My new book Transforming Pain Into Power: The Story of North Wales Recovery Communities, published by New Generation Publishing, can now be purchased on Amazon (paperback or digital) and is being made available on a variety of other outlets. Here is a section from the Preface which outlines content in the book. [I have shorted one long paragraph here for ease of reading online.]
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‘This book highlights what can be achieved by peer-led recovery communities by focusing on North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC), based in Bangor, and founded by James Deakin in 2015. It has five primary aims:
1. To illustrate key elements that are known to facilitate recovery from addiction, as well as healing from trauma and other adversities that can lead to addiction and other problems.
2. To describe how NWRC, and its various elements and activities, have developed over time.
3. To illustrate what NWRC, and the stories of their members, have taught us about facilitating recovery from addiction and related problems.
4. To show that NWRC is not just directly helping people in their specific community recover from addiction but is also indirectly aiding people in their wider local community, and further afield, improve their social and emotional wellbeing.
5. To consider how whole communities can better help people recover from addiction and tackle the problem of disconnection which exists in society today.
This book will be a particularly important asset to those people who wish to start, or further develop, their own recovery community in the UK or further afield. It will also help people with serious substance use problems, along with family members affected negatively by their loved one’s behaviour, better understand how to address their problems. In these cases, the book will not just inform, but also inspire. It is also relevant to practitioners, commissioners, funders, politicians, and members of the general public who want to see how we can better help people recover from addiction and various other problems. It is particularly important to inform funders who can support the development and maintenance of recovery communities.
Finally, the book will be of considerable interest to those people who have been involved with NWRC in one capacity or other, and allow them to see how their contribution fits into the bigger picture of what this exciting and inspiring initiative has achieved over the past ten years.
In the Prologue, I describe key aspects of what I learnt about addiction recovery, as well as the shortcomings of the addiction treatment system, in my early days in the field when I ran the grassroots initiative WIRED, later known as Wired In, which I had founded at the end of the millennium. I also relate briefly to my experiences in the addiction recovery and trauma fields after I moved from South Wales to Perth, Western Australia. I finish by describing how I became interested in NWRC and two other UK peer-led recovery communities, Eternal Media, based in Wrexham, and ARC Fitness in Derry, Northern Ireland.
In the first three chapters, I focus on my positive visits to two treatment services, West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (WGCADA) in Swansea, and what is now known as BAC O’Connor in Burton-on-Trent. I describe William L. White’s writings on recovery-oriented care; research into recovery without treatment; our Wired In research on factors facilitating recovery, and research by Larry Davidson focused on recovery in people who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
In Chapter 4, I describe James Deakin’s background, from being brought up in a broken family in an impoverished environment. We learn about his drug-dealing days, addiction to cocaine, experiences of being tortured, and later mental health problems. James stops using and drinking, without treatment, and after a successful career as a chef, works as a mental health worker, and then in the addiction treatment field. He becomes disillusioned with the treatment system and decides to set up his own independent recovery group.
The book contains four other long Recovery Stories (those of Kevin Morris, Saffron Roberts, Lee Daly, and Sophie), as well as 19 short Recovery Stories, which provide insights into factors that facilitate recovery from serious substance use and related problems. I also include long stories of two ‘friends of recovery’ (Wulf Livingston and Sarah Flynn) who have played a key role in the development of NWRC. We also learn about other external community members who have helped the recovery contagion develop in North Wales.
Various elements of NWRC are detailed, illustrating why they are important for facilitating recovery: the residential part of NWRC, Penrhyn House, which is porous to the outside community; the wide range of mutual aid and other support groups, as well as the variety of health-related and social activities that occur inside and outside the House; the annual week-long Recovery Walks, and a variety of ‘giving back’ initiatives.
We learn how NWRC fed members of their local community during Covid, when national and local government could not respond adequately. I describe Bwyd Da Bangor, the café developed by NWRC which ran various social initiatives to help the community, and Growing for Change, an organic market garden developed by NWRC that provides high-quality produce for the community and helps facilitate recovery.
We learn about NWRC’s interaction with Eternal Media, the recovery community founded by Marcus Fair, a person in long-term recovery from a 25-year addiction to heroin. Eternal runs a Film Academy and a therapeutic photography programme, and also creates podcast series. These activities encourage creativity and storytelling, enhance self-esteem and teamwork, and ensure that participants develop new practical skills. Marcus received an MBE for his recovery-related work in the 2026 New Year Honours.
I reflect on the therapeutic process, the various elements that facilitate long-term recovery. I do this in general terms to what occurs within NWRC, as described by Marc Yates, and in relation to a specific group work programme, Moving On In My Recovery (MOIMR), which is based on an evidence-based psychological therapy called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
I also describe the ideas of Bruce Perry, a world-leading trauma expert, about how relationships and community alter brain function to facilitate connection and healing. His ideas are particularly relevant to the healing we see in a recovery community like NWRC. I focus on Bruce’s ideas about the impact of trauma—many at NWRC have had traumatic experiences—and how it can be healed. I refer to Indigenous healing practices, in particular to the inspirational work of Judy and Carlie Atkinson of We Al-li Programs.
I outline how members of NWRC have gone on to facilitate and develop other recovery initiatives around North Wales, including 12-Step Fellowship, SMART Recovery and MOIMR meetings, Domestic Violence and Women’s Groups, and the walking group Sober Snowdonia. The book describes the work carried out by Archway Recovery, based in Rhyl, which is having a strong positive impact in the local community. It also outlines a new initiative, Atebion (Welsh for ‘Solutions’), which whilst being developed in Conwy County Borough, aims to impact across North Wales and further afield. Both of these initiatives have been developed by people who found recovery with NWRC.
In Chapter 28, I reflect on how we can create a better future at a wider community level, not only in helping people recover from addiction, but also tackling disconnection that leads to the development of addiction and other problems. In doing so, I describe ideas from Indigenous peoples, in particular the need to not only focus on the individual, but also help whole communities heal and thrive. In this regard, Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) is an important approach. We need to encourage communities to discover, connect and mobilise their assets, not be dominated by an approach where outside institutions focus on a community’s deficits and weaknesses…. leading to disempowerment.
I emphasise the importance of delivering education programmes and training workshops, as well as storytelling events, to empower communities. These should be delivered not just to adults, but also to youngsters and children in an age-appropriate form.
In the last chapter, I include reflections written by Sarah Flynn, the Chair of Trustees of the NWRC Charity [Sarah has since stepped down in this role], and brief thoughts from some of NWRC’s collaborators. I leave the final words to James Deakin, the Founder of NWRC.’