Pathways to Recovery
Pathways to Recovery: A Strengths Recovery Self-Help Workbook is an incredibly positive way for people who have a mental illness/psychiatric diagnosis to explore recovery. The Pathways to Recovery workbook helps people explore how they might want to improve their quality of life and gives them the tools to do so.
One of the most unique things about using the Pathways to Recovery workbook, and/or attending a Pathways to Recovery group, is that you don’t have to look or think that you have a mental illness/psychiatric diagnosis. When using the Pathways book, you start right where you are. You don’t have to start by looking back at where you were yesterday or the days, weeks, months or years that came before.
Pathways to Recovery groups are done different ways in different places. Here are some of the ways these groups are done:
Twelve straight weeks, a chapter a week
Six-week series with the basics, then offered the opportunity to come back for another 6-8 weeks
Eight weeks with the session facilitator figuring out what to include, after checking to find out what the group’s needs and desires are
In some places a full year is spent working through the workbook
The Pathways to Recovery: A Strengths Recovery Self-Help Workbook has a foreward by Pat Deegan, Ph.D. In the foreward Dr. Deegan says:
“Getting into gear, motivation as fuel for the journey, recharging batteries along the way, strategies for tune-ups and rest stops all contribute to the metaphor of the journey and reinforce the idea that recovery is about changing our lives, not just our biochemistry.”
Dr. Deegan also states, “I find it refreshing that Pathways to Recovery addresses issues of real concern to mature adults diagnosed with mental illness.”
There are 12 chapters in the Pathways to Recovery workbook.
The Chapters Are:
- Introduction to a Strengths Recovery Approach
- Gearing Up for the Journey
- Setting Ourselves in Motion
- Recovery is Self-Discovery
- Setting a Course for the Recovery Journey
- Moving Forward on the Journey
- Travel Companions and Social Support for the Journey
- Developing Your Personal Recovery Plan
- Making it Past Detours and Roadblocks
- Rest Stops and Travel Tips
- Supercharging the Recovery Journey
- Sharing Our Stories of Recovery
The Pathways to Recovery: A Strengths Recovery Self-Help Workbook constantly reminds the user of important points:
It is our recovery journey.
We can get ready for the journey.
We go on our journey when we are ready and set ourselves in motion.
We can develop the skills to move past roadblocks and detours.
We can develop those skills while we are on the road (you can pick up things while you are on the road; you don’t have to start out with everything).
We can take a rest at a rest stop (and it is OK to use rest stops).
There are tips that can make the Recovery Journey easier to navigate. Some of those tips are in the Pathways to Recovery journey, some we will pick up on the journey and then share those with others.
The Pathways to Recovery: A Strengths Recovery Self-help Workbook doesn’t force people into examining all that is bad, but instead chooses to focus on how to improve your life. Because of that, it can be a great workbook for someone who doesn’t believe they have a mental illness.
Pathways to Recovery Chapter Basics:
- Introduction to a Strengths Recovery Approach
Talks about what Recovery is and has several positive definitions from people who have been there, and are currently walking their recovery journey. This chapter sets the foundation of the road for the journey.
- Gearing Up for the Journey
Talks about how our …
- Attitudes
- Behaviors (what we do each day)
- How we think
… can make our journey much more positive.
- Setting Ourselves in Motion
Discusses self-responsibility, and how overcoming our inertia helps us move forward. Something has to happen to help us move forward.
- Recovery is Self-Discovery: Recognizing Our Strengths
This chapter helps us discover or rediscover what our strengths are.
It also helps us discover how to turn what is happening that we don’t like/don’t want, into something better that we can work on.
- Setting a Course for the Recovery Journey
Talks about taking a look at what you want (you start listing one thing in detail) then looking at what you want at the end of:
One month
One year
The Pathways to Recovery states, “Setting out without a destination will get us where we don’t want to be.”
- Moving Forward on the Journey: Mapping Our Goals Across Major Life Domains
A Life Domain is a major part of our lives like:
Housing
Education
Assets (getting more stuff)
Intimacy
Spirituality
- Travel Companions and Social Support for the Journey
Who is in your circle of support?
Ways we can expand our circles of support.
What strengths do we bring to a relationship?
- Developing Your Personal Recovery Plan
Talks about how having wants and desires with no plan doesn’t help us when we want to move on and recover.
We need a plan to help us get where we want to be.
- Making it Past Detours and Roadblocks
Helps you figure out how to make it around and beyond roadblocks and barriers.
One of these barriers is that we may want to get our prior life back.
The book has a place to write some of the things you would like to be sure to reclaim and/or hold onto from earlier periods in your life.
- Rest Stops and Travel Tips
This chapter explores the need for breaks and rest stops during the recovery journey. It also provides suggestions for ways to tune-up your recovery and avoid burn out.
Letting go of stress
Breathing exercises
Using the senses to achieve enjoyment
- Supercharging the Recovery Journey
Supercharging strategies fill the recovery journey with creativity, gratitude, positive energy, humor and celebration.
- Transformations: Sharing Our Stories of Recovery
This chapter helps us learn about the value of sharing our stories and how telling our story helps both the person telling the story and the person hearing the story.
How people choose to use the Pathways to Recovery Workbook after the workbook ends depends upon the person using it, as each person has control over their recovery journey. Some choose to continue using it for a few months or years. Some may put it down and decide to not use it for a while, just trying the skills learned.
Some people choose to come back to it and use it to help them make a more comprehensive person-centered plan. Some revisit the domains, realize the progress they have made, and have a celebration.
Some people will choose to do the exercises again, and find out that they want or need to make a different plan because their goals were all met.
Whatever happens or however you use the Pathways to Recovery: A Strengths Recovery Self-Help Workbook, you are in charge of whether and/or how you use the Pathways Workbook. It’s all up to you. You are in charge.