Holistic Recovery Coaching is a revolutionary breakthrough for alcohol, drug & pharma recovery. The
great majority of effective rehabs are using holistic recovery models directly addressing behavior,
thought, emotional, and spiritual challenges. Addictive behavior leads to the symptoms of addiction and
the symptoms of disorders. Ask the program managers and program founders of the great majority of
treatment centers in Canada and the USA, “Do you use holistic recovery models?” They respond, “Yes!”
Holistic recovery or holistic rehab coaching is a non-materialistic philosophy of recovery. Holistic rehab
philosophies include the primacy (first principle) of thought, emotion, and purpose in effective recovery.
People need a compelling personal purpose or reason to recover. Purposes are fueled by emotions,
goals and thoughts around betterment for self, others, society, legacy.
Great holistic rehabs nurture and foster strengthening positive purposes throughout the recovery
process.
Some effective holistic techniques are Motivational Interviewing, CBT, DBT, and proprietary Emotional
Release techniques. Holistic techniques favor humane therapies emphasizing no harm, not less harm.
All natural rehabs are winning with recoveree clients and in the recovery community.
Winning In Holistic Recovery, Requires You Get to the Truth
Short circuiting recovery results in excessive regret, justification, repeated failures in what some people
falsely believe is recovery, lead to pessimism and even opposition to true holistic recovery. Where eternal
good exists, external evil arises. The mistake is to validate or give credence to the evil. Fear, failure,
torture and lies wreak in vengeance at every HR human lab scattered throughout Vancouver BC.
When faced with two opposing drives, one towards freedom, success, truth and healing; and the other
force driving towards drug slavery, lies, and disease, it is important to know which you are secretly or
openly supporting.
“Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours.” Richard Bach – Illusions.
A positive rule of thumb and successful strategy when beginning the recovery journey is: “Don’t Panic”,
Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Factually, free people choose greater freedom of choice and opportunity and argue for their rights to
discomfort and the unknown. Deterministic people or slaves tend toward choosing paths of limitations,
and will fight to their death justifying their disabilities and staying within the known. The cost of doing
business on both sides, freedom and slavery, makes for sober reflection.
Holistic recovery coaching utilizing the skills of motivational interviewing can help a person succeed in
recovery. Successful rehab coaching elicits undiscovered talents, skills, and abilities. For some
recoverees, their recovery blindness is palpable to others and themselves: meaning some recovery
newbies have zero recovery skills and require a lot of work. The breakthroughs and character
transformations happening in a newbie when transitioning to a new recoveree is life-changing.
A recoveree I’ve worked with went from miserable on meds and drugs, to fulfilled and happy. Yet the
major change he changed was belief in a life of recovery. He maintained the same family, wife, kids.
Changing his attitude around possibility and recovery allowed him to change his slavish attitude toward
“who he was”. He thought he was a fixed profession with a fixed disorder. A holistic rehab allowed him to
do the personal work to change. He then used his freedom of thought to convert those fixed ideas into
opportunities. My recoveree realized if he could decide on a career once, he could decide on a career
twice. If he could choose another’s goals and be unhappy, he could choose his own goals and be happy.
Holistic rehab and recovery freed him from narrow-mindedness of disorder, dependency and addiction.
His personal holistic rehab included his re-birth, and transformation. The recovery process covered the
span of years. Yes, his babies became preschoolers. His trips to the doctor and therapist decreased.
Faith increased and now he embodies the hope of transformation as a minister.
True, few success stories are this dramatic. And yet, transformations are limitless in possibility. The right
attitude is to embrace holistic recovery. A better belief is one open to possibilities. He had to break the
family norm by deviating out of the traditional family profession. Fortunately, his family embrace holistic
recovery and mindset.
Holistic recovery is exciting and invigorating. Honest recovery opens up repressed emotions, new
sensations. A recovering person will come alive to the degree that they embrace betterment. A frequent
refrain I utter is: “If it ain’t working, you’re doing it wrong.” Recovery working means betterment for self,
others, society and posterity. We all benefit from your recovery.

Contrasting holistic recovery to harm reduction [HR] is simple yet tragic. Those embracing HR for
themselves, entrench their bodies, minds, and soul in chemical prisons returning daily or routinely for
their fix. This lifestyle inhibits their movement, impresses fixed ideas and plays hob with their delusions.
Venturing into the DTES – Downtown Eastside – of Vancouver BC and through the HR lab, as I call it,
one trips over the decaying moving dying souls entrenched in their “addictions”. One always has a
choice in their recovery. The payoff is truth, health, opportunity. The cost is shedding lies, disabilities, and
limitations.
Active addiction is different than active recovery.
The person in active recovery is making mistakes, not perfect, childlike in competence, and enlivened by
life as an opportunity. Appreciate those in recovery. It’s Recovery Month, Sober Month, in Canada and
North America.
Rewards multiply as the recoveree embraces reasons to be in recovery and continue through recovery
and beyond. The rewards of inexpert stumbling through recovery are eventually becoming proficient.
Achieving self-respect is a longer process and a process worth the continuing efforts. When others
respect your efforts, the feedback loop payoff is BIG! Earned praise feeds the soul to continue to do
better and aspire to be better yet.
Recovery begins with reducing and even eliminating mentally toxic, spiritually and physically toxic
substances and behaviors. Holistic recovery includes natural detoxification, mental realignment of
values, and spiritual revival of your true purposes.
Holistic recovery coaches and rehab coaches love their work. Coaches love going along with another
brave soul on the heroes journey. As we both venture down through purging challenges, leveling up, and
gaining abilities and skills, we journey up out of those challenges transformed — a being closer to our
true nature than if the journey never started.
Let me know when you or another is ready to embark upon your recovery journey. The first breakthrough
is saying, “Yes, I’m ready to start recovery coaching.”
Anthony holistic recovery coach, rehab coach and consultant.