William Stauffer, LSW, PMAC, PECS & Enid Osborne, PhD, MPH, MSW In September, at the 2025 National Association of Recovery Residences Best Practices Summit, held in Sandusky, OH, one of the most notable presentations was that of Dr. Thomasina Borkman. While younger readers may not know her name, they should. She is a pioneering sociologist … Continue reading The Social Model of Recovery: Where the Change Happens
Tag: Health
Gatekeeping Out the Recovering Workforce: Repeating History
A generation ago, in the early 1970s, the substance use treatment field was born. What it lacked in evidence base, which is a challenge for any emerging field, it more than made up for in vigor. People in recovery were eager to help others into recovery. Bill White noted pervasive volunteering in the field in … Continue reading Gatekeeping Out the Recovering Workforce: Repeating History
Listening to Echoes of Our Own History
Authors Note: A version of this is currently in Counselor Magazine. I submitted it for consideration in May 2023 and received notice of it being used last week. My credentials have changed since then and there were substantive changes to the work. The citations here are consistent with what was submitted. I am pleased that … Continue reading Listening to Echoes of Our Own History
Protection, Remission, and Recovery
Thomas McLellan and Nora Volkow, two very important figures in modern addiction and treatment science, just published a new article. This strikes me as an important and potentially very consequential article. I'll share a few of the things that grabbed my attention. They describe the impetus for this article as follows: Prescribing MOUD with a … Continue reading Protection, Remission, and Recovery
We Lack a United Voice in the Recovery Movement
"With the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back” – Hunter S. Thompson" Collection of 2000s recovery advocacy ephemera. (Credit: Illinois Addiction Studies Archive) This week I am attending the annual conference of the National Alliance on Recovery Residences (NARR). NARR is … Continue reading We Lack a United Voice in the Recovery Movement
Long Term Recovery – the Policy Opportunities of Demand Reduction to Strengthen Our Nation
Many years ago, I met with a conservative member of Congress from my home state of Pennsylvania who eventually went on to the US Senate. I was relatively new to legislative meetings but quite passionate about recovery, even in those days. His background before serving politically was in international economics. When I got done explaining … Continue reading Long Term Recovery – the Policy Opportunities of Demand Reduction to Strengthen Our Nation
7-OH and the Question of Harm Production
This guest post is by Lee Holley, LCSW, LCDC, PSS. Lee is a psychotherapist based in Texas. He specializes in therapy for people with alcohol and other drug problems through a recovery-oriented harm reduction lens, combining clinical expertise with lived experience in long-term recovery. As a psychotherapist who bases my philosophy of treating alcohol and … Continue reading 7-OH and the Question of Harm Production
Drug Innovation or Contamination?
As harm reduction has risen in prominence and influence in the addiction, treatment, and recovery spaces, one of its contributions to discussions about public policy related to drug use has been the suggestion that prohibition creates a drug supply with unpredictable potency that is vulnerable to contamination, and that these factors drive overdose. This leads … Continue reading Drug Innovation or Contamination?
History Repeating – the “Opioid” Epidemic Supplanting the Recovery Movement: Pathology Over Resiliency and Healing
“The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence” ― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets The New Recovery Advocacy Movement got off the ground in America roughly three decades ago, during a time when addiction recovery policy and practice had fundamentally lost its way. In that era, … Continue reading History Repeating – the “Opioid” Epidemic Supplanting the Recovery Movement: Pathology Over Resiliency and Healing
Gratitude Friday – 9 5 25 National Recovery Month and the Giants Whose Shoulders We Stand On
Note to readers – as a practice of gratitude, for over five years I have posted a weekly gratitude musing at Billstauffer.net. This week, I decided to post it at Recovery Review as well given the content. Just in case anyone may not be aware, September is National Recovery Month. As this link explains, National … Continue reading Gratitude Friday – 9 5 25 National Recovery Month and the Giants Whose Shoulders We Stand On
Recovery Review 