LifeRing

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · Martin Nicolaus · 1997 · California, USA

What it is

LifeRing is a peer-run, abstinence-based, secular mutual-aid network for people recovering from alcohol and other drug use. It is a nonprofit (501(c)(3)) based in California, with about 200 in-person, online and hybrid meetings a week, plus chat rooms, email groups, one-to-one ePals and a forum. It…

Format

• LifeRing has no steps, phases or fixed course. Its published structure is a set of meeting formats plus an optional, self-paced workbook. The clinician-facing "phases" below are a for organising a referral. They are not LifeRing's.
• Meeting types: Check-in ("How Was Your Week?", focused on the past and coming week), Topic (the subject varies), Focus (shared characteristics such as LGBTQIA+, veterans, co-occurring disorders, family and friends, seniors, substance-related medical conditions, CPS involvement, survivors of…

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?
• 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?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• 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 taken on too early or used to avoid one's own check-in ().
• the client attends without prompting and brings peer ideas into session.
• completion without action. Ask what changed in the week because of each domain.
• agreeing to go only to please you. Ask what the client's sober self wants from a group.
• avoidance as the date nears. Offer a hybrid or online first visit with the camera off, if the group allows it.

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.