Holding Space, Not Judgment: Sarah Ahern on GPS for People in Recovery
When Sarah Ahern talks about GPS Group Peer Support, she is not describing a program on a flyer. She is talking about a space her community has needed for a very long time.
Sarah has spent years in the world of recovery and harm reduction. She trains and supervises coaches across Massachusetts, supports people coming out of incarceration, and walks alongside folks carrying trauma, stigma, and systems that often fail them. She knows what most groups feel like, and she knows how often people in recovery leave rooms feeling more judged than held.
What struck Sarah first about GPS was what happened to her own team. Eight experienced coaches and leaders went through GPS facilitator training and then sat in GPS support groups as participants. These were people who had led and attended more groups than they could count. Still, the experience surprised them. One coach told her he had been in a lot of groups, but had never been able to share the way he could in a GPS circle. In this space, he said, “This is the only place where I can actually say these things out loud.” For Sarah, that moment mattered.
GPS was giving recovery coaches permission to be human again. People who are usually holding everyone else suddenly had a place where they did not have to be the strong one or the expert.
A lot of what Sarah values about GPS could sound small on the surface: the careful opening, the clear guidelines, the repeated reminder that the group is advice-free. But for people in recovery, those details are everything. She has seen what happens in other rooms when advice comes quickly: people share something tender and immediately hear a list of what they should do next. The room may sound active, but underneath, people shut down. In contrast, the GPS commitment to listening rather than fixing sends a different message. Your story is not a problem to be solved in the next five minutes; it is something worth hearing all the way through.
Sarah’s perspective is also shaped by the people who do not fit neatly into traditional recovery spaces. She works with folks who are still using substances, who are on psychiatric or anti-anxiety medications, who use medication for addiction treatment, or who are simply not sure yet what recovery means for them. Again and again, she has watched how the word “recovery” has, in practice, been narrowed to mean abstinence only. As she puts it, the way recovery is often defined in the United States “leaves a lot of people out, because some people hijacked it to mean abstinence only.” For the people she serves, that unspoken rule quietly becomes a locked door.
GPS helps her open a different door. When she talks with her community about the GPS-based groups they are offering, she leans toward wellness and harm reduction. The underlying message is simple: You do not have to be finished, fixed, or abstinent to sit in this circle. You can come exactly as you are, name what is actually happening, and be met with respect instead of conditions. The GPS structure—advice-free sharing, clear guidelines, strong confidentiality—holds that promise.
Sarah also carries a deep awareness of how other recovery spaces can both help and harm. She has real respect for twelve-step and all-recovery meetings, and she knows they have helped millions of people. At the same time, she holds the stories of those who have been turned away or shamed, especially people told they do not belong because of the medications they take or the choices they make to stay alive. In those moments, she wants another option to offer.
GPS gives her that option. When someone tells her that local meetings do not feel safe, that they are afraid of being recognized, or that they have tried every room they know and still do not feel like they fit, she can point toward a different kind of circle. She can say, in essence:
There is a GPS group where you will not be told what to do with your life, where people will listen instead of fix you, and where your story will not be carried outside the room without your consent.
In her eyes, the impact of GPS for people in recovery is simple and profound. It lets helpers be human. It gives participants enough safety to say the things they have never said out loud. It welcomes people who have been told in countless ways that they do not qualify for support. And it begins to shift the culture from advice and judgment toward connection, trust, and a deep belief in people’s inner wisdom. For Sarah, that is why GPS matters so deeply to her community. In a world where so many people in recovery have been told they are too much, not ready enough, or not “clean” enough, GPS offers a different message: You belong here, your story is worth hearing all the way through, and you do not have to carry it alone.
Choice Recovery Coaching is a nonprofit organization based in Massachusetts that offers peer recovery coaching, training, and community-based support for individuals and families impacted by addiction. With services available in multiple languages and a strong focus on inclusivity, CRC helps people build “recovery capital” and find practical, compassionate support—especially for those who may fall through the cracks of traditional systems.
Sarah Ahern is a longtime recovery and harm reduction leader at Choice Recovery Coaching, where she trains and supervises coaches serving people navigating substance use, trauma, and reentry across Massachusetts. She first learned the GPS model over ten years ago and has been coming back to it ever since, integrating Group Peer Support into her work as one of the most powerful tools she has for creating safer, more honest spaces for healing.
