A Pioneering Approach to Recovery.
Increasingly, research suggests that instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to recovery, individuals are more likely to achieve and maintain long-term sobriety when they have access to a tailored and robust set of personal and community assets—or a specialized toolkit of sorts—for assistance in navigating stressors and situations that may lead to relapse. While 12-step programs remain an important recovery tool, we now understand that a person-centered, strengths-based, community-involved strategy is much more likely to help recovering individuals stay that way, enjoying greater health, wellness and quality of life.
Enter the Alano Club of Portland’s Recovery Toolkit Series™. This holistic, multi-disciplinary service model is built on evidence-based practices that enable people with substance use disorders to create individualized recovery toolkits according to their own needs. The Alano Club is the first organization of its kind in the United States to pioneer this comprehensive and innovative approach to recovery in a community-centered environment—all free of charge.
Recovery Toolkit Series™ at a Glance
Mutual Aid
Support Groups
Mutual aid groups, sometimes called self-help groups or support groups, are community-based programs where people recovering from substance use disorders come together—either through face-to-face or web-based meetings—to share personal stories, challenges and victories. Twelve-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are two of the best-known mutual aid groups in the world. Others that do not follow the 12-step method are available as well, including SMART Recovery, SOS (Secular Organizations for Sobriety), Women for Sobriety, Refuge Recovery, LifeRing Secular Recovery, Wellbriety and All-Recovery Support. The Alano Club embraces them all, and in turn, offers the largest and most diverse program of mutual aid support in the United States with over 125 meetings held each week. If it’s not on the Club’s schedule, it probably doesn’t exist!
Mindful-Based Stress Reduction
Although mindfulness has been around for thousands of years, new research and studies show it to be an extremely effective treatment approach for individuals with substance use disorders. The practice of Mindful-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), in particular, has recently surged in popularity in all types of treatment environments. It combines meditation, body awareness and yoga to help people integrate mindfulness into their everyday life. This is especially valuable for those in recovery who often need help with managing cravings and negative emotions, and disengaging from automatic, addictive behaviors. Acceptance is the first step in overcoming addiction, and MBSR helps addicts recognize potentially risky behaviors and triggers for relapse. Even people who wouldn’t normally consider meditation often find that MBSR invigorates their confidence in recovery—and often assists them in all aspects of life, including relationships, careers, diet and exercise. The Alano Club partners with Oregon MBSR pioneer, Denise Gour, to offer ongoing workshops on this proven technique.
Mindful-Based Relapse Prevention
Developed by the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington, Mindful-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) is an innovative treatment approach that brings the practice of mindful awareness to people suffering from the addictive trappings and tendencies of the mind. MBRP empowers recovering individuals to respond in skillful ways to triggers, destructive habitual patterns, and “automatic” adverse reactions that seem to control their lives. It also aims to teach those in recovery to view challenging emotional and physical experiences through a personal lens that is compassionate and non-judgmental. The mindfulness practices of MBRP are designed to help people pause, observe the present, and bring awareness to the range of choices within each and every moment. Participants learn to react in a positive manner, rather than in ways that are detrimental to their health and happiness. In collaboration with Oregon MBRP pioneer, Denise Gour, the Alano Club hosts MBRP workshops on a regular basis.
iRest Meditation
An ancient method of deep rest, Yoga Nidra (iRest) is a process that encourages people to welcome body sensations, thoughts and feelings that most human beings tend to avoid. This is paramount to the entire recovery process, as those who struggle with addiction have typically medicated, numbed or otherwise shielded themselves from a fully integrated mind-body experience. Yoga Nidra strives to teach people in recovery how to change habitual, impulsive and destructive reactions and behavioral patterns. Research indicates that it can help alleviate anxiety and depression and other issues that often arise when someone stops using alcohol or drugs and, if left unaddressed, can lead to higher rates of relapse. At the Alano Club, weekly Yoga Nidra classes with a certified iRest trainer are offered free of charge.
Mindful Self-Compassion
Mindful self-compassion (MSC) is an empirically supported program developed by Drs. Chris Germer of Harvard University and Kristin Neff of the University of Texas. Its particpants are taught to cultivate the mental and emotional habit of mindful self-compassion through the process of infusing moment-to-moment experiences with kindness, especially when feeling frustrated, hurt, inadequate or overwhelmed. MSC is the first step in emotional healing—being able to be-friend one’s self. Practicing self-compassion has been known to greatly boost resilience and happiness, reduce anxiety and depression, and can even help maintain healthy lifestyle habits such as diet and exercise. The Alano Club holds ongoing MSC workshops conducted by Oregon’s leading MSC educator, Dr. Nina Meledandri.
Exercise-Based Recovery
Research backs it up: Adding exercise to addiction treatment can strengthen the effects of recovery. A recent study published in Mental Health and Physical Activity revealed that exercise can lead to a sense of accomplishment and increased confidence in staying clean and sober. The Alano Club offers regular fitness programs, including Running and Recovery, Recovery Boot Camp Series, and the inaugural Recovery on the Trails Series 2017.
Recovery & Nutrition
Nutrition education is an essential component of addiction treatment programs and improved recovery outcomes. After long-term dietary neglect, what matters greatly for people in recovery is making dietary choices that support a healthy body and brain. The Alano Club delivers fun, educational and hands-on nutrition workshops on this critically important, but often overlooked aspect of recovery.
Recovery Peer Support
It’s hard to identify a more important advancement in the care of people with substance use disorders than the growing movement known as recovery peer support—a form of social support for giving and receiving non-professional, non-clinical assistance to help those in the recovery community achieve long-term sobriety. It’s provided by people who are experientially credentialed—and have been successful in the recovery process themselves—to assist others in initiating recovery, reducing the likelihood of relapse, and enhancing the quality of personal and family life in long-term recovery. Peer support services are strengths-based, recovery-oriented systems of care that offer hope to the newly sober, extending treatment beyond clinical settings into the everyday environment of individuals seeking to sustain recovery. At the Alano Club, Certified Recovery Mentors, credentialed by the Addiction Counselor Certification Board of Oregon, are available free of charge to provide comprehensive peer support to those in need.
The Three Principles
The Three Principles therapeutic model posits that all people have innate mental health (well-being) they can access and sustain regardless of past or present circumstances; and that once they “know” at a deep level how their experience of life is created they are more able to access their internal resources in all situations. With this understanding they are more able to free themselves from conditioned habits of thinking and addiction, and become better equipped to address adverse situations. The Three Principles model is used widely in the UK in treatment centers, correctional institutions and other rehabilitative venues. With great success, Gulf Treatment Center in Florida became the first U.S. treatment center to adopt the model as its primary therapeutic approach in 2015. The Club draws from this proven success, and is fortunate to partner with London transplant and Three Principles guru, Anna Debenham, on workshops that teach this helpful tool.
Trauma-Informed Yoga
An increasing number of professionals who specialize in the field of addiction continue to report on the effectiveness of integrating mind-body work into a successful recovery process. While the cognitive aspects of addiction treatment are important and necessary, it’s equally important to understand the influence that memories and emotional patterns have on a person’s physical body, hence the mind-body link. Research has demonstrated that meditative and body-centered practices like yoga are key elements in the effective treatment of trauma and emotional distress, two factors that can undermine the recovery process and increase the risk of relapse. Ample research also suggests that practicing yoga regularly can provide many lasting benefits to a person in recovery. In proud partnership with Living Yoga, Oregon’s leading provider of community-based yoga services, the Alano Club offers free weekly classes and yoga workshops in a supportive, welcoming environment.
“After 10 years of meetings, I had really hit a wall in my recovery. The mindfulness training I received through the Club’s Recovery Toolkit Series pushed my recovery to a whole new level and I’ve never felt so satisfied and grateful to be sober than I am now!”
— – Gregory, Recovery Toolkit Series participant