we believe…

We believe that all human experience is of value and meaningful – if only we can hold open our minds and hearts wide enough and for long enough  to understand.

We believe that the rich and diverse range of human experiences – especially
many of those that are distressing and difficult – cannot adequately be described or understood by biomedical or clinical theories alone.

We believe that the all too increasingly common practice of diagnosing  the difficult and distressing experiences of being human: of  labelling what we don’t understand as “deficient”, “disordered” or  “diseased” serves more to limit than to help the lives of those to whom we attach these labels.

We believe it also also limits our collective understanding of what it means to be human and so diminishes our collective humanity.

• make their own meaning out whatever distress they might experience,
• their own choices, including who they turn to for support,
• find and follow their own way to live the best life they can on their own terms.

We believe in recovery not because it is the latest buzzword or fad or because we are chasing funding. We believe in recovery because it is about trying – sometimes failing and sometimes suceeding; about learning, about being alive and about being human.

We believe in recovery because it is the stuff of life – and because we are living it.