The following post is from our Recovery-Centered Clinical System (RCCS) Tidbit of the Month series. Each month, the RCCS Steering Committee creates practices to support our recovery culture within our programs and among staff. Click here to learn more about the RCCS.

Boundaries

A Component of the RCCS Making Connections Conversation

In our recovery work with individuals, we frequently talk about members and clients working toward their independence. Yet, a recovery journey also requires us to be interdependent — we need to know who we can rely on for support on our journey and which people in our lives may need to rely on us.

Like the various life skills that staff support individuals to learn and master that can lead to more independence, we can teach skills to better achieve interdependence. Interdependent relationships are those close relationships where there are mutual trust and support. Interdependent relationships give both individuals respect and nurturing.

What skills do we need to learn to be in successful interdependent relationships? Some of those skills are active listening, participating in shared personal interests, clear communication, being vulnerable, creating and maintaining personal safety for one another, open and approachable body language.

Practice:

Partner up with someone and ask these questions of each other.

Who do you rely on when you are having a difficult day? Why that person?
Who calls upon you when they are having difficulty? Why do they call you and not others?

RCCS Conversations:

Other inter-dependent skills we can learn and develop are creating and maintain respectful boundaries with others. We can learn how to take care of ourselves and in some cases, not be afraid to say No. In some cases, we can better learn how to give permission to ourselves to say “yes”. In the RCCS, we use two conversation tools for staff to use with clients and members to explore individuals’ strengths when setting boundaries with others and ourselves.