"Empower your sober self"

Victoria has patiently been waiting for alternative choices
to twelve-step and faith based recovery meetings for a long time and recently
LifeRing meetings have started in Victoria and Langford. There are now three meetings going with more under construction.

Any experienced
addiction counselor knows there is no “one stop shop” for solutions on
addiction.  Sixty percent of American
people who make successful recoveries do it outside of AA. People should have a
choice in their recovery and LifeRing offers a viable and highly recommended
alternative.

LifeRing is a non-religious
pathway to abstinence from alcohol and other drugs of abuse. Visitor’s who
prefer moderation, harm reduction, or controlled drinking approaches are
referred elsewhere. A meeting begins with “how was your week?” then has
topic discussions, and allows verbal interaction and feedback which is crucial
for honest and open communication. Other than abstinence, LifeRing avoids
recommending any particular recovery program to members, instead encouraging
members to build personal recovery programs tailored to their particular needs.
A fabulous 300 page workbook (Recovery by Choice) is available for building
personal recovery programs in a structured way.

LifeRing works
through the power of positive social reinforcement.  LifeRing posits that
there is a healthy, sober self residing alongside the addict self within each
addicted person.  Meetings establish supportive connections (synergy)
between the sober selves and thereby reinforce them. The long-run goal is a
stable dominance of the healthy self within the person, expressed in the
slogan, "Empower Your Sober Self."  The LifeRing approach is
eclectic, open-ended, pragmatic, and evolved through recovering people's
experience, but it shares common tenets with Cognitive Behaviorism, Motivational
Interviewing, Solution- Focused Therapy, and similar academic and clinical
approaches.  In 2008 a growing number of treatment professionals are
adapting the LifeRing approach to their treatment protocols.

In Victoria,
buy-in has been swift. Doctors, nurses, mental health and addiction workers,
law enforcement and of course people with alcohol and substance abuse issues
have shown an incredible desire to utilize LifeRing meetings in Victoria and
the long term plan is to create several in various communities in the CRD.