SMART Recovery at Provive Wellness

Not every person in recovery finds their footing in a 12-Step room. For some, the spiritual framework does not fit. For others, the emphasis on powerlessness conflicts with how they understand themselves and what they believe about their own capacity for change. For others still, recovery feels less like surrender and more like a skill to be built — deliberately, empirically, through the same kind of focused effort that has worked in other areas of their lives. SMART Recovery exists for those people. And at Provive Wellness, it is offered as an equally valid pathway to the community, accountability, and long-term sobriety that peer recovery support provides.

SMART stands for Self-Management and Recovery Training. It is a science-based, secular peer support program grounded in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) — the same evidence-based frameworks that form the clinical backbone of Provive’s treatment program. What SMART offers is not a spiritual path but a skills path: concrete, teachable tools for managing urges, building motivation, regulating emotions, and constructing a life that does not need substances to function.

SMART Recovery support at Provive is available to clients in our Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) at our Wayne, PA and Scranton, PA locations.

The SMART Recovery 4-Point Program:

Building and maintaining motivation — clarifying and deepening the personal reasons for recovery, and sustaining that motivation when it wavers under stress or craving
Coping with urges — practical, evidence-based techniques for responding to cravings without acting on them, drawn directly from CBT and REBT
Managing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors — identifying and restructuring the thinking patterns that fuel substance use and emotional suffering, using the same mechanisms as formal CBT
Living a balanced life — building a fulfilling life that does not depend on substances, through values clarification, activity scheduling, and the deliberate cultivation of meaning and pleasure outside of addiction

The evidence base for SMART Recovery has grown substantially over the past decade. A 2014 review published in Substance Abuse found SMART Recovery to be effective across a range of substance use disorders, with particular strength in alcohol use disorder and in populations who prefer a secular, self-directed framework. Multiple randomized controlled trials have found SMART Recovery tools — particularly urge surfing, cost-benefit analysis, and cognitive disputation of irrational beliefs — to produce significant reductions in substance use and craving intensity. A 2019 study in Drug and Alcohol Review found that SMART Recovery participants showed improvements in mental health, quality of life, and abstinence rates comparable to those of 12-Step participants, with better outcomes among participants who had strong preferences against the 12-Step model.

What makes SMART Recovery particularly natural alongside Provive’s clinical program is the depth of overlap between SMART’s tools and the evidence-based therapies already being used in treatment. When a client is working CBT in individual therapy and in SMART meetings simultaneously, the skills reinforce one another across settings. The cognitive techniques are not learned in therapy and then set aside when the clinical day ends — they are practiced in a peer community that operates through the same framework.

SMART meetings at Provive support:

In-person and online meeting options — with an extensive global network that means access does not end when a client’s geography changes
Local SMART meetings in the Wayne and Scranton areas, coordinated with your treatment schedule
SMART’s robust online meeting community — offering multiple meetings daily across time zones
Consistent access for clients who travel, work unusual hours, or live in areas with limited in-person options
Integration with Provive’s CBT and DBT clinical framework for mutual reinforcement of skills across settings

SMART meetings are available in-person and online. Provive supports clients in connecting with both local SMART meetings and SMART’s robust online meeting community, which offers multiple meetings daily across time zones. For clients who travel, work unusual hours, or live in areas with limited in-person options, online SMART meetings provide a consistent access point to community that does not depend on physical proximity.

Call us at (610) 947-0800 to begin yours or a loved one’s journey toward lasting recovery — with clinical treatment and the peer community that sustains it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes SMART Recovery different from AA or NA?

SMART Recovery is secular and science-based, while 12-Step programs incorporate a spiritual framework centered on surrender to a Higher Power. SMART emphasizes personal agency, skills development, and cognitive-behavioral tools rather than steps, sponsorship, and spiritual transformation. Both can be effective; research suggests that the key variable is fit.

Is SMART Recovery only for people who are not religious?

No. SMART Recovery is secular in its framework, but it is attended by people of all religious backgrounds. Many people who have strong faith traditions also prefer a non-religious recovery support structure. The question is not about your beliefs but about which framework for recovery feels most authentic to how you understand yourself.

How does SMART Recovery complement the clinical therapy at Provive?

Significantly and directly. Provive’s clinical program uses CBT and DBT — the same cognitive-behavioral science that underlies SMART Recovery’s tools. Clients who attend SMART meetings are practicing the same skills in a peer community that they are developing in clinical sessions. This reinforcement across settings is clinically meaningful.

Are SMART Recovery meetings free?

Yes. SMART Recovery meetings are free to attend. The organization accepts voluntary donations to support its work, but meeting attendance costs nothing.

Can I attend SMART Recovery online?

Yes. SMART Recovery has a robust online meeting program with multiple meetings daily available to participants globally.

Can I participate in both SMART Recovery and 12-Step?

Yes. Some people find that different programs serve different needs. Your clinical team at Provive can help you think through how to structure peer recovery support in whatever combination makes sense for your goals.