About the Project

Recovery Voices, developed by David Clark and Wulf Livingston, captures conversations about what works in supporting recovery from addiction, and in the development of peer-led recovery communities, from a range of individuals with lived experience, as well as friends of recovery.

We highlight common messages and learnings that come from these conversations, providing a resource for people working with, and supporting, recovery and recovery communities.

We celebrate the lives and successes of recovering people and recovery communities, and in doing so enhance the visibility of recovery and highlight what can be achieved.

We encourage the development of new peer-led recovery communities and their interaction with other initiatives.

Blogs


25th August 2026

A Key Therapeutic Element: Feeling Safe

The environment and people at Penrhyn are geared up to help new residents feel safe and have the belief that they are in the right place. New residents enter a place with others like themselves, who understand them and the world from which they have come. A place where they are accepted and find hope, and where magic happens. And magic certainly happened to Lee Daly when he met Saffron Roberts and heard her story during his first visit...
24th August 2026

Going Beyond Trauma

Traumatic, or long-term, unpredictable stressful experiences, lead to a sensitisation of the body’s stress response systems such that they become hyper-vigilant or hyper-reactive in the future. The latter states may lead to further problems for the person, including being...
19th August 2026

The Nature of Trauma

In trying to understand the nature of trauma, we need to look at three different components. Firstly, the Event (or events) itself. Secondly, the Experience of the event—whether it is physically or emotionally harmful, or life-threatening. Thirdly, the adverse Effects on functioning...

People


21st September 2023

James Deakin, Part 3

James Deakin covers a range of topics relating to the functioning of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC). These topics included NWRC trying to create as many recovery pathways as possible, involving various mutual aid groups holding meetings at NWRC's Penrhyn House; the power of 'the group' in helping individuals...
15th September 2023

Dr. David McCartney

Dr. David McCartney, Founder of Lothians and Edinburgh Abstinence Programme (LEAP), talks about the development of his drinking problem whilst working as a GP in an inner-city practice in Scotland. He describes an unsuccessful attempt at sobriety, which involved a medical approach focused on prescribing. In crisis, he...
12th June 2026

Rob Havelock and Lianne Jones

Rob describes his developing love of the mountains, becoming a mountain guide, and setting up Sober Snowdonia, a walking and outdoor recovery community. Lianne describes her love of the outdoors and becoming an ultra-marathon participant. Both talk about the impact of their outdoors activities on their recovery.

A RECOVERY COMMUNITY PROVIDES:

Hope
Understanding
A sense of belonging
Acceptance and support
Engagement in meaningful activities
Opportunity to give back to others

A RECOVERING PERSON:

Gains a stronger motivation to change
Possesses an enhanced self-esteem
Becomes an empowered citizen
Overcomes stigma (shame)
Finds a sense of purpose
Acquires a new identity

Communities


10th August 2023

Eternal Media

Eternal Media is a media production social enterprise and charity, located in Wrexham, that makes high impact documentary films. Their professional, award-winning producers empower and mentor volunteer film crews, which comprise people who are rebuilding their lives and are recovering from addiction and/or an involvement in...
10th August 2023

North Wales Recovery Communities

North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) comprises a number of communities, including a residential rehab at Penrhyn House, Growing for Change, with its gardens and allotments, and Bwyd Da Bangor (Good Food Bangor), a community cafe/restaurant that provides the best food on the High Street. Penrhyn House offers space for various...
10th August 2023

Towards Recovery

Towards Recovery offers a Recovery Cafe in Henley-on-Thames, as well as an online Recovery Cafe, where people recovering from addiction, can get support and encouragement. It aims to help people connect with others, re-connect with themselves and the world around them, and make sustainable changes to create a life of...

Stories


13th July 2026

Changing LifeStyle: Rob Havelock & Lianne Jones

When Rob was on a Hill Skills course, the mountain leader, Alex, suggested that Rob become a mountain leader. When Rob replied, ‘What the hell’s a mountain leader?’, he was told that he was a natural with ‘a map and compass’ and in helping the other participants.
15th September 2023

From Recovery to Methadone: Huseyin Djemil

Methadone maintenance became more the norm, rather than clinical detoxes. After Huseyin left the prison service, prisoners who had detoxed after being addicted to opiates were encouraged to go on methadone before being released into the community. They were told: 'You could die out there'.
11th September 2023

Descent Into Addiction: David McCartney

His personal honesty eroded as he lied as to why he could not go into work. A mountain of shame grew, and his self-esteem diminished greatly, as he was living against all his personal values. He was a man who desperately needed to ask for, and access, help. Instead, he hid behind the...

Themes


15th November 2023

The Power of Hope

David McCartney describes how a doctor on the British Doctors and Dentists Group helpline told him about his recovery. That story connected with David in a way that the tablets he had previously been prescribed for his addiction had not. The story gave him hope. When asked what he felt was the essence of recovery...
9th July 2026

Being a Couple in Recovery: Rob Havelock & Lianne Jones

Rob agrees with Wulf that he and Lianne were an exception to the commonly held view that romantic relationships don’t work for people who are in early recovery. He points out that their relationship put them in a somewhat difficult situation. ‘What did we say to other...
13th September 2023

Trauma and Addiction

James Deakin says: ‘For the vast majority of us it [addiction] is self-management of an underlying condition, it’s self-medication, or it’s just using any drink or drug to move away from a set of feeling[s] for a period of time.’ Addiction is often a symptom of a psychological problem, such as the impact of trauma. When people arrive at Penrhyn House, the residential part of North...

Extras


18th September 2023

Harm Reduction (Harm Minimisation)

Some people may not want to, or feel unable to, give up using drugs completely. They might just want to reduce the harm that drugs can cause, e.g. they might change from injecting heroin to smoking it. Harm reduction, or harm minimisation, is a model of working that has been associated with drug use treatment since the mid-1980s.
20th September 2023

Fulfilling Trauma’s Hidden Promise: James Gordon

Dr Gordon briefly refers to several topics, but the main focus of his talk is on the Center’s work in Gaza. He starts by describing how he is sitting in Shigeo, a Gaza suburb bombed out during the war with Israel, with a group of eight children who have lost their fathers. He’s working with the children in a healing circle group.
11th September 2023

The Value of Deep Listening – The Aboriginal Gift to the Nation: Judy Atkinson

Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson is a Jiman (central west Queensland) and Bundjalung (northern New South Wales) woman, with Anglo-Celtic and German heritage. She lives in Goolmangar, New South Wales. Judy is Founder of the remarkable healing initiative, We Al-li. Judy’s book 'Trauma Trails Recreating Songlines...

About us


Testimonials


  • David’s work across many decades has laid the groundwork for words and practices that today trip off the tongue, such as ‘recovery movement’ and ‘cultural trauma’. The Recovery Voices website brings his insights from the field into one home. It also invites us to the meal table within that house. He and his collaborator Wulf Livingston rightly reserve a special seat for the people and communities whose stories we must hear into full expression to move towards genuine reconciliation. Thank you, David, for your continued groundbreaking work and the wholehearted way you convene us into the heartland of an alternative future. Cormac Russell, Author of Rekindling Democracy and Co-author of The Connected Community.

  • I’m glad that this new website has been launched—it’ll help people share their experience of what it means to be human and help remind them of the simplicity of the recovery journey to wholeness. Congratulations to my friends David, Wulf, and colleagues—their dedication to helping others navigate their humanness is something I’ve long admired. Wynford Ellis Owen, Former CEO at Living Room Cardiff, Wales
  • Congratulations on the new website! Bill White (Addiction Recovery Advocate, Historian and Researcher)
  • The new resource Recovery Voices digs into the lives and experiences of people who, in recovery themselves, spend time with others seeking, or in, recovery from addictions. In identifying themes, it draws out the rich diversity of experiences, showing how there is no single 'grand narrative' of recovery, no single 'recipe', just lots of people living out their own authentic lives in ways that they greatly prefer. The site represents a tonne of voluntary work from David Clark in Australia and Wulf Livingston in Wales. Their collaboration in itself shows how recovery seeds in, and spreads from, the spaces between people in relationships. Professor Wendy Dossett, University of Chester, England
  • I’ve been learning from David’s websites for over 20 years now, and his new Recovery Voices initiative with Wulf Livingston has added a new dimension to my experiences. I love the films and through them I am ‘meeting’ new people, discovering exciting recovery community initiatives, and learning even more about recovery and related matters. It’s a little university… and it’s only just begun! Michael Scott, Australia (45 years in recovery from alcohol addiction, 40 years as a drug and alcohol treatment practitioner)