Self Help Groups & Resources

All Recovery methods can be defined as Self Help in one way or another. This section lists groups, programs, other methods people have used to find a life in recovery.

Please use our Suggest a Listing form if you know of a program that you would like to see on the helpNYC.info Resource Navigator.

Refuge Recovery

New York City Website

Refuge Recovery is a non-profit organization grounded in the belief that Buddhist principles and practices create a strong foundation for a path to freedom from addiction. This is an approach to recovery that understands: All individuals have the power and potential to free themselves from the suffering that is caused by addiction. We feel confident in the power of the Dharma, if applied, to relieve the suffering of all kinds, including the suffering of addiction. This is a process that cultivates a path of awakening, the path of recovering from the addictions and delusions that have created so much suffering in our lives and in this world.

Excerpt from refugerecovery.org/about

SMART Recovery

212.631.1198Daily, 24/7 Message LineWebsite

SMART Recovery is an abstinence-based, not-for-profit organization with a sensible self-help program for people having problems with drinking and using. It includes many ideas and techniques to help you change your life from one that is self-destructive and unhappy to one that is constructive and satisfying. SMART Recovery is not a spin-off of Alcoholics Anonymous. No one will label you an “alcoholic”, an “addict” or “diseased” nor “powerless”, and if you do not believe in a religion or spirituality, that’s fine, too. We teach common sense self-help procedures designed to empower you to abstain and to develop a more positive lifestyle. When you succeed at following our approach, you may graduate from the program, or you may stay around to help others.

Excerpt from smartrecovery.org/about-us/

A Course In Miracles

Self guided course as described here.
Marianne Williamson holds talks and meetups in New York City on an ongoing basis.  Click here for more information.

A Course in Miracles is a 1976 book containing a curriculum which claims to assist its readers in achieving spiritual transformation. The underlying premise of the work is the teaching that the greatest "miracle" that one may achieve in one's life is the act of simply gaining a full "awareness of love's presence" in one's own life. The book was written, or "scribed," by Helen Schucman, who claimed that it had been dictated to her word for word via "inner dictation" which came from Jesus. The Course contains a curriculum to bring about what it calls a "spiritual transformation," consisting of three sections entitled the "Text", "Workbook for Students," and "Manual for Teachers". Written, or transcribed, from 1965 to 1972, some distribution occurred via photocopies before a hardcover edition was published in 1976 by the Foundation for Inner Peace.

Excerpt from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Course_in_Miracles