Social processes during recovery: an expansion of Kelly and Hoeppner’s biaxial formulation of recovery

Recent conceptualizations frame addiction recovery as a complex process involving changes across behavioral, physical, psychological, and social domains. These broad conceptualizations can be difficult to apply directly to research, making detailed models of individual dimensions necessary to guide empirical work and subsequent clinical interventions. We used Kelly and Hoeppner’s biaxial formulation of recovery as a basis for a detailed examination of social processes in recovery using social network approaches. We delineated how appraisal of situational risks and social network resources result in coping actions, and how repeated iterations of this process change a person’s social recovery capital over time. In addition, we incorporated the experience of interpersonal trauma and structural oppression and demonstrated how the model accommodates the complex issues often encountered during recovery. We present a measurable framework that can guide empirical testing of how social processes and social recovery capital change over time during recovery. The model presented here illuminates key factors in the recovery process that have the potential to support trauma- and social-network-informed interventions. We call for research that empirically tests this model in ways that will result in practical, trauma-informed social network interventions for people in recovery.