Bram Vreeswijk (Recovery Lab): You have to be for luck, that's the only option.

In his search process, Bram came across philosopher Spinoza's Ethics. In it he describes that one can lead a happy life by being active. Bram: "What we now call mental problems, Spinoza explained as passivity. With Spinoza, activity is realizing your own nature. Passivity is anything that gets in the way of that."

In everyday language, we think that being active means moving or being in contact with others. That is not what Spinoza meant. To him, being active is anything that comes from the person himself. Bram: "Sleeping when you are tired comes from your own nature and is therefore active. Hustling as an addict to get your money is passive.

After all, that activity does not come from your nature, but from the compulsion of your addiction. Bram: "According to this approach, you see that many well-functioning people are actually very passive. They go to work well, but essentially live a passive life. For them, the question of their nature and how you realize it would also be relevant." What makes active, and what makes passive, is gradual and something you can explore personally. Bram: "Eating helps you realize your nature, you need energy to do what you want. Eating makes active. But eating too much makes passive, you can become dependent on it."

Bram: "If those abstract principles of Spinoza are true, then you recognize them in your own life." That's what participants explore in the Recovery Lab. Participants do exercises with it. Bram cites an example: "Getting angry and then walking away. I did that a lot in the past. If there was something in a group I would drop out and start over somewhere else." If you think in terms of active and passive then you can reflect on that behavior. "By walking away you limit your ability to act," says Bram. "If you see that working together is a resource for increasing your ability, then you don't run away." In the Recovery Lab, you reinterpret your own experience, which makes you wiser.

In the Recovery Lab, the question is sometimes literally, "What gets you moving?" Participants do that, for example, with drawing and movement. The idea behind this is that your body can experience things that you are not yet aware of. Bram: "Maybe you sit and talk very reasonably about something while actually experiencing discomfort. But when your body gets excited, it reaches out and when it gets anxious, it recoils." The body-oriented work allows the participant to sense what emotions are going on.

The Recovery Lab is not only about the individual with mental health problems, but also about the environment and power relations in society. In the Recovery Lab, therefore, participants also explore (dependency) relationships with others. Bram: "We are blessed with a system that does not let people starve to death, but that system also makes those same people passive by not giving them opportunities." According to him, people's happiness only increases when they are given more capacity to act. That ability is often very limited for people with mental health problems. Bram: "It even seems to be in your own interest to turn on your problems and dependency a bit in contact with social workers and agencies, because that provides financial security and stability." But that also traps people and makes them passive, according to Bram.

The Recovery Lab is different from what mental health services offer in part because of its systems-critical attitude. Bram: "I believe it makes me happy to be allowed to criticize and to find a form for that. But criticism has the risk of becoming very total; the world is no good! It can then make one passive and gloomy, and that is precisely not the aim of the Recovery Lab. The form participants seek must make criticism productive. Preferably in small concrete steps.

The Recovery Lab is the product of Bram's own route. "I felt out of place in society for a long time. The idea that my critical eye could be my contribution to society gave me a lot of freedom in my relationship to society." It worked for him. Bram has gained contacts from it, and now there is the appreciation in the form of an award.

But the work is not finished with that. Soon the working group will start: New work. The purpose of that group is to explore possibilities for work in which people contribute to society from their experiential expertise. The working group is an incubator, the outcome of which is not fixed. What is clear, however, is that one objective is to teach systems to look at themselves. Bram: "There is a strength in experts by experience. They are honest, open and dare to look at themselves. I hope that this can lead to change in regular work.

The Recovery Lab is designed for people who are courageous, but also for people who can't go further back; reflecting on where they are and taking the path forward. The Lab started Jan. 13, but you can join at other times if you wish. The Recovery Course, Movement Group and Working Group: New Work will start soon. Check the site ervaringswijzer.nl for exact dates and components of the program.

Text: Joost Slis | Photography: Merlin Michon