Late at night, while most people are winding down, the phone rings. The voice on the other end is desperate, filled with hopelessness and longing for relief. “I need help. I’m desperate. I don’t want to feel like a failure anymore.”

These words echo the sentiments of countless individuals who have reached out to pioneering recovery educators and health and wellbeing coaches Dave and Susan Kenney, searching for a lifeline amid their struggles. For over a decade, calls like this came to the couple at all hours, reflecting how crises don’t adhere to business hours. 

The people on the other end of the line were mothers, fathers, spouses, friends, and sometimes the affected individuals themselves, each grappling with an overwhelming sense of fear, shame, and despair. They were seeking not just help. They also sought an understanding and a way to emerge from the darkness consuming their lives.

The Complexity of Recovery

Across years of running residential recovery and wellness programs, the Kenneys noticed something critical. Most traditional approaches to addiction and mental health treatment were decidedly one-dimensional. These one-dimensional approaches often focus solely on managing symptoms rather than addressing the root causes.

People are complex, with their struggles often deeply intertwined with their physical, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing. A person battling addiction or substance use disorder typically receives advice to quite simply stop using the vice in question outright. However, few programs address the underlying pain driving their behavior in the first instance.

What’s the emotional or psychological wound the individual is trying to numb? Fundamental questions like these often get overlooked, leading to treatments that offer only temporary, surface-level relief rather than lasting healing.

Similarly, those with mental health issues frequently receive rushed treatments focused on managing symptoms, often through medication and without addressing the underlying causes. All too often, behavioral addictions, like compulsive shopping or gambling, are also treated as isolated problems while ignoring the deeper issues at play.

Understanding Trauma

Trauma is a recurring theme in the stories of those who have sought Dave and Susan’s help over the years. Deep and frequently hidden traumatic experiences shape almost every individual’s journey. These experiences form the foundation of their struggles, driving the behaviors and choices that have delivered them to the brink of despair.

It manifests in various ways, including chemically, emotionally, mentally, and physically. Emotional trauma, perhaps the most pervasive, stems from experiences leaving deep psychological scars, such as abuse, neglect, or the loss of a loved one. Mental trauma, meanwhile, most commonly arises from distressing and potentially violent life events.

Elsewhere, physical trauma encapsulates injuries or chronic pain, while chemical trauma typically results from things like illness, infection, or substance abuse.

Whatever the source of someone’s trauma, correctly addressing it is crucial to their effective recovery. Without understanding and healing underlying wounds, recovery attempts will be superficial and short-lived.

The Brain-First Approach to Lasting Recovery

Dave and Susan Kenney are the pioneers behind Actualized Recovery. The Actualized Recovery therapeutic model represents a significant shift in how people address addiction and self-destructive behaviors. This pioneering brain-first approach recognizes the brain’s pivotal role in driving behavior and leverages this understanding to foster permanent change. Actualized Recovery is a brain-first approach, not brain-only. 

Actualized Recovery is not just a treatment – it’s a comprehensive journey toward wellness that integrates five core principles: physiological, psychological, spirit, connections, and lifestyle. By focusing on the brain’s health and core functions, the same approach empowers individuals to overcome their challenges and build long lives of resilience and fulfillment.

Beyond the Tip of the Iceberg

Traditional recovery programs often focus solely on the tip of the iceberg. That’s the visible symptoms of an individual’s addictions or behaviors. However, beneath the surface lies the true power of the iceberg: the deep-rooted issues driving these issues. Addressing only surface-level matters is akin to applying a band-aid to a wound requiring surgery.

It’s necessary to delve deeper, uncovering and healing the root issues to create lasting change. After working closely with over two thousand clients and their families, a trend began to emerge. When you get past the symptoms and dive deeper, people are truly seeking Epic Wellbeing, Heroic Autonomy, and Vibrant Longevity—realizing a life of greater happiness and thriving. 

Epic Wellbeing

Epic Wellbeing emphasizes the importance of holistic health, encompassing emotional, mental, and physical wellness. It’s about more than just stopping a harmful habit. Instead, it’s about cultivating a more fulfilling life where an individual feels genuinely good, inside and out.

Heroic Autonomy

Independence is crucial in recovery and underpins the Heroic Autonomy fundamental to Actualized Recovery. Heroic Autonomy empowers individuals to make their own choices and live lives free from dependency. The same applies whether that’s dependency on destructive behaviors, substances, the opinions of others, or something else entirely. Actualized Recovery emphasizes that people are not powerless; rather, everyone has the power of choice.

Vibrant Longevity

Vibrant Longevity is about creating a life that matters to the individual, their loved ones, and others around them. It’s about building a legacy of strength, resilience, and purpose long after the conclusion of the immediate recovery process. It’s about thriving and flourishing in every part of one’s life. It’s about creating greater happiness. 

The Power of Actualized Recovery

Actualized Recovery by Dave and Susan Kenney is more than a treatment program. Instead, it’s a pathway to a life of extraordinary wellbeing.

By focusing on what someone truly wants, rather than what they may incorrectly believe or perceive they need, this approach empowers them to create lasting change. It’s about moving beyond today’s struggles to actualize a future marked by autonomy rooted in lifelong health, resilience, and wellness.

In life, as in recovery, the choice to move forward is always ours. By embracing the principles of Actualized Recovery, individuals are free to unlock their potential and create their own comeback stories – stories not just of survival but of triumph and transformation.

Published By: Aize Perez