Blog

The alternative path to community development focuses on a community’s assets, capacities and abilities. Historic evidence indicates that significant community development takes places only when local community people are committed to investing in themselves and their resources. Communities are built bottom-up, not top-down. ABCD empowers individuals and communities.

An ongoing serialised account of my career, with an emphasis on describing my activities and the people who have inspired me since I closed down my university neuroscience laboratory in 2000 and started a community initiative (Wired In) focused on empowering people to...

‘I feel like the lessons that are learned in Recovery in Focus don't just apply to people in recovery from addiction. They apply to people in all aspects of their life when they are seeking to have a bit more agency and control in their actions.’ There are ‘therapeutic’ lessons that Lucke... has applied to his own life.

Recovery in Focus can be a new network for people who have a common interest in wanting to move on from their addiction and find long-term recovery. Each week, whether in the classroom or out on location, Jill illustrates the importance of connectivity, and building a network, by using a ball of string. This exercise has become a key...

First of three parts of the story of the therapeutic photography course developed by Jill Whittingham, Lead Therapist at Eternal Media, to facilitate connection and recovery. Looking through the lens of a camera gives a new and creative way to tell stories of addiction and recovery. The course is run by Jill and Lucke Gabriel.

My talk was primarily based on information provided in the excellent book 'What Happened To You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing' by renowned trauma expert Bruce D. Perry and well-known personality Oprah Winfrey. In my opinion, this book is...

I have my own new year's resolutions in this context. They are simple. They come from my internal motivation and require me to be with, and work with, others. They are quite simply (i) to support recovery communities and those within, when and wherever I can, and (ii) keep banging on about the value of such. 

The person who had the biggest impact on me was Mark Gilman. ‘Mr Gilman’—he has reverential status for me—talked about Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), and this was a massive light bulb moment for me. I had always seen treatment services operating from a ‘weakness or deficits’ point of view.

Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples must work together to create safe healing environments for all. We must enhance understanding of Indigenous healing across wider society, including in education, health, social care and criminal justice settings, and create advocacy campaigns to catalyse grassroots activity and create...

'We are putting people in interventions in the United States whose problem severity and complexity is so great, whose recovery capital is so low, we're putting them in interventions so brief, so weak, it has little probability of success. And when they fail, what do we do with them?'

'Surrounding myself with love, kindness and acceptance, gave me the time to begin to heal. I'm proud of myself for once. I've made good decisions, and bad choices, but I own those today because I was clean throughout. I have a job, a place at uni, a driver's licence, and a little flat to call my own. I've got a human in my life who...'

Some of the most amazing people I have met over the past 25 years are in recovery from addiction. Some of them, I am proud to say, are amongst my best friends. They are inspirational, empathic, kind, thoughtful, smart and resilient. It has been, and continues to be, a great honour and pleasure to be working in this field.

Participants in the podcast were my Recovery Voices colleague Wulf Livingston, Marcus Fair (Founder of Eternal Media), Alex Magson (then of NWRC), Tony Ormond of Kaleidoscope/Dechra Newydd (at a later stage), and myself. Lucke Gabriel was in charge of filming the event.

Gary Rutherford's TEDx Talk: Some of the kindest, strongest, empathetic and impressive people that I have met in my life have overcome addiction. They are much more than the sum of their problems. So as a society we need to stop judging people on the issues that are in their lives and that they're facing and look at it through a...

Tim Leighton - My Reflections & His Story: On 18 March 2009, Tim and I both spoke at a conference in London organised by Action on Addiction and my grassroots initiative Wired In, with the main speaker being leading US recovery advocate Bill White. Addiction recovery advocates from around the UK were invited to the...