Build the skills to stay sober — for good
An evidence-based, skills-first program that equips people in recovery with the practical tools, self-awareness, and personalized plans they need to recognize relapse warning signs and sustain lifelong sobriety.

"Strength in recovery isn't about never struggling — it's about knowing exactly what to do when the struggle shows up."— HTL Academy

What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Identify your personal triggers, high-risk situations, and early emotional, mental, and physical warning signs of relapse before they escalate
- Apply cognitive-behavioral techniques — including thought challenging and cognitive restructuring — to interrupt craving cycles and maladaptive thinking patterns
- Build a toolkit of adaptive coping strategies for managing stress, cravings, anxiety, and restlessness in everyday situations
- Create a fully personalized, written Relapse Prevention Plan that maps your warning signs, coping responses, and emergency contacts
- Establish a sustainable self-care routine — covering sleep, nutrition, mindfulness, and emotional regulation — that actively supports long-term recovery
- Develop a long-term Recovery Maintenance Strategy that integrates support systems, accountability practices, and confidence-building habits for lifelong sobriety
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
7 modules · 14 lessons

Foundations of Relapse Prevention
Establishes the conceptual and motivational foundation for the entire course. Participants explore the nature of addiction and recovery, clarify the distinction between a lapse and a full relapse, and are introduced to the Relapse Prevention Model. Building self-efficacy here is essential — it primes participants to engage with the harder skills work in later modules.
- 1.1Understanding Addiction, Recovery, and RelapseIncluded
- 1.2The Relapse Prevention Model and Self-EfficacyIncluded
Understanding the Relapse Process
Deepens participants' understanding of how relapse unfolds over time — often through a chain of small, seemingly inconsequential decisions long before any substance use occurs. This module bridges foundational concepts to the personal trigger identification work that follows, ensuring participants understand the 'why' before the 'what.'
- 2.1High-Risk Situations and Seemingly Unimportant DecisionsIncluded
- 2.2Adaptive vs. Maladaptive Coping ResponsesIncluded
Triggers and Warning Signs
Moves from general concepts to highly personal self-assessment. Participants systematically identify their own triggers — internal and external — and learn to recognize the earliest behavioral and situational warning signs unique to their relapse pattern. The AWARE assessment tool is introduced as a structured self-monitoring practice. This module directly addresses the first target outcome.
- 3.1Identifying Personal TriggersIncluded
- 3.2Recognizing Early Warning Signs with the AWARE AssessmentIncluded
Emotional Relapse: Recognition and Regulation
Addresses the earliest and most frequently missed stage of relapse — emotional relapse — where feelings and behaviors set the stage for later mental and physical relapse. Participants learn to identify symptoms like restlessness, irritability, anxiety, and isolation, understand the role of Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS), and build a personalized self-care and emotional regulation toolkit.
- 4.1Recognizing Emotional Relapse and PAWSIncluded
- 4.2Emotional Regulation and Self-Care StrategiesIncluded
Mental Relapse: Cravings, Cognitive Distortions, and Restructuring
Targets the cognitive stage of relapse, where the mind begins to negotiate with itself about using. Participants learn to recognize craving cycles, identify cognitive distortions and rationalizations, and apply cognitive-behavioral thought-challenging techniques to interrupt the mental relapse process before it progresses. This module directly addresses the second target outcome.
- 5.1Understanding Cravings and Mental RelapseIncluded
- 5.2Cognitive Distortions and Thought-Challenging TechniquesIncluded
Physical Relapse, Emergency Coping, and the Relapse Prevention Plan
Addresses the final stage of the relapse process — physical relapse — including the abstinence violation effect, harm reduction principles, and how to respond if relapse occurs without abandoning recovery. Participants then synthesize everything learned into a fully written, personalized Relapse Prevention Plan. This module directly delivers the fourth target outcome.
- 6.1Physical Relapse, the Abstinence Violation Effect, and Emergency Coping ProtocolsIncluded
- 6.2Building Your Personalized Relapse Prevention PlanIncluded
Support Systems, Recovery Resources, and Long-Term Maintenance
The capstone module shifts focus from preventing relapse to actively building a flourishing, sustainable recovery life. Participants identify, map, and practice activating their support systems; explore formal recovery resources; and develop a Long-Term Recovery Maintenance Strategy that integrates accountability, confidence-building habits, and a vision for continued growth. Directly delivers the fifth and sixth target outcomes.
- 7.1Building and Activating Your Support SystemIncluded
- 7.2Long-Term Recovery Maintenance, Accountability, and Confidence-BuildingIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
Early recovery newcomers
Just starting out and want a structured, evidence-based foundation for understanding and protecting their sobriety from day one.
Post-lapse rebuilders
Returning to recovery after a slip or relapse and need concrete tools — not judgment — to understand what happened and rebuild with a stronger plan.
Long-term sobriety maintainers
Years into recovery but aware that complacency is a risk, and ready to reinforce their maintenance strategy with updated skills and a written plan.
Co-occurring disorder navigators
Managing both a substance use disorder and a mental health condition, and looking for integrated coping strategies that address both dimensions of recovery.
Recovery support companions
Sponsors, peer support specialists, or family members who want to deeply understand the relapse process so they can better show up for the people they support.
Compulsive behavior recoverers
Working through recovery from compulsive behaviors — not just substances — and seeking the same evidence-based relapse prevention tools applied to their experience.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
HTL Academy
If you're reading this, you already know how hard you've worked to get here. You know what it took to make it through the early days, or to pick yourself back up after a setback, or to keep showing up even when sobriety started to feel like white-knuckling it alone. I see that — and I want you to know that this program was built with exactly that person in mind.
What I've seen, time and again, is that people in recovery don't lack strength. What they often lack are the specific, practical skills to recognize what's happening inside them early enough to do something about it. A craving doesn't appear out of nowhere. A relapse doesn't happen in a single moment. There's a process — an emotional stage, then a mental stage, then a physical one — and when you can see that process clearly, you can interrupt it. That's the whole premise of Recovery Strong, and it's grounded in decades of evidence from the Relapse Prevention Model and cognitive-behavioral research.
I designed this program to be skills-first and honest. We're going to look at your personal triggers, your high-risk situations, even the "seemingly unimportant decisions" that quietly move you closer to danger. We're going to work through cognitive distortions — those sneaky thought patterns that make using feel logical — and I'll give you concrete tools to challenge them in real time. We'll cover what Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome actually is, why the Abstinence Violation Effect can turn a slip into a spiral, and how to build an emergency coping protocol so you're never caught without a plan.
The thing I most want you to walk away with isn't just information — it's a document. A real, written, personalized Relapse Prevention Plan that belongs to you, maps your specific warning signs, and tells you exactly what to do when things get hard. Alongside that, you'll build a self-care foundation and a long-term Recovery Maintenance Strategy with the support systems and accountability structures that make sobriety something sustainable — something you can actually live inside, not just survive.
You've already done the hardest part by deciding recovery matters. Let me give you the tools to protect it. I'm glad you're here, and I'm ready to get to work with you.
— HTL Academy
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- 7 modules, 14 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
- Your own AI learning coach
- Learn on any device, at your pace
- Full access for as long as you're subscribed