'RISE UP' RECOVERY PROGRAM

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Recovery is deeply personal. There is no single pathway, no single story and no single definition of what meaningful progress looks like.

RISE UP is Progressive Play®’s no-cost drug and alcohol recovery group program, incorporating LEGO® Serious Play® methodology to create a different way for people to explore their experiences, strengths, challenges and hopes for the future.

Through facilitated building, metaphor, storytelling and reflection, participants are given an opportunity to make thoughts and experiences visible - including things that can sometimes be difficult to explain in words alone.

RISE UP is built around respect, dignity, choice and connection.

We don’t define people by their substance use.

We recognise the whole person and the life they are working towards.

Reducing or ceasing substance use may be an important part of recovery, but recovery can involve much more.

It can mean rebuilding relationships.

Finding stability.

Rediscovering strengths.

Understanding what matters.

Developing new ways of responding to challenges.

Reconnecting with family, friends or community.

Rebuilding trust.

Finding purpose and belonging.

And beginning to imagine a future that may once have felt difficult to see.

At Progressive Play®, we recognise that every person’s circumstances, goals and recovery journey are different. RISE UP provides space to explore that journey without judgement and without expecting everyone’s recovery to look the same.

Sometimes the hardest experiences are also the hardest to put into words.

LEGO® Serious Play® provides another way to think, communicate and reflect.

Participants build three-dimensional models in response to carefully facilitated questions or challenges. The meaning of each model belongs to the person who built it.

There is no “correct” model.

There is no expectation of artistic or building ability and, nobody else interprets your model for you.

Instead, participants use their models, metaphors and stories to communicate what something means to them.

This can shift a conversation from:

“Tell me about your recovery.”

to:

“Build what recovery looks like for you.”

A model can then provide something tangible to explore, describe, question and reflect upon.

One of the strengths of LEGO® Serious Play® is its ability to make abstract experiences tangible.

A participant might build:

Where I am now.
What has brought me here.
What gets in my way.
The strengths I already have.
What support looks like to me.
The relationships that matter.
What I want my future to look like.

The bricks themselves don’t provide the answers.

The participant creates the meaning.

Models can be changed, rebuilt, connected or viewed from a different perspective as ideas develop.

That process can open opportunities for reflection and conversation that feel very different from simply sitting in a group and being asked to talk.

Substance use can become such a dominant part of someone’s story that their strengths, identity and achievements can become harder to see.

RISE UP intentionally creates space for both.

Participants may explore challenges, triggers, barriers and difficult experiences, but they can also explore strengths, values, relationships, resources, achievements, hopes and possibilities.

Recovery isn’t only about moving away from something.

It can also be about discovering what you’re moving towards.

RISE UP is a group program, but participants don’t need to have identical experiences to understand and learn alongside one another.

LEGO® Serious Play® creates a structured way for everyone to contribute.

When a participant shares a model, they are sharing their interpretation and their story. Other participants listen without taking ownership of that meaning or deciding what the model “really” represents.

This creates opportunities for people to recognise similarities, understand differences and hear perspectives beyond their own.

Over time, shared experiences can support connection, understanding and a sense of belonging.

A fundamental principle within our use of LEGO® Serious Play® is that the builder owns the meaning of the model.

We don’t psychoanalyse people’s creations.

We don’t tell participants what a colour, brick, figure or structure represents.

And we don’t impose meaning on somebody else’s story.

If a red brick represents anger to one participant and safety to another, both meanings are valid. The model is a tool for the participant to communicate and reflect - not something for somebody else to diagnose or decode.

This helps preserve voice, agency and ownership throughout the process. 

Recovery can involve situations where familiar responses no longer serve the life someone wants to create.

LEGO® Serious Play® allows ideas to be physically explored and changed.

A participant can add something, remove something, move a barrier, strengthen a connection, change the position of an element, build another possibility or look at the same situation from an entirely different angle.

Changing a LEGO® model doesn’t magically change someone’s circumstances, but the process can provide a concrete way to explore possibilities, consider alternatives and make thinking visible.

People entering drug and alcohol recovery programs bring different histories, circumstances and experiences.

RISE UP is designed to provide a welcoming and non-judgemental environment where participants are treated with dignity and respect.

You don’t need to be good at LEGO®.

You don’t need to be creative.

You don’t need to have the “right” words.

And you don’t need to have your recovery journey figured out before you arrive.

You simply need to be willing to participate in the process.

Progressive Play® believes contemporary recovery support should recognise the whole person, not reduce someone to a diagnosis, substance or past experience.

Our approach is grounded in several principles.

Choice and Agency

You are an active participant in your own recovery. Your goals, experiences and perspectives matter.

Dignity and Respect

Every person deserves to be treated with respect, regardless of where they are in their recovery journey.

Strengths as Well as Challenges

We can acknowledge genuine difficulties without allowing those difficulties to become the entirety of someone’s identity.

Connection and Belonging

Recovery can be strengthened by meaningful relationships, community and opportunities to feel heard and understood.

Collaboration

Where appropriate, we work alongside health, community and other services to support continuity of care.

Individual Pathways

There is no universal recovery story. Different people may need different supports at different times.

Innovation With Purpose

We are willing to approach difficult conversations differently when doing so creates meaningful opportunities for participation, reflection and connection.

RISE UP is a no-cost drug and alcohol recovery group program incorporating LEGO® Serious Play® methodology within professionally facilitated recovery-focused sessions.

Participants may explore themes including:

Identity and self-understanding

Strengths and personal resources

Recovery goals

Challenges and barriers

Triggers and responses

Coping and support strategies

Relationships

Family and community connection

Values and priorities

Decision-making

Hope and possibility

Rebuilding a meaningful future.

The specific conversations and builds will vary because the people in the room matter more than following a predetermined script.

At Progressive Play®, we want RISE UP to be somewhere people can arrive without having to pretend that recovery is easy or linear.

There may be progress and setbacks.

Certainty and uncertainty.

Things you’re ready to talk about and things you’re not.

What matters is that you are treated as a person with strengths, choices, experiences and a future that belongs to you.

RISE UP provides another way to explore what that future might look like - one build, one story and one step at a time.

If you’re looking for a drug and alcohol recovery program that approaches reflection and conversation differently, speak with your healthcare or support provider about a referral to RISE UP.

Healthcare, community and referring professionals are also welcome to contact Progressive Play® to discuss the program, current availability and referral process.

Progressive Play® also provides professional facilitator education in the LEGO® Serious Play® methodology.

If you are a professional or organisation interested in facilitator training, visit our Education & Training section for further information.