Refuge Recovery

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · Noah Levine · 2014

What it is

Refuge Recovery is a peer-led mutual-aid fellowship. It is not a therapy that a clinician delivers. It adapts the Buddhist Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path into a non-theistic recovery programme for any addiction. The official site lists substances, food, sex, technology, gambling,…

Format

• Refuge Recovery has no fixed phases or session count. It is an open-ended programme with a daily practice. The official site names six components: meetings, meditation, personal inventory, mentorship, retreat and service. The book's structure gives a rough order of work:
• Format. Weekly or more frequent peer-led meetings, in person or online. The BU 2025 handout counted 11 in-person meetings in Massachusetts and 79 online meetings in the US. RRWS reports supporting about 400 peer-led meetings, and supplies meeting materials, pamphlets and individual inventory…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• 2018: the Against the Stream investigation. Levine also founded the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society (ATS). In late March 2018 ATS announced that it was investigating an allegation of sexual misconduct against him and suspended him from teaching. Levine publicly denied the allegation, saying the alleged non-consensual contact "never happened". The investigation was carried out by workplace investigator…

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 intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• 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

• your own presence affecting a client's meeting. Avoid meetings your current clients go to.
• the client stopping medication after meeting contact. Ask about this directly at follow-ups.
• engagement that is all or nothing. Steady, moderate engagement is the sign that it is working.
• high anticipatory anxiety. Readiness shows as the client naming the day, time and meeting they will go to.
• a client agreeing only to please you. A good fit shows as curiosity and a concrete plan for which meeting to try first.

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.