Q. You’ve coined a number of terms which are influencing current trends in recovery therapy, among them “The Staged Model of Recovery.” What does this term mean?
A. The recovery process manifests itself in distinct stages. I realized some years ago that by defining the common issues in the recovery process, that one’s growth and therapy could be more efficient, even more enjoyable. The “Staged Model” concept developed from a struggle to define my research, combined with observations and personal experiences of how the recovery process manifests itself in current times.

Q. What are these distinct stages and why are they important to define?
A. Stage One — the recovery from one’s primary addiction — is already defined by existing structures like 12-Step and other recovery programs, rehabilitation centers and counseling. There are very important distinctions between Stage One and Stage Two which is why they must be timely and respectfully approached. For example, in Stage One recovery, a person is instructed that “feelings aren’t facts.” In Stage Two, the feelings are the most important fact. Stage Two is where the intimacy limitations and self-esteem difficulties become glaring. This is the point at which many recovering people seek therapy. The Institute for Staged Recovery focuses on defining the second stage of the process.

Q. What does Stage Two work do for the individual that traditional Stage One work does not?
A. The Staged Model helps us to rediscover the experience of entitlement — a realization of one’s own deservingness — that brings fulfillment to lifelong desires. This requires a shame-free presentation of one’s authentic self — which you might simply call “being real” (in safe relationships and community). It also brings a feeling of wholeness and connectedness which is the result of that self-acceptance on conscious and unconscious levels. As with Stage One, we do this healing work within “community.”

Q. What do you mean by “community”? Do you mean you involve a person’s friends and neighbors in the process?
A. By healing community I mean two or more people shedding their “masks of composure” — their false front — and agreeing to share wisdom, struggles, joys and sorrows with each other, emphatically making each others’ conditions their own.

It is similar in spirit to “fellowship” in the 12-Step programs, except these settings usually have a practitioner, or therapist, who is familiar with the Stage Two unconscious processes.

Q. What does Authentic Process mean?
A. Authentic Process is the term we use to separate this form of therapy, or healing modality, from more traditional ones. It labels a unique growth and educational process specifically designed for people who want to reclaim their emotional, spiritual and sexual wholeness.

We’ve expanded our definition of recovery over the years. The recovery in this sense is from conscious and unconscious blocks — including, but not limited to what we customarily call addictions — that prevent us from getting our deepest and most basic needs fulfilled. We are focusing here on the recovery of spirit.

Q. Are there other forms of recovery you deal with other than substance abuse?
A. Yes. Many people were being drawn to this intimacy work who were never addicted to a substance though they resonated with the recovering community. In addition to recovering from alcoholism, substances and behaviors, we now include psychological and cultural addictions like self-sabotaging behavior, underachieving, self-diminishment, projections of negativity, and other outer manifestations of internalized dilemmas. These dilemmas are the unconscious defense reactions that keep us from fulfilling the relationships we may be looking for...barriers to the intimacy we seek. This recovery can only occur within the context of a shared community.

Q. How does Authentic Process differ from traditional therapies?
A. A significant way that Authentic Process differs from traditional therapies is that the therapist or practitioner exchanges the traditional clinical composure for a more authentic, interactive, non-judgmental, educational relationship. The practitioner actively provides coaching, modeling, respectful confrontation, empathy and a framework for further empowerment.

Authentic Process also emphasizes education on how we fit into the larger cultural and psychodynamic landscape. By psychodynamic I refer to subtle and sometimes coarse energetic interactions that happen during personal encounters. These educational components awaken people to the reality that we are not uniquely flawed ... that our personal struggles or limitations have larger cultural context. This is a very helpful realization for the shame-reduction basic to this deeper work.

Q. Do you think that as a therapeutic approach Authentic Process can stand alone, or does it have to work in concert with other techniques?
A. The Authentic Process is expansive yet inclusive. People can engage in it while at the same time incorporating other therapeutic and healing modalities. Remember that this Staged Model comes out of the recovery movement and in so doing respects peoples’ diverse needs and approaches.

Q. Where does a client have to be in his or her recovery to make use of the Authentic Process?
A. For people who define themselves as being in Stage Two, which usually means that they are at least two years in recovery from addiction or childhood exposures, we offer the “Gettin Where You Want to Go” workshop. Later, there are additional offerings for those interested in continuing community involvement after completing that prerequisite, which builds the new vocabulary.

Q. Can you speak a little bit about the spiritual components of Authentic Process?
A. There is a spiritual core to APT. By shedding our masks in these community settings, our pain and spirit — as well as our compassion for self and others — comes forth. The shared intention to heal creates a spiritual bond. There is a deep “essence” that each person shares in the process.

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