Community

Drug Rehabilitation Community (CCRASS)

This group was created to provide opportunities for those in recovery from drug addiction to engage in philosophical reflection and to examine and explore their beliefs, opinions and ideas in an atmosphere of openness and curiosity. Members were mainly from the Canal Communities but as the project grew there were participants from all over Ireland. This group is still in practice today.

Run by Dr. Robert Grant, Dr. John Bissett and Patricia O Neill   

Key Aims:

  • Provide a safe, welcoming space for participants to explore philosophical and existential questions.

  • Develop a practice of deep listening where we are attentive and open towards ideas we may not agree with or fully understand.

  • Practicing becoming familiar and comfortable with uncertainty and complexity, without striving after reductive solutions or final answers.

‘All I know so far, in the short time I’ve been part of this group, is that I feel really good when I come away from the sessions. I feel really eh…like, as I’ve said before, I’d be buzzin’, you know? And there’s not very many things that do that for me. So I’m learning a lot, it’s given me a real hunger to learn more. And I feel very grateful, you know, to be part of the group. Because it’s opening… re-opening the brain cells that closed down for me when I came out of college, and now I’m actually able to expand my mind again. It’s really enriching, yeah. – Participant.