Recovery and healing resources

Find honest, judgment-free support for your path forward. Whether you are navigating addiction, healing trauma, unlearning shame, or supporting someone you care about, these vetted hotlines, community programs, and grounding practices are here whenever you need them.

Immediate support and crisis hotlines

You do not have to carry this alone. If you are in distress or need someone to talk to right now, free and confidential support is available around the clock:

Diverse paths to recovery and community

Recovery is not one-size-fits-all. For many people, twelve-step fellowships like AA and NA are a lifeline. For others, they simply aren’t the right fit, and that’s okay. If that’s you, other paths are waiting to welcome you: secular, spiritual, science-based, and harm-reduction communities. And if you can’t find a group that feels like home, you can create one. The Circle gives you everything you need to start your own peer-led recovery group. Explore these compassionate options and find the path that fits you.

Peer Recovery Communities

  • SMART Recovery: Science-based, self-empowered recovery meetings focused on practical cognitive tools.
  • Recovery Dharma: A Buddhist-inspired peer community using meditation and mindfulness practices.
  • Alcoholics Anonymous: Peer-led mutual aid meetings available worldwide.
  • Narcotics Anonymous: Twelve-step fellowship for recovery from any drug, including alcohol.
  • LifeRing Secular Recovery: Abstinence-based, secular peer support centered on strengthening your “sober self.”
  • Women for Sobriety: A peer-support program built on positive thinking and emotional growth, for women and nonbinary people.
  • In The Rooms: Free online meetings across many recovery pathways, available any time of day.

Harm Reduction

  • Moderation Management: Support for people who want to reduce their drinking rather than stop entirely.
  • National Harm Reduction Coalition: Education, advocacy, and resources for safer use and overdose prevention, including naloxone.
  • Never Use Alone: A free hotline where someone stays on the line while you use and sends help if you stop responding.

Find Treatment

  • FindTreatment.gov: SAMHSA’s confidential locator for treatment, including programs that take public or no insurance.

Family and Ally Support

Build Your Own

  • The Circle: Start a judgment-free recovery group in your own community using the guide and sixteen-week program in Recovery Without Shame, Book Two.

Grounding practices and deeper learning

Healing happens one gentle breath at a time. Use these essential self-care reminders when things feel overwhelming:

  • When cravings hit: Pause, take slow breaths into your belly, ground in your body, and connect with a trusted person before acting.
  • The 5-4-3-2-1 technique: Notice five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste.
  • After a setback: Remember that a relapse is an event, not your identity. Get safe, tell someone you trust, and begin again without shame.

For in-depth guides on dismantling shame, trauma-informed recovery, and facilitating your own group, explore the titles on the books page.