Using personal experience in addiction therapy allows therapists or mentors to build trust and offer real-world guidance based on their own recovery journeys. This approach can inspire hope and provide practical advice but also poses risks like over-identification, dependency, and unrealistic expectations. Ethical dilemmas, such as boundary issues and imposing personal recovery paths, must be carefully managed. The mental health ideology behind this approach emphasizes empathy and empowerment while ensuring professional boundaries and client needs are respected.
How Personal Experience with Addiction Can Help Others Recover
Using personal experience in addiction therapy can offer several key advantages, especially when integrated into therapeutic approaches that focus on empathy, hope, and practical guidance. Here are some of the key benefits:
- Building Trust and Rapport
- Advantage: Personal experience creates a sense of shared understanding between the therapist or mentor and the client, which can help build trust and rapport.
- Benefit: Clients are more likely to feel understood and supported when they know their therapist or mentor has experienced similar struggles, reducing feelings of isolation or shame.
- Offering Hope and Motivation
- Advantage: A person who has successfully overcome addiction can serve as a living example that recovery is possible.
- Benefit: Sharing success stories can inspire clients and provide hope, showing them that lasting change is achievable, even if the process seems overwhelming or difficult.
- Relatability and Empathy
- Advantage: Personal experience allows therapists or mentors to offer a level of empathy that goes beyond intellectual understanding. They’ve “been there,” and their experience can help clients feel understood on a deeper level.
- Benefit: This empathy can help clients feel more comfortable opening up about their struggles, knowing they won’t be judged or misunderstood.
- Practical, Real-World Advice
- Advantage: Those with lived experience can share practical coping strategies and lessons they’ve learned during their own recovery, offering real-world guidance.
- Benefit: Clients can gain actionable tools and strategies that have been tested and proven to work, which can help them navigate their own recovery journey more effectively.
- Modeling Resilience and Recovery
- Advantage: A person who has successfully navigated addiction recovery can model resilience and perseverance, demonstrating how setbacks can be overcome.
- Benefit: Clients can learn to cope with setbacks or relapses in a healthy way, understanding that recovery is a process and that challenges do not signify failure.
- Reducing Stigma
- Advantage: Sharing personal experiences with addiction helps normalize the experience, reducing the stigma that often surrounds it.
- Benefit: This can create a more supportive and non-judgmental environment, encouraging clients to seek help without fear of shame or rejection.
- Personal Empowerment
- Advantage: The act of sharing one’s own recovery story can empower both the person sharing and the person listening. It reinforces the idea that recovery is about personal agency and active participation in change.
- Benefit: Clients may feel more empowered and take ownership of their own recovery, realizing that they are not passive recipients of treatment but active participants in their healing journey.
- Increasing Relational Bonds
- Advantage: Personal experience can help strengthen the therapeutic alliance or the relationship between client and therapist/mentor.
- Benefit: A strong therapeutic bond is essential for effective therapy, and clients who feel a sense of connection with their therapist or mentor are more likely to stay engaged in treatment.
- Fostering Accountability
- Advantage: Individuals with lived experience often understand the importance of accountability in recovery. They can help set clear goals and encourage clients to stay on track.
- Benefit: Clients benefit from a structured support system that helps them remain accountable to their recovery plan and progress.
- Reinforcing Hope through Peer Support
- Advantage: The concept of peer support is often a central feature of addiction recovery. People who have overcome addiction are seen as credible sources of support and encouragement.
- Benefit: Peer support, facilitated by someone with lived experience, fosters a sense of community, encouraging clients to share their challenges and successes, knowing they are not alone.
- Humanizing the Process
- Advantage: Personal experience humanizes the often clinical or impersonal aspects of addiction treatment, making it feel more compassionate and less transactional.
- Benefit: This human touch can make therapy feel more accessible and relatable, helping clients connect with the therapeutic process in a meaningful way.
The use of personal experience in addiction therapy offers numerous advantages, including building trust, offering hope, providing practical advice, reducing stigma, and enhancing the therapeutic relationship. By sharing lived experiences, individuals who have recovered from addiction can inspire and guide others, creating a supportive environment that promotes long-term healing and personal empowerment.
Using Personal Experience with Addiction Can Help Others to Recover
Experiencing addiction firsthand can provide invaluable insight and empathy, making individuals who have recovered from addiction well-positioned to help others struggling with similar issues. Here are several ways that experience with addiction can help other addictsUsing personal experience with addiction as part of treatment therapy can be highly effective, particularly when integrated into therapeutic models that emphasize shared understanding, empathy, and empowerment. Here are some mental ideologies and therapeutic approaches that make use of personal experience in addiction recovery:
1. Peer Support and Mutual Aid
Mental Ideology: The concept of mutual aid emphasizes the importance of individuals with shared experiences helping each other. This ideology fosters a sense of community and collective healing, where people who have been through addiction can support others in their recovery in building empathy and trust.
How it helps: People who have experienced addiction themselves can relate to the struggles, emotional pain, and challenges of others. This empathy creates a trusting relationship where the person in recovery feels understood, reducing feelings of isolation and shame.
Example: Someone who has gone through addiction can help a struggling individual feel less judged and more willing to open up, knowing that they are speaking to someone who understands their journey.
Application: Support groups like 12-Step Programs (e.g., Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous) and SMART Recovery utilize this ideology. In these settings, recovered addicts serve as mentors or sponsors, guiding others through their recovery process based on shared lived experiences.
2. Providing Hope and Inspiration
How it helps: An addict who has recovered can serve as a role model for others. Their recovery shows that overcoming addiction is possible, providing hope for those who may feel stuck in their addiction and believe that recovery is unattainable.
Benefit: It encourages connection, reduces stigma, and promotes a sense of belonging, as participants see others who have overcome similar struggles.2. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with Lived Experience Integration.
Mental Ideology: CBT focuses on changing negative thought patterns and behaviors. When integrated with personal experiences of addiction, it allows the therapist or peer to use real-life examples of overcoming challenges, making the strategies more relatable and grounded in reality.
Example: A mentor who shares their personal success story can inspire others to continue on their own path of recovery, demonstrating that change is possible no matter how difficult the journey may seem.
3. Sharing Coping Strategies
How it helps: Individuals in recovery can share the tools, coping mechanisms, and strategies they used to overcome their addiction. These might include practices such as mindfulness, attending support groups, or building a strong support network, which can be beneficial for others in their recovery.
Application: A therapist or peer mentor who has overcome addiction can guide individuals through CBT techniques while sharing personal experiences of how they applied these methods in their own recovery.
Example: A recovered addict might suggest specific methods they used to manage cravings or handle stressful situations without resorting to substance use
Benefit: It provides practical, real-world applications of therapeutic strategies, demonstrating that change is possible and reinforcing hope and efficacy.
3. Strengths-Based Therapy
Mental Ideology: Strengths-based therapy focuses on the positive attributes and resilience that individuals possess, rather than solely focusing on their problems or deficits. People who have overcome addiction often draw upon their own personal strength and resilience to maintain recovery4. Offering Realistic Guidance
How it helps: Those who have experienced addiction know that recovery is not easy, and can offer realistic expectations about the challenges of sobriety. This honesty helps others prepare for setbacks, avoiding disillusionment when recovery isn’t linear.
Example: A recovered individual might explain the importance of taking recovery one day at a time, acknowledging that there may be setbacks, but reinforcing that this does not mean failure
Application: A therapist who has personal experience with addiction may emphasize the client’s strengths, drawing parallels to their own journey of overcoming addiction. This can help clients recognize their own capabilities and potential for change.
5. Supporting in Group Settings
How it helps: Individuals with personal experience of addiction can be effective group leaders in support settings, such as 12-step programs or therapy groups. Their stories provide relatability and create a shared space where addicts feel less alone
Benefit: This approach empowers individuals by shifting the focus from limitations to strengths, enhancing self-esteem and confidence in their ability to recover by using Motivational Interviewing (MI) with Personal Experience.
Mental Ideology: Motivational Interviewing is a client-centered, directive method that helps individuals explore and resolve ambivalence about behavior change. A therapist or peer who has personal experience with addiction can use MI techniques to inspire motivation for change by sharing how they overcame similar struggles.
Example: In group therapy or a support group, a recovered addict might lead discussions, guiding others to share their experiences and offering encouragement during tough moments.
6. Mentorship and Peer Support
How it helps: Many people in recovery benefit from having a sponsor or mentor, someone who has walked the path before them. A mentor can provide consistent support, accountability, and advice, helping those struggling with addiction to stay focused on their recovery goals.
Application: In therapy, the person with lived experience can help clients articulate their reasons for change and strengthen their motivation by sharing how they navigated the same challenges.
Example: A mentor could meet regularly with a mentee, offering advice, listening, and helping them navigate the ups and downs of recovery, drawing from their own experiences.
Benefit: Personal experience can make MI more impactful by making the process more authentic and relatable, helping individuals see that recovery is possible and giving them the confidence to make changes.
5. Narrative Therapy
Mental Ideology: Narrative therapy posits that individuals make sense of their lives through the stories they tell themselves. The narrative of addiction and recovery can be re-framed as a story of strength, resilience, and growth and breaking the stigma
How it helps: When someone in recovery shares their personal story, it helps to normalize the experience of addiction and recovery, reducing stigma and encouraging others to seek help. Personal stories can highlight that addiction is a disease, not a moral failing.
Example: Speaking openly about expriences and how to prevent certain actions and consequences.
Application: A therapist or recovery coach with experience in addiction can help others recognize that seeking treatment is a brave and necessary step, and they are not alone in their struggles. Clients reframe their personal stories, focusing on how they overcame obstacles and reclaiming their agency in the recovery process. They might also share their own narratives to inspire hope.
In short, experience with addiction provides a unique set of tools and perspectives that can significantly benefit those still struggling. The shared bond of having lived through addiction and recovery can create a supportive, understanding environment that fosters healing and encourages sustained recovery
Benefit: By reshaping the story of addiction into a narrative of recovery, individuals can redefine their identity, which fosters a sense of empowerment and control over their journey.
6. Trauma-Informed Care
Mental Ideology: Addiction is often linked to underlying trauma, and trauma-informed care emphasizes the importance of understanding and addressing this trauma in recovery. The experience of addiction itself may be seen as a response to traumatic experiences, and treatment should acknowledge and respect the individual’s history.
Application: Professionals with personal experience may help clients by demonstrating how trauma-informed approaches can help heal both the addiction and the trauma. They can use their own stories to validate the importance of addressing trauma as part of the healing process.
Benefit: Personal experiences can normalize the healing process for trauma and addiction, helping clients feel less isolated and more understood in their treatment.
7. Humanistic Therapy (Client-Centered Therapy)
Mental Ideology: Humanistic therapy, including Carl Rogers’ client-centered approach, emphasizes the importance of empathy, unconditional positive regard, and authenticity. In this context, a therapist’s experience with addiction can enhance their ability to offer these qualities, creating a therapeutic environment where clients feel truly understood.
Application: A therapist who has personally navigated addiction can offer a level of empathy that goes beyond intellectual understanding, helping clients feel supported and valued without judgment.
Benefit: The authentic connection that results from shared experience can foster a deeper sense of safety and trust, which is critical in the recovery process.
8. Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT)
Mental Ideology: CFT emphasizes developing self-compassion and reducing self-criticism, which can be key in addiction recovery, where shame and guilt are often prevalent. A therapist with experience overcoming addiction can use their journey as a way to model self-compassion and teach clients to do the same.
Application: A therapist or mentor can share how they cultivated self-compassion during their recovery and use this as a tool to help others break free from self-destructive patterns.
Benefit: Clients can learn to approach their own recovery with greater kindness and understanding, reducing feelings of shame that might otherwise impede their progress.
Using personal experience with addiction in therapy not only provides practical tools and insights but also fosters trust, hope, and connection. When integrated into therapeutic practices like peer support, CBT, or strengths-based therapy, lived experience can serve as a powerful vehicle for healing, guiding others through their own recovery journeys with compassion, authenticity, and real-world wisdom.
The Potential Risks of Using Personal Experience with Addiction in Recovery Therapy
Using personal experience with addiction as part of treatment While using personal experience in addiction therapy can be highly effective, particularly when integrated into therapeutic models that emphasize shared understanding, empathy, and empowerment. Here are some mental ideologies and therapeutic approaches that make use of personal experience in addiction recoverybeneficial, there are some potential disadvantages to consider:
1. Peer Support and Mutual Aid
Mental Ideology: The concept of mutual aid emphasizes the importance of individuals with shared experiences helping each other. This ideology fosters a sense of community and collective healing, where people who have been through addiction can support others in their recovery.
Over-identification with the Client
Application: Support groups like 12-Step Programs (e.g., Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous) and SMART Recovery utilize this ideology. In these settings, recovered addicts serve as mentors or sponsors, guiding others through their recovery process based on shared lived experiences
Risk: A therapist or peer with personal experience in addiction may become overly involved in the client’s story, which could lead to over-identification. This can cloud objectivity and may hinder the therapist’s ability to provide unbiased guidance.
Benefit: It encourages connection, reduces stigma, and promotes a sense of belonging, as participants see others who have overcome similar struggles
Consequence: The therapist may prioritize their own recovery narrative or become too emotionally invested, which could affect the therapeutic process or lead to burnout.
2. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with Lived Experience Integration
Mental Ideology: CBT focuses on changing negative thought patterns and behaviors. When integrated with personal experiences of addiction, it allows the therapist or peer to use real-life examples of overcoming challenges, making the strategies more relatable and grounded in reality.
Unrealistic Expectations
Application: ARisk: The therapist or peer mentor who has overcome addiction can guide individuals through CBT techniques while sharing personal experiences of how they applied these methods in their own recoverymay unintentionally create unrealistic expectations about recovery by sharing their success story as a blueprint for others.
Benefit: It provides practical, real-world applications of therapeutic strategies, demonstrating that change is possible and reinforcing hope and efficacy
Consequence: Not all clients will have the same experience or timeline for recovery, and clients may feel discouraged or pressured if their progress doesn’t mirror the success story shared.
3. Strengths-Based Therapy
Mental Ideology: Strengths-based therapy focuses on the positive attributes and resilience that individuals possess, rather than solely focusing on their problems or deficits. People who have overcome addiction often draw upon their own personal strength and resilience to maintain recovery.
Over-Simplification of Recovery
Application: A therapist who has personal experience with addiction may emphasize the client’s strengths, drawing parallels to their own journey of overcoming addiction. This can help clients recognize their own capabilities and potential for change
Risk: Sharing personal experiences may lead to a tendency to over-simplify the recovery process, making it appear easier or quicker than it actually is.
Benefit: This approach empowers individuals by shifting the focus from limitations to strengths, enhancing self-esteem and confidence in their ability to recover
Consequence: This could set clients up for disappointment or frustration when they encounter the challenges and setbacks that are often part of long-term recovery.
4. Motivational Interviewing (MI) with Personal Experience
Mental Ideology: Motivational Interviewing is a client-centered, directive method that helps individuals explore and resolve ambivalence about behavior change. A therapist or peer who has personal experience with addiction can use MI techniques to inspire motivation for change by sharing how they overcame similar struggles.
Trauma Triggering
Application: In therapy, the person with lived experience can help clients articulate their reasons for change and strengthen their motivation by sharing how they navigated the same challenges
Risk: For both the therapist and the client, discussing past experiences with addiction can trigger unresolved trauma or emotions related to substance abuse or personal pain.
Benefit: Personal experience can make MI more impactful by making the process more authentic and relatable, helping individuals see that recovery is possible and giving them the confidence to make changes
Consequence: Sharing personal experiences may inadvertently cause emotional distress or setbacks for the therapist or client, especially if the trauma is not fully processed or healed.
5. Narrative Therapy
Mental Ideology: Narrative therapy posits that individuals make sense of their lives through the stories they tell themselves. The narrative of addiction and recovery can be re-framed as a story of strength, resilience, and growth.
Dependency on the Therapist or Mentor
Application: A therapist or recovery coach with experience in addiction can help clients reframe their personal stories, focusing on how they overcame obstacles and reclaiming their agency in the recovery process. They might also share their own narratives to inspire hope
Risk: If a therapist or peer with personal experience becomes too central in the client’s recovery process, it may lead to dependency on the therapist or mentor.
Benefit: By reshaping the story of addiction into a narrative of recovery, individuals can redefine their identity, which fosters a sense of empowerment and control over their journey
Consequence: This could prevent the client from developing their own coping mechanisms, creating a reliance on the mentor, which may not support long-term independence or self-sufficiency in recovery.
6. Trauma-Informed Care
Mental Ideology: Addiction is often linked to underlying trauma, and trauma-informed care emphasizes the importance of understanding and addressing this trauma in recovery. The experience of addiction itself may be seen as a response to traumatic experiences, and treatment should acknowledge and respect the individual’s history.
Limitations in Diverse Experiences
Application: Professionals with personal experience may help clients by demonstrating how trauma-informed approaches can help heal both the addiction and the trauma. They can use their own stories to validate the importance of addressing trauma as part of the healing process
Risk: A therapist or peer mentor may not be able to fully understand or relate to every client’s experience, especially if their addiction history is significantly different.
Benefit: Personal experiences can normalize the healing process for trauma and addiction, helping clients feel less isolated and more understood in their treatment
Consequence: This can limit the effectiveness of the therapy for individuals whose experiences of addiction do not align with the mentor’s, leading to feelings of alienation or disconnection.
7. Humanistic Therapy (Client-Centered Therapy)
Mental Ideology: Humanistic therapy, including Carl Rogers’ client-centered approach, emphasizes the importance of empathy, unconditional positive regard, and authenticity. In this context, a therapist’s experience with addiction can enhance their ability to offer these qualities, creating a therapeutic environment where clients feel truly understood.
Ethical Boundaries and Professionalism
Application: A therapist who has personally navigated addiction can offer a level of empathy that goes beyond intellectual understanding, helping clients feel supported and valued without judgment
Risk: There is a potential for ethical issues if a therapist or peer mentor shares too much of their personal story in a way that blurs professional boundaries.
Benefit: The authentic connection that results from shared experience can foster a deeper sense of safety and trust, which is critical in the recovery process
Consequence: The client may begin to see the therapist more as a friend or peer, which could compromise the professional and therapeutic relationship. It also may make the therapeutic process less structured or less objective.
8. Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT)
Mental Ideology: CFT emphasizes developing self-compassion and reducing self-criticism, which can be key in addiction recovery, where shame and guilt are often prevalent. A therapist with experience overcoming addiction can use their journey as a way to model self-compassion and teach clients to do the same.
Risk of Relapse for the Therapist
Application: A therapist or mentor can share how they cultivated self-compassion during their recovery and use this as a tool to help others break free from self-destructive patterns
Risk: For a therapist who has lived through addiction, constantly revisiting their own experience may be emotionally taxing and could potentially trigger relapse or emotional distress.
Benefit: Clients can learn to approach their own recovery with greater kindness and understanding, reducing feelings of shame that might otherwise impede their progress
Consequence: If the therapist isn’t properly managing their own recovery, their own emotional health could be compromised, which in turn may affect their ability to provide effective care to clients.
Using personal experience with addiction in therapy not only provides practical tools and insights but also fosters trust, hope, and connection. When integrated into therapeutic practices like peer support, CBT, or strengths-based therapy, lived experience can serve as a powerful vehicle for healing, guiding others through their own recovery journeys with compassion, authenticity, and real-world wisdom.
Lack of Scientific Evidence
Risk: Some therapeutic approaches relying on personal experience may lack empirical research or scientifically backed methods, leading to potential doubts about their effectiveness.
Consequence: Clients may benefit less from anecdotal stories and may need more evidence-based strategies for a comprehensive treatment approach.
While using personal experience in addiction therapy can be a powerful tool for building empathy and hope, it is important to be mindful of the potential drawbacks. Over-identification, unrealistic expectations, and emotional triggers are just a few of the risks associated with relying too heavily on personal experience. It is crucial for therapists and mentors to maintain professional boundaries, ensure a balanced approach, and use their experience in ways that support, rather than hinder, the recovery process.
The Ethical Dilemmas of Using Personal Experience in Addiction Recovery therapy
Using personal experience in addiction therapy can be powerful, but it also introduces several ethical dilemmas that need to be carefully managed. These challenges often arise from the balance between the therapeutic relationship, professional boundaries, and the potential risks of over-identifying or influencing clients. Below are some key ethical dilemmas associated with using personal experience in addiction therapy:
- Boundary Issues
- Dilemma: Sharing personal experiences may blur the professional boundaries between therapist and client, particularly if the therapist becomes too emotionally involved in the client’s story.
- Concern: The therapist or mentor may inadvertently shift from a professional role to a more personal, friend-like dynamic, which could compromise objectivity and hinder the effectiveness of the therapy.
- Over-identification with the Client
- Dilemma: Therapists or mentors who have experienced addiction themselves may become overly invested in the client’s story and challenges, leading to over-identification.
- Concern: This could cause the therapist to push their own recovery solutions or ideas onto the client, making the therapeutic process less about the client’s unique needs and more about the therapist’s perspective. This might also lead to the therapist neglecting professional standards.
- Unrealistic Expectations
- Dilemma: Sharing personal success stories of recovery could inadvertently set unrealistic expectations for clients.
- Concern: Clients may believe that recovery should happen quickly or easily, based on the success story shared, and could become discouraged or frustrated if their own journey doesn’t mirror that experience. Not all recovery stories are the same, and some clients may need more time, effort, or different approaches.
- Potential for Dependency
- Dilemma: There is a risk that clients may become overly dependent on the therapist or mentor who has shared their experience, relying too heavily on them for emotional support or guidance.
- Concern: This dependency may hinder the client’s development of their own coping mechanisms and independent decision-making. Over-reliance on a therapist or mentor could make it difficult for the client to manage their recovery without external support.
- Confidentiality and Disclosure
- Dilemma: While sharing personal experience can foster connection, there’s a risk that a therapist or mentor could inadvertently breach confidentiality or blur the line between their own experiences and those of their clients.
- Concern: A therapist may be tempted to share confidential aspects of their clients’ stories, or even share their own experiences in ways that could compromise the confidentiality of others. There’s also the risk of self-disclosure that could distract from the client’s needs and concerns.
- Imposing One’s Own Beliefs
- Dilemma: There’s a risk that therapists or peer mentors may unconsciously impose their own beliefs, methods, or recovery path on clients.
- Concern: Recovery is a personal journey, and what works for one person may not work for another. By overemphasizing their own methods, the therapist or mentor may limit the client’s exploration of different recovery options, leading to a one-size-fits-all approach that may not be effective for every individual.
- Inadequate Professional Training
- Dilemma: Professionals or peer mentors who share personal experiences may not always have the proper training or qualifications to provide clinical support.
- Concern: Without adequate education and clinical expertise, they may not be equipped to handle complex psychological or medical issues that arise during therapy. This could compromise the quality of care and potentially harm the client.
- Potential for Re-traumatization
- Dilemma: For both the therapist and the client, discussing addiction or recovery can trigger past trauma or unresolved emotions.
- Concern: Sharing personal experiences may lead to re-traumatization for the client, especially if they are in early stages of recovery. The therapist may also risk reopening their own wounds, which could affect their ability to maintain professionalism and objectivity.
- Misleading Authority
- Dilemma: The therapist or mentor’s personal experience may be perceived as a form of authority, leading clients to trust their guidance too implicitly.
- Concern: While personal experience can be a powerful tool, it may lead clients to place too much reliance on it, overlooking the need for evidence-based practices, diverse perspectives, and individualized care. Clients may feel pressured to follow a certain recovery path because they perceive the therapist’s experience as authoritative, even when it may not be the best fit for them.
- Undue Influence on Treatment Decisions
- Dilemma: A therapist or mentor with lived experience may unintentionally influence a client’s treatment decisions based on their own story, rather than the client’s unique needs.
- Concern: The client might feel compelled to follow a path that worked for the therapist (such as a specific treatment program, therapy approach, or recovery timeline) instead of exploring treatment options that may be better suited to their situation. This could limit the client’s ability to make independent and informed choices about their treatment.
While personal experience can enhance addiction therapy by fostering empathy, hope, and real-world guidance, ethical dilemmas related to boundaries, dependency, imposing personal beliefs, and potential for re-traumatization must be carefully managed. Therapists and mentors must maintain a balance between sharing their experiences to inspire and guide clients while respecting the individuality of each client’s journey and ensuring that professional standards of care are upheld.
Conclusion
Using personal experience in addiction therapy can be a powerful tool for fostering empathy, offering hope, and providing practical guidance. However, it comes with potential drawbacks, such as dependency, over-identification, and ethical dilemmas regarding boundaries and client autonomy. While the mental health ideology behind this approach emphasizes empowerment and connection, it is crucial for therapists and mentors to maintain professional boundaries and ensure that their personal experiences enhance rather than limit the client’s unique recovery journey. Proper management of these factors is key to maximizing the benefits while minimizing risks.