Pagans in Recovery

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community

What it is

PIR is a peer-run twelve-step mutual-aid fellowship. It is not a therapy, and a clinician does not run it. It describes itself as a twelve-step fellowship built on the model AA pioneered. It is for people who worship or work with one or more Goddesses, Gods, spirits, energies, powers or ancestors,…

Format

• PIR publishes no phases, session counts or graduation criteria. Membership and progress are self-defined, and each member decides what "sobriety" or "recovery" means for them. The table below sets out the fellowship's own structures, followed by a clinician's pathway for working with it.
• Assess (1 session, inside ordinary treatment). Look at the client's spiritual identity, any religious trauma, past twelve-step experience and the primary problem. Move on once the client is interested and has no contraindication (section 5).

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• service overload in early recovery.
• the client attends and can describe one moment of identifying with another member.
• which wording the client's sponsor and group use. Differences between groups are normal.
• anonymity in small local Pagan scenes, where the client may meet coven-mates or festival acquaintances.
• a client who uses eclectic PIR meetings to avoid meetings that confront their primary addiction directly.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.