• Hope: Recovery’s central, motivating message is a better future. People can and do overcome obstacles and mental health disorders.
  • Empowerment/self-determination: People can define their own life goals and unique path(s) to gain/regain control over their lives.
  • Multiple pathways: There are multiple pathways to recovery based on individuals’ unique strengths, needs, and experiences. Pathways may include clinical treatment, medications, support from loved ones, peer support groups, and mental health coaching.
  • Holistic: Recovery focuses on people’s entire lives, including mind, body, spirit and community.
  • Peer support: Mutual support plays an invaluable role in recovery, including the sharing of personal experiences, knowledge, and skills. By helping others, people help themselves.
  • Relational and social networks: Recovery is supported by people who believe in the individual’s ability to recover, who offer hope, support, encouragement, strategies, and resources for change.
  • Culturally-based: Services should be culturally grounded, attuned, sensitive, and personalized to each person’s unique needs.
  • Addresses trauma: Services and support should be trauma-informed to foster safety and trust.
  • Nonlinear: Recovery isn’t a step-by-step process but one based on continual growth, occasional setbacks, and learning from experience.
  • Strengths: Recovery builds on people’s multiple strengths, capacities, talents, coping abilities, resources, and the inherent value of each individual.
  • Courage: Taking steps towards recovery takes great courage. Self-acceptance, developing a positive self-identity, and regaining belief in one’s self are especially important.
  • Respect: Acceptance and appreciation by society, communities, systems of care, and by individuals themselves are crucial to recovery.
  • Responsibility: Individuals are responsible for their own self-care and journeys of recovery.