Testimonials

Why we do what we do

You can’t just take our word for it. So see what previous attendees have had to say about our retreats and their experience.

Testimonial One

I’ve known Terry (from Came To Believe Recovery gang), for quite some time. I watched him progress through a 12 Step program – then started to hear him talk about doing retreats, and about Jesus etc.

Long story short- I’ve always felt antagonised by ‘Jesus’ and any particular religious sect… I came to the retreat – after a conversation with my lovely friend Paul, because I felt blocked from God and needed to enlarge my spiritual life.

When Dee asked us to pray our third step prayer (to Jesus!) – I was praying hard for God to help me set aside my preconceptions about Christianity, and just followed what I was being asked to do.

The time came to ask someone to listen to my step 5. I felt drawn to Graham, even though Graham told me he wasn’t an alcoholic. Graham reminded me that the Big Book suggests for us to read our step five with a clergyman. Again, I prayed to God, as I was unsure I had picked my step five listener correctly.

Graham and I spoke for a bit – then we prayed. He put his hand on my shoulder, and asked God to help me find the willingness to be willing to forgive myself…

In that moment – sat on a bench in front of people milling around and some ducks quacking, the sun was shining. Graham said you are now unblocked – I felt that I was in the presence of God… I became uncontrollably emotional.

I believe that God (with Graham’s help) gave me permission to forgive myself.

It is now one day later. I’m sitting at work, in a job that I don’t particularly want to be doing, welling up with emotions. I’m eighteen years clean, but this is the first time I’ve ever truly forgiven myself.

I have been set free – on a Came To Believe Recovery retreat, at a Monastery in Aylesford. Right in front of lots of people and lots of ducks.

Thank you all – with all my heart 

Testimonial 4

I have been in the fellowship of AA since April 2025. I hadn’t, until 9th September 2025, been successful at achieving total sobriety, struggling with several one-day sprees.

Although I had completed step three prior to this date, I was unable to stay on the right path.

On the 9^th September, in desperation, I prayed as hard as I could and asked God to help me, as I could not help myself.

I continued to pray on a regular basis and noticed the obsession to drink lift. I spoke to my sponsor and suggested it may be a coincidence. It was at this point that she introduced me to the idea of attending a CTBR retreat.

I attended the Hertfordshire retreat on 17^th -19^th October 2025.

The challenges I was facing at the time were: limited spells of sobriety, procrastination over Step 4 of the programme, my thinking was running completely riot, and I faced incredibly low self-esteem and lack of confidence.

What I gained from the retreat was the consolidation that God could help and that it was not a coincidence. Going through the steps at such a pace (which was how it was done originally) helped to lift the fear that was causing me to struggle with moving further than Step 3.

Feeling the love and the warmth and witnessing people experiencing spiritual awakenings gave me a growing faith and belief.

Since leaving the retreat, I have continued to make conscious contact with God through prayer and meditation on a daily basis, and logged on weekly to the CBTR UK Zoom meeting. I am now able to calm my thinking (most of the time), so I am no longer in constant turmoil as I am learning to hand things over. This has been the biggest change, as my head was the problem, and the alcohol was the medicine. Now God is my manager, and prayer and meditation my medicine.

I felt supported during the retreat by both past attendees and facilitators, who engaged me in welcoming and informative talks, as well as light-hearted conversation. I felt at ease for the whole weekend.

Meeting like-minded people has been an incredibly important part of my recovery journey because I no longer find myself feeling alone and misunderstood. It has made me feel like I am part of a family.

I feel that the 12 Step 1-5 session stood out to me, as this was where I was struggling prior to attending; however, the whole experience has been a game-changer for me. I was able to take something positive and helpful from every session and every member of the team.

The atmosphere and environment of the retreat were welcoming, calming, warm, with superb surroundings and incredibly efficient centre staff.

I see my recovery journey improving the longevity of my sobriety. My thinking is so much more positive now than the doom, gloom, and depression. I feel I can begin to learn who I was meant to be before this insidious disease. Even better, I can start to enjoy life and carry the word to others who suffer.

I would thoroughly recommend the CTBR retreat to anybody who is struggling with a spiritual malady, or is curious or needs their faith strengthened. In fact, I would go as far as to recommend it to anyone.

If anyone came to me and was unsure whether to attend or not, I would say go for it. It was a game-changer for me. What have you got to lose? There is so much to be gained.

Have a story you want to share?

Have you attended a retreat before and would be happy to share your story? Testimonials show what the experience of attending a retreat can bring, which can help those who are on the fence to take the plunge into finding freedom for their addiction. We can also create a fully anonymised case study, to allow us to apply for funding to reach those in need.