Inside Out Programme
“Think Globally, Act Locally”
- ‘Inside Out’ is an innovative hybrid of therapy and discussion-based social education designed to cater for all learning styles and needs
- In 2015, MTCT developed and piloted a pioneering programme that was designed to bring about a greater understanding of the connection between the individual self, the community, and the global. This includes the impact of global issues such as the rise of populism, climate change, migration, and conflict on the community and the individual. The aim is to engage participants to think critically and to empower them in becoming active citizens.
Smart Recovery
Smart Recovery is embedded into the weekly activity of the community now in Matt Talbot this being our fifth year of hosting Smart groups.
Most people are familiar with 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, but fewer people know about SMART Recovery. SMART stands for Self-Management And Recovery Training and was founded in 1994. SMART is a non-profit created to help people struggling with addiction by teaching them strategies shown by research to help control addictive behaviour.
The SMART philosophy
SMART is different from 12-step programs in several important ways. The first is that SMART rejects the disease model of addiction and the idea that we are powerless over our addiction
Instead, SMART sees addiction as a dysfunction habit, a destructive learned behaviour. And just as these dysfunctional habits can be learned, they can be unlearned. Whereas 12-step programs focus on addressing character defects and building mutual support, SMART focuses on the addictive behaviour itself and aims to teach self-empowerment.
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Four point programme
SMART divides its tools and techniques into a four-point programme that includes building and maintaining motivation, coping with urges, managing thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and living a balanced life.
These roughly correspond to the arc of addiction recovery. To even try to get sober, you need to find some motivation. This point typically includes exercises like creating a cost-benefit analysis of addictive behaviour, where you write down the costs and benefits of continuing addictive behaviour and compare them to the costs and benefits of quitting.
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Does SMART work?
Recent research has shown that SMART is comparable to 12-step programs in terms of outcomes.
Fewer people maintained abstinence in SMART programs, but not everyone participating in SMART aims for abstinence. Many just want to moderate their drinking or drug use. Of those who specifically intended to remain abstinent, the success rate was the same as 12-step programs. Although SMART Recovery is considered an alternative to 12-step programs, the two are not mutually exclusive.
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