The final part of my Recovery in Focus series, the exciting Eternal Media recovery initiative, run by Lead Therapist Jill Whittingham and Lucke Gabriel. Recovery In Focus is about connection and using photographs to tell stories about addiction and recovery. The first part of this series can be found here.
9. Having a Purpose
Jill emphasises that what is so important about Recovery in Focus is that it provides participants with a purpose. The project is task-driven. When they take a group out for the day, it’s not just a recreational break, like some of the treatment services offer their clients. All that goes on in Recovery in Focus is purpose-based with tasks centred around recovery-related themes.
For example, during a recent trip to Chester, the theme was ‘Strength’. As they walked around the city, Jill described how Chester was originally founded by the Romans to protect the city, and how the cathedral came to be in existence. She used as many metaphors as she could about strength and power, and attributes that one needs for recovery, such as protection and boundaries.
The group walked around Chester for four hours, during which time they only covered two miles because group members kept stopping and taking dozens and dozens of photographs. And they conversed with each other about what they were doing and shared photo ideas. They were making friends and building connections which was the purpose of the day.
10. Gabriel Lucke’s Reflections
I asked Jill’s co-worker Lucke Gabriel his thoughts about Recovery in Focus. His initial response was: ’It always does more than I ever expect it to. When you think about what the project is on the face of it, you wouldn’t think it would give people the experience that it goes on to give them… every single time! I’m just blown away by how much they love it.’ He loves working with Jill, the only project they do together.
Lucke sees working with Marcus and Jill as two very different experiences. Marcus is very creative on the filmmaking side of things, whilst Jill is a lot more therapeutic in the work she delivers. However, Marcus’s creative work is also therapeutic, although it is less obvious. Marcus is all about being practical, getting up and going outside with cameras. Much of the therapeutic aspects are found in the conversations that arise in-between when we are shooting, many of which are in the mini-bus on the way to our next filming location (cf. Chapter X).
Jill’s approach is more workshop-based. She will identify the areas in which a group would benefit most from and tailors the workshop to them. She picks a theme for the day, and delivers a masterclass based around the theme. It feels very Socratic without any hint of being didactic. Jill prepares mental tools and tactics to bolster a person’s recovery, but it’s the person’s own answers to the questions that Jill has prompted that make the biggest impact. It’s a powerful process of self-realisation.
Jill is structured in what she does, but also flexible. She goes into a session with a clear plan written on a piece of paper. Both her and Lucke know the essentials that need to be covered. However, if people are really engaging with a particular activity, she’ll let it run longer than planned and cut back on some other non-essential activity. Lucke does the skills-based side of the programme and Jill the therapeutic part. Lucke was once asked whether he could do what Jill does. ‘No way!’ was his reply.
Lucke emphasises that people on the programme really take to Jill. He believes that this is more of a testament to her as a person, rather than just the quality of the programme per se. Of course, both matter, he says. When people are in a group with her, it is clear they admire her in part because of her recovery. And she has a real presence, a special charisma. Occasionally, Jill shares doubts about herself to Lucke, to which he replies, ‘You’re kidding me right. You’re incredible.’ Lucke sees Jill as a humble person. He says that he has learnt a lot from her about leading a group, something he has to do in the Film Academies run by Eternal Media.
When I asked Lucke what was the most important thing that he has got out of Recovery in Focus, he replied: ‘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 learnt from Recovery in Focus that he has applied to his own life. For that, he is very grateful.
11. The Ripple Effect
Jill describes how Recovery in Focus affects people other than those who participated in the project, the so-called Ripple Effect. Lowri, who was in her early 20s when she attended, had been in active addiction and getting into trouble since she was about 14 years old. She came into the group quite abrasive and feisty and had just come out of a rehab. Her family were absolutely despairing of her at that time.
However, Lowri embraced every part of Recovery in Focus and transformed as a person during the time she participated. Her mother and grandmother attended the exhibition and said to Eternal Media staff they were overwhelmed by how the project had helped Lowri. Her parents had actually printed every photo that their daughter had selected during the project and put them up in the kitchen. When Lowri showed her a photograph of her kitchen, Jill felt a huge swell of emotion.
Jill talked very fondly about Lee Daly, someone who I had really related to when I went on a walk with the Sober Snowdonia group. When he joined Recovery in Focus, Lee was still detoxing off some of the substances he had been using and had been prescribed. He looked completely battered by his addiction and was experiencing anxiety and low mood. Jill saw Lee change, growing as a person and sharing more with others, as the project continued. However, she wasn’t aware of how much Recovery in Focus had meant to Lee until she saw the feedback sheet he completed at the end of the project.
Jill later met Lee at Penryhn House and learnt that he had taken a young person in early recovery under his wing. He had told the young person how Recovery in Focus had helped changed his relationship with AA and he too joined a later Recovery in Focus group. Prior to this project, Lee was attending AA but not sharing and not feeling part of that group. However, after talking out loud about his thoughts of various photographs and slowly and carefully opening up about his life during Recovery in Focus gatherings, he also started to feel part of AA and share confidently in meetings. Jill had previously no idea of how Recovery In Focus had helped Lee change his participation in AA. His passing on of this message to the young person was another example of the ripple effect.
Jill runs Jill Whittingham Counselling Services.