Final Review/Thoughts

             I am completing this course with a more well-rounded and in-depth understanding of the principles of recovery and my role in supporting recovery as a future mental health care professional. With a clearer and more understanding of the historical forces at work, I feel that I am better equipped to both comprehend and combat forces that work against the recovery movement.

            While completing the Final Review/Exam, I focused on connecting what I learned within each module to the principle of recovery. This allowed me to reflect on multiple principles and think through ways that I would be able to incorporate the principles into my future work. The principle of recovery that sticks out to me the most as a big “take away” from this course is “Recovery is person-driven.” This principle suggests that, “individuals optimize their autonomy and independence to the greatest extent possible by leading, controlling, and exercising choice over the services and supports that assist their recovery and resilience” (SAMHSA). Shery Mead and Mary Ellen Copeland write in What Recovery Means to Us (2000) that, “all people grow through taking positive risks.” It is my job as a (future) practitioner to support clients to take positive risks that provide the opportunity for growth.

            During this course I also had the opportunity to reflect on personal boundaries in the context of a healing relationship and what that will look like for me as a professional in the future. How can we support people with human connection while still maintaining ethical boundaries? I look forward to continuing the conversations that have been started in this class, and to learning more about how to incorporate the recovery principles into my work in the future.