If you haven’t already read our About Us section and Wulf’s biography, it’s my great pleasure to introduce you to my Recovery Voices colleague Wulf Livingston of Tregarth in North Wales. I first met Wulf back in 2000, when he was a manager for the drug and alcohol treatment service CAIS, and was inspired by his knowledge, passion, and caring nature for people who were struggling.
After communicating periodically over a number of years, Wulf and I started to have more regular conversations a couple of years ago. It was quite obvious to both us that we had a shared passion for recovery and social justice issues. Last year, when I made my first visit to the UK post-Covid, I visited Wulf and he took me to Penryhn House and Bwydd da Bangor, core elements of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC). I was really impressed with what was going on there.
Not long after my return to Australia, Wulf and I decided to collaborate on this Recovery Voices project. We spent time deciding the form the initiative would take, and then started interviewing some of our recovery friends via Zoom and Microsoft Teams in March 2023.
I interviewed Wulf on two occasions, in June and July 2023, and edited 16 films totalling 80 minutes from the first interview. Here is the first edited film from the initial interview. You can find links to the pages that contain details of all the films edited from my Wulf’s interviews at the bottom of this page.
Biography
Wulf Livingston is currently Professor of Alcohol Studies at Glyndwr University, Wrexham, Wales. His journey to this point has been one from an adolescent and early adulthood of hedonistic alcohol and drug-taking, through a period as a chef, into qualified social work. His formative practice experiences have all been in alcohol and drugs service provision, before an increasing drift into teaching and research. Today, he focuses on alcohol and drug research and publications. He is an active member of the North Wales Recovery Community. He likes nothing more than to be on a mountain or a beach, including with those friends walking through their recovery.