Peer Accountability Exercise

Brotherhood is a vital factor for men trying to beat their addiction and get back on the road to recovery. At Shoreline Sober Living, we wanted to ensure that peer accountability was an essential step within all our resident’s recovery stories. 

Addiction is never a battle that should be fought alone. Addicts need to be with loved ones, friends, and medics to encourage them to keep going when they feel at their lowest. Peer accountability is an outgrowth of trust, respect, and commitment. We set the example by demonstrating that team members can hold us accountable, encouraging them to give us feedback on our performance in meeting stated goals.

Peer support groups

Peer accountability is an intimidating process to begin with, but as each meeting takes place, you become more familiar with the people you are talking to. You begin to understand their struggles and how they relate to yours. You will often start to realize that you are not alone in this journey, and thousands of people feel the same as you. 

Peer accountability allows you to see life from other people’s perspectives and will enable you to understand how they see their future and how it may relate to yours.

When you reach sobriety, the individuals within the peer group are the individuals who would have been by your side. You will all be pushing each other never to give up. This creates an immense emotional bond that should be carried on for a lifetime if you are on the same journey together. 

Fire circle

The fire circle gives individuals the opportunity to receive and provide feedback from their peer accountability peer group relating to their performance. This could be negative or positive feedback; it wholly depends on how the individual has behaved since the last session. 

It is vital within an exercise that the feedback given is constructive and never a personal attack. Everyone must listen to each other and speak when it is their turn. There is only ever a one-on-one conversation, never a certain amount of people speaking against one person, as this can mentally become overwhelming and intimidating for the individual receiving the feedback to experience. 

The fire circle draws upon the methods used in DTB (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) and focuses strongly on the forces of change and acceptance. It can often be hard in the beginning for an addict to admit and accept the mistakes that they have made; however, once they have, their journey to sobriety can begin.  

Steel on steel 

Every session will begin with relatively peaceful meditation, we the individuals involved, will open ourselves up to their peers to be openly critiqued and corrected. This exercise gives the individual the perfect opportunity to receive both love and positive comments and constructive comments and help from their peers. 

You have the support

Peer support groups that are included in an addict’s treatment show an elevated amount of promise. A group of individuals who are all going through the same situation or have lived through a particular situation knows how people feel. That way, they can relate on a personal level. If an addict joining the road to recovery has an individual who has beaten addiction and is thriving in life, that is their person to look up to when they are feeling at their lowest. When we have individuals around us that have been successful at something we are yet to embark on, it gives us the home that we too will be successful; no matter how many times we fail, our goal is entirely reachable.