The emergence of Recovery Movement is strongly associated with a treatment approach to substance addicted patients. The main scope of the recovery movement is to prove the individual’s potential for recovery and resistance to the addiction. Initially, the concept evolved from the Alcoholics Anonymous, which first recognized the preference of dependency of people (Ankerberg, 2011).
The movement also refers to training individuals skills, advancing social skills, and developing inner potential (Davidson et al., 2011). In this respect, the Recovery Movement incorporates various fields, including sociology, psychology, philosophy, social welfare, civil rights, and political economic theory.
Therefore, the concept of recovery acquires a much broader meaning and embraces various psychological, cultural, and social elements (Myers & Salt, 2007).
Unlike other known models of treatment, the recovery approach recognizes individual motivation as the key to modifying behavior of substance addicted patients. Therefore, the main task of the addictions counselors is to promote movement of patients through change stages.
Individuals who have managed to surpass the dependency stage and recover from substance addiction can become viable addictions counselors. Both the recovered and patients striving to get rid of the dependency can establish mutually beneficial relations. Hence, the counselor encountering addiction can share valuable experience with individuals who have to confront the serious challenges.
They can also provide useful information concerning problems and hardships that a person can face while struggling with substance dependence. At the same time, the patients will have much confidence and faith in an addictions counselor who has managed to cope with the disease.
Moreover, he/she will serve as a real-to-life example of how the addiction can be overcome. Establishing strong and trustful relations, therefore, can shape a strong foundation for further cooperation.
With regard to the above-presented analysis of the Recovery Movement, Minnesota Model of Treatment derives from the basic philosophical foundation of the recovery approach. The model particularly relates to considering substance abuse as mental, spiritual, and physical illness and relies on the Twelve Steps outlining spiritual solutions and developing the concept of fellowship within which the recovery approaches are introduced.
Unlike Minnesota Model, other models are too narrow-focused and rely heavily on using one specific approach in dealing with substance dependency. Thus, there are biological, biomedical, and cognitive behavior models that focus on different psychological and social dimensions of therapy for addicts.
Second, not all therapies refer to person-oriented techniques while dealing with patients, which can prevent the health care professionals and addiction counselors from introducing relevant stages for recovery.
As it has been mentioned previously, the Recovery Movement has derived from Alcoholic Anonymous, which is also known as AA meetings. However, the precursor of the movement was the emergence of psychiatric studies in the field of substance dependency. In particular, psychological problems rather than physical were the major reason for the addiction.
Further development of AA meetings gave access to the development of Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and Cocaine Anonymous (CA) as essential meetings for establishing trustful relations among the participants of the meeting (Davidson et al., 2011). The development of such Twelve-Step groups has considerably promoted treatment and provided new directions for addiction counselors.
The progress of the organized memberships has further given rise to the development of other related communities. The communities ensured support for addicted individuals and provided them with insights for recovery from substance dependency.
References
Ankerberg, J. (2011). The Facts on Self-Esteem, Psychology, and the Recovery Movement. US: John Ankerberg Show.
Davidson, L., Rakfeldt, J., Strauss, J. (2011). The Roots of the Recovery Movement in Psychiatry. US: John Wiley & Sons.
Myers, P.L., & Salt, N. R. (2007). Becoming an Addictions Counselor: A Comprehensive Text. US: Jones & Barlett Learning.