Rite to Freedom is a community of people in addiction recovery engaging in wilderness and online retreats, inspiring creative expression, ongoing events, trainings and leadership development.
Your journey with Rite to Freedom begins either by attending one of our online recovery retreats or a wilderness residential in the heart of Dartmoor.
By completing a retreat you will gain access to a variety of ongoing development opportunities and recovery support, highlighted below.
Regular Home Turf Days
We know from hard won experience that life and life’s challenges cannot be faced alone. We need support from people we can trust, from those who have been through similar difficulties, people we can celebrate life with. Our Home Turf Days are a place to reconnect with the community in a wild Devon location, exploring our inner landscapes alongside the outer landscapes of our immediate environment. Participants can develop as leaders or community initiators by safely exploring what it’s like to run gentle activities with the support and encouragement of their peers. There is a focus around our core principles of nature connection, creativity and meditation.
Creative Pathways and the Archetypes
Creative Pathways to Healing and Meaning is the latest addition to our delivery programme, designed to support the existing Rite to Freedom community with creative expression of all kinds (text, film, sound, photography etc). Our Creative Pathways programme offers support, guidance and space to explore more of who we are and what makes us tick, both personally and professionally. It supports the growth and skills development of our volunteer staff team and is an opportunity to further heal addiction related wounds and trauma.
We have two short films that we have made as part of the Creative Pathways, the award winning, We Seek the Teeth and To Know the Difference.
A beautiful range of resources on four main archetypes has been developed through our Creative Pathways programme, with stunning original artwork by Philip Harris and inspirational poetry by Caspar Walsh. Have a look at our online shop for a range of products based on these archetypes.
Multi-Addictions Meetings
We have regular online meetings offering ongoing support and community. The Multi Addictions Meetings are an ongoing series of fortnightly online meetings intended to support the whole of the addiction recovery community. This includes all chemical and behavioural addictions.
Stand-alone events, gatherings, trainings and guest speakers
We host a variety of face to face and online talks bringing in guest speakers to facilitate growth, learning and understanding around various elements of the Rite to Freedom ethos and programmes. These can include working with the archetypes, conflict resolution and peace-making, the 8 Shields leadership model, single gender circles etc.
By continuing to engage in our programmes, people can become volunteer staff members across all of our events. These early staffing weekends can be as transformative as the experiences gained during the initial residential. As part of volunteering at events, we offer one to one leadership mentoring to help identify strengths and support in getting through negative patterns and struggles. This process of simultaneous inner reflection with outer acts of service creates a culture where we are in better and safer places to support our community.
“At first I didn’t feel a part of Rite to Freedom, it took a while, but by being shown love and compassion that soon changed. Through my constant engagement with Rite to Freedom I feel like I belong. I’m held and supported and I never feel alone. I’m a tribe member and proud to be one. It helps me engage more in my work, my day to day life and I feel part of my community.”
““I left with gratitude and fulfilment, knowing of a beautiful place that I can come back to for future experiences and for learning and growth. The amazing tribe of Rite to Freedom have guided me on another step into my journey that has given me purpose and hope again. I surrendered my walls and nervousness and found another journey of self-discovery and spiritual connection through nature and it’s been the most awakening journey I could have ever taken.””