Redefining Addiction Recovery Through Compassionate Education


Challenging outdated treatment models with personalized, non-theistic approaches to long-term recovery and healing

Richard Clark, addiction counselor and seminar leader, smiling and holding a guitar near Vancouver, British Columbia

About Richard W. Clark


With a rich and diverse background spanning over six decades, Richard Clark brings unparalleled expertise and compassion to addiction recovery. From construction worker to soldier, counsellor, and seminar leader, Richard has dedicated his life to helping others overcome addiction and relationship conflicts through personalized education and therapy. Certified in addiction counselling and body energy healing, Richard has worked internationally, offering his knowledge to thousands of people and various organizations. Explore his journey and learn more about his unique approach to healing.

Long-Term Therapy Endeavours to Provide

Explore our consultancy services for comprehensive support

Comprehensive Addiction Education

Ethical and respectful education for counsellors, other professionals, and especially my clients regarding the broad scope of addictions, social dislocation, relationship conflict, cultural persecution of addicts, repetitive inadequacy, cognitive dissonance, gender equality, and the defeating theist and social beliefs that jeopardize or prohibit compassion in long-term recovery.

Non-Theistic Spiritual Health

An understanding of spiritual health that is without theism or deism. Actually, the presence of prayer and forgiveness is a detriment to integrity in addiction recovery.

Spiritual Psychology Insights

An understanding of what “spiritual psychology” is and identifying the several cultural hindrances that prevent recovery.

God-Free Authentic Recovery

Authentic recovery is definitely NOT indoctrination into God beliefs, prayer and forgiveness which will most often often defeat the recovery process. The goal is to understand the deeper requirements of spiritual-psychology and the most effective way to embrace that. “God” may be important to a person’s private beliefs, but is not necessary in addiction recovery.

Personalized Relationship Health

To allow access to and to enable relationship health that is personal, applicable, and relevant to each individual.

Addiction and Relationship Knowledge

Knowledge about addiction, whether acting out or in stable recovery. To be addicted or not is always a function of relationship. Knowledge and insight about personality and its development, responsibility, trauma, and childhood influences create governing vows and perceptions. These must understood and often-times challenged and altered.

Addiction Classifications Overview

An explanation of addiction and poly-addictions in its two main classifications within the two categories of symptoms, and an over-view of the destructive historical and cultural dynamics of religious, social, and political persecution from 1840. This is necessary to stabilize and focus all recovery efforts.

Applied Problem-Solving Education

In its simplest form, “all of this” is education regarding the dynamics of applied problem solving in inner-personal relationships and communication. It all, eventually, leads to compassion and a sense of unity.


Counselor Training for Addiction Recovery

Master the skills and knowledge to effectively support long-term addiction recovery and personal transformation


Comprehensive Psychological Knowledge

A well understood overview of all of the above is the first part of training—comprehensive psychological knowledge.


Transformation Facilitation Skills

Develop knowledge and skills of facilitating transformation in the untrusting, self-destructive mindset of addicts. This is the dynamic of counseling—knowledge and skill in in the discipline of therapy that creates healthy relationship. My approach has consistently shown to be at least 75% effective for establishing long-term recovery. Yes, it’s anecdotal, but it is my experience. 

Education Is The Key

The 1939 AA model of “God-prayer-forgiveness” as treatment overwhelmingly dominates the services available to addicted persons. That isn’t treatment, it’s indoctrination into cultural and religious persecution. This defeats treatment and promotes failure. It is especially true when recovery services are offered to addicts in a single-addiction focus. Other active, socially-approved addictions are ignored and left undiagnosed which is the gateway to guaranteed relapse. These intervention strategies create many long-term complications with a decidedly dismal outlook for stable, long term recovery. These complications are, at the minimum, an intensified relationship conflict, cognitive dissonance, repetitive inadequacy, an entrenchment of distrust, and blaming of the client for the failure (which blame is quickly internalized as self-deprecation).

General ignorance (meaning lack of insight or awareness, not rudeness) of the nuances of addiction and treatment by service providers, counsellors, clients, and those in traditional recovery, is harmful. What has been clearly demonstrated is that prior to any recovery effort being successful, addicts and the people who help them, must be thoroughly educated about the underlying truth of alienation and dissonance in relationships and society… this is easily represented in the psychology of self destruction we call addiction.

There is:
– The illness phenomenon of addictions. It is a mental illness and definitely not a ‘disease’.
– The dire consequences of blame, irresponsibility, and indoctrination into prayer-forgiveness.
– The constellations of social symptoms (which are tragically called character defects) that sit on top of a deeper, broken psychology and are evidence or religious and social persecution.
– The unaddressed psychological symptoms, especially alienation through shame and dislocation.
– The significant differences between abstinence available and not-available addictions.
– The practical requirements for recovery, which should not include prayer or forgiveness.

Much of this is covered at an introductory level in my most recent book, THE ADDICTION RECOVERY HANDBOOK, Third Edition

My seminars provide opportunities for insight that are not usually available to recovering addicts or those who help them. They address a need that exists for anyone who wants to go beyond inaccurate and biased knowledge about addiction and thereby defeat the alienation that underlies the social condemnation and self-destruction in addict-conflicted relationships.

Within a structured and respectful environment, Richard Clark’s goal is to promote healing knowledge with a commitment to compassion and personal, spiritual responsibility.

Education Is The Key

The 1939 AA model of “God-prayer-forgiveness” as treatment overwhelmingly dominates the services available to addicted persons. That isn’t treatment, it’s indoctrination into cultural and religious persecution. This defeats treatment and promotes failure. It is especially true when recovery services are offered to addicts in a single-addiction focus. Other active, socially-approved addictions are ignored and left undiagnosed which is the gateway to guaranteed relapse. These intervention strategies create many long-term complications with a decidedly dismal outlook for stable, long term recovery. These complications are, at the minimum, an intensified relationship conflict, cognitive dissonance, repetitive inadequacy, an entrenchment of distrust, and blaming of the client for the failure (which blame is quickly internalized as self-deprecation).

General ignorance (meaning lack of insight or awareness, not rudeness) of the nuances of addiction and treatment by service providers, counsellors, clients, and those in traditional recovery, is harmful. What has been clearly demonstrated is that prior to any recovery effort being successful, addicts and the people who help them, must be thoroughly educated about the underlying truth of alienation and dissonance in relationships and society… this is easily represented in the psychology of self destruction we call addiction.

There is:
– The illness phenomenon of addictions. It is a mental illness and definitely not a ‘disease’.
– The dire consequences of blame, irresponsibility, and indoctrination into prayer-forgiveness.
– The constellations of social symptoms (which are tragically called character defects) that sit on top of a deeper, broken psychology and are evidence or religious and social persecution.
– The unaddressed psychological symptoms, especially alienation through shame and dislocation.
– The significant differences between abstinence available and not-available addictions.
– The practical requirements for recovery, which should not include prayer or forgiveness.

Much of this is covered at an introductory level in my most recent book, THE ADDICTION RECOVERY HANDBOOK, Third Edition

My seminars provide opportunities for insight that are not usually available to recovering addicts or those who help them. They address a need that exists for anyone who wants to go beyond inaccurate and biased knowledge about addiction and thereby defeat the alienation that underlies the social condemnation and self-destruction in addict-conflicted relationships.