recovery – I had to leave my using friends behind. – or – I never used to listen to anything that was said to me. That got me nowhere but worse off.

To talk only from personal experience helps to counteract common tendencies to expound intellectually, to give direct advice on personal issues or to slide into care taking interactions.

Different from other types of group – direct cross talk is traditionally discouraged in Recovery Support Group. One participant offers relapse prevention as a group topic. Other participants talk of what has worked and not worked out well for them – speaking of their own experience and for the entire group to hear.

Everyone listens and learns in a manner more similar to the way we learn from storytelling or analogy – not as sitting in a lecture hall or being told what is best.

Other than brief support or encouragement, direct talk between two or more group participants will risk judgmental opinions, unhealthy advice, criticism or conflict. The group facilitator is not present to challenge or to directly support one participant or another – only to help the group stay within its guidelines and healthy boundaries.

Direct cross talk encourages individual conversations - and will distract or distance other participants from involvement.

Success with these first two characteristics – to talk only of personal experience and to avoid cross talk – is reliant on a third feature of Recovery Group – the central importance of listening.

Addiction is a disease of isolation and increasingly narrow perception. Information, counseling or pleadings that are inconsistent with the compulsive drive to use - are shut out or ignored.

Recovery is a process of stepping outside the constricted world of addiction – of opening to another’s perspective and of considering other options. Participants are encouraged to listen to the experience of others – to relate to what they may hear – and to not compare or to otherwise distance themselves from the honest report of another’s story.

Expressive talk is encouraged as a healthy activity in Recovery Group and otherwise. But the act of listening – without immediately disregarding or distancing myself from another’s experience – without jumping in to help out or running off to use – is key to enjoying the full benefit of Recovery Group.

Many attend to Recovery Group just to listen. This is common for those new to or anxious about group. But it is also common for those experienced in Recovery Group – and who are familiar with the profoundly therapeutic benefits of just listening.

Listening in Recovery Group opens a participant to hear healthy comments that may guide their recovery. It directly counteracts the tendency of addiction to isolate and to shut others out. Listening is practice in openness, empathy, feeling and compassion – and in not reacting with care taking or other avoidant ways.

Otherwise, Recovery Group follows on the here and now and day to day ways of recovery and personal change. Support is offered for action. Stories of recovery respond to feelings of despair. Talk of problems is encouraged in general terms – talk of solutions is encouraged in detail.

The principles of recovery - honesty, openness, willingness, acceptance, personal responsibility and healthy boundaries - are applied to the personal challenges brought to group. Talk of using or of acting out in unhealthy ways is discouraged. Confidentiality is encouraged.

The ways of addiction may be persistent, lingering and recurrent. Attendance to Recovery Group grounds participants in the principles, strategies and ways of recovery – offering education, mutual support and day to day reminders that a healthier way is possible.