The Sober Village

While the broader recovery world experiments with apps and one-on-one psychotherapeutic approaches to sobriety, those of us with a twelve-steps orientation have a reminder: Sobriety Takes a Village.

The twelve steps are, of course, based on an individual’s personal journey to hope by way of helplessness.   But that private journey does not end privately.  It is that first step, the solitary epiphany that “I am powerless,” that moves us from “I” to “we.” 

“We” is the village of sobriety that begins with the second step: reaching out to the first member of our Sober Village—“a Power greater than ourselves.”  The subsequent ten steps move fluidly back and forth between reflection and relationship, me and you, or “I and thou,” as the philosopher Martin Buber famously put it.     

Those of us who have experienced the freedom of this approach understand that sobriety can either be a grim and solitary chore, or a communal celebration—a shared joy.   We choose the latter because, well, it’s so much better!  

While the solitary use of apps and psychotherapy and exercise and yoga and other personal supports can, we believe, greatly enhance one’s sober experience, the experience itself—like all the best things—is made of people. Connection.   A community.   The Sober Village.