More Than One Way: SMART Recovery (Self-Management and Recovery Training) 🏳️🌈 A Queer Recovery PodcastMore Than One Way: SMART Recovery (Self-Management and Recovery Training) 🏳️🌈 A Queer Recovery Podcast
At The CCC
A queer-centred conversation looks at SMART Recovery alongside 12-step traditions, questioning identity labels, relapse shame and the power of community. Humour, honesty and evidence-based tools sit side by side as the hosts talk about different paths to staying sober.
30:49•20 Apr 2026
More Than One Way: Queer Conversations on SMART Recovery and Sobriety
Episode Overview
- SMART Recovery is a secular, science-based mutual support programme that sees addiction as learned behaviour that can be unlearned and replaced.
- Its four-point framework focuses on motivation, coping with urges, managing thoughts and feelings, and building a balanced life.
- Relapses in SMART are viewed as learning opportunities rather than moral failings or reasons for shame.
- Labels like addict or alcoholic can feel grounding and inclusive for some people, and limiting or ostracising for others.
- Belonging to a community is a powerful force in recovery, and different programmes offer different kinds of group connection.
“"Underneath the surface... a lot of us are coming from, like, we escaped death."”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? At The CCC keeps that question front and centre in this chat about SMART Recovery, mixing sharp humour with serious reflection from within a queer recovery space in San Francisco’s Castro. Anthony, Jordan and Louis break down SMART Recovery as a secular, science-based mutual support programme that treats addiction as "a learned behaviour that can be unlearned and replaced" rather than a spiritual disease, moral failing or lifelong identity.
You’ll hear them outline SMART’s four-point approach: building and maintaining motivation, coping with urges, managing thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and living a balanced life. They compare this structure with 12-step traditions, pointing out the overlap with CBT, motivational interviewing and rational emotive behavioural therapy, while laughing about acronyms, AI slide-making and phone games. Jordan sums it up cheekily as "12-step with no God", highlighting the key difference: evidence-based tools instead of a higher power.
The trio also unpack the emotional weight under their jokes. As Anthony shares, people have said what’s striking about the show is that "underneath the surface... a lot of us are coming from, like, we escaped death". From there, they move into big questions: Is it helpful to call yourself an addict or alcoholic for life? Does that label create belonging, or feel limiting? How do slips get treated—as failure or as learning?
Group influence, community, and belonging run through the whole conversation. They talk honestly about how powerful it is to feel part of a fellowship, how painful exclusion can be, and why different approaches like SMART, 12-step and other models might fit different people at different times. If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re "doing recovery right" or you’re curious about options beyond traditional 12-step, this candid, queer-centred chat might give you fresh language and questions to bring to your own path.
Which parts of recovery feel most like home to you?
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