GETTING SQUARED AWAY
Recovery Is More Than Stopping.
Getting Squared Away: Rebuilding the Whole Person After Addiction begins with a simple idea:
Stopping substance use is essential.
But stopping is not the same as rebuilding.
Recovery also means learning to understand what addiction affected, addressing mental and emotional health, rebuilding identity and relationships, and developing the skills needed to live everyday life differently.
The Squared Away Recovery Framework™ brings those pieces together into a practical framework for rebuilding the whole person.
Recovery is not about getting your old life back.
It is about building the life addiction tried to steal from you.
ONE DECISION · ONE DAY · ONE STEP
WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK DIFFERENT
Recovery Involves the Whole Person.
Addiction rarely affects only one part of life.
It can change the brain and body, affect mental and emotional health, reshape identity and relationships, and interrupt the ordinary responsibilities of everyday life.
Getting Squared Away approaches recovery the same way—by looking at the whole person.
01
STABILIZE
Substance Cessation & Neurobiological Stabilization
Understanding what happens when substance use stops and giving the brain and body time to begin healing.
02
STRENGTHEN
Mental Health Stabilization
Addressing mental health symptoms, emotional regulation, trauma, unhealthy thinking patterns, and the supports that help create stability.
03
REBUILD
Grief & Identity Reconstruction
Working through loss, rebuilding identity, and beginning to understand who you are becoming without addiction defining your life.
04
RESTORE
Developmental & Functional Restoration
Rebuilding the parts of everyday life addiction may have interrupted—including relationships, family, work, finances, responsibilities, and purpose.
Each dimension matters. None stands alone.
The work of recovery happens where they meet.
ONE DECISION · ONE DAY · ONE STEP
A Book Designed to Be Used.
MORE THAN A BOOK TO READ
Getting Squared Away is designed to give you more than information. Each chapter offers something to understand, something to consider, and something you can carry into everyday life.
01
REFLECT
Clinical Reflections
See recovery through real situations and the experiences of people rebuilding their lives.
02
CHECK IN
Recovery Checkpoints
Pause and consider where you are, what is changing, and what may still need your attention.
03
WRITE
Recovery Journals
Put your thoughts into words and explore what recovery means in your own life.
04
ACT
This Week's Mission
Take one practical idea from the chapter and carry it into the week ahead.
Recovery becomes more than something you understand when it becomes something you practice.
READ · REFLECT · PRACTICE · KEEP BUILDING
RECOVERY IS NEVER EXPERIENCED FROM JUST ONE SEAT
Written for the Person in Recovery—and the People Beside Them.
Getting Squared Away was written first for people rebuilding their lives after addiction. But recovery rarely affects one person alone.
Families try to understand what is happening. Professionals help people navigate change. Supporters learn when to step in—and when to allow someone to take responsibility for their own recovery.
The same book can help each of them see recovery more clearly.
01
Understand What Is Happening
Understand what addiction affected, recognize what may need attention, and begin rebuilding the different parts of your life with greater intention.
02
FOR FAMILIES & SUPPORTERS
Understand the Person You Are Walking Beside
Learn more about the recovery process, the challenges that can accompany change, and how to support someone without trying to do recovery for them.
03
FOR PROFESSIONALS
A Framework for Seeing the Whole Person
Use the Squared Away Recovery Framework™ as another way to think about the interconnected biological, psychological, relational, developmental, and practical needs that can emerge during recovery.
FOR PEOPLE IN RECOVERY
Different readers. Different perspectives.
One shared understanding of recovery.
REBUILDING THE WHOLE PERSON
INSIDE GETTING SQUARED AWAY
Fourteen Chapters. One Rebuilding Process.
Getting Squared Away follows recovery beyond the decision to stop using substances.
Across fourteen chapters, the reader moves through the challenges of early recovery, mental and emotional health, grief and identity, relationships, responsibility, purpose, and the practical work of building a different life.
Each chapter explores another part of that rebuilding process.
01
02
REBUILD
Doing the Deeper Work
Explore mental health, grief, identity, relationships, responsibility, and the patterns that must change as recovery becomes more than simply not using.
03
BECOME
Building the Life Ahead
Move toward purpose, growth, healthy routines, stronger relationships, and a life increasingly shaped by who you are becoming rather than who addiction required you to be.
UNDERSTAND
Stabilizing and Understanding
Understand what is happening in early recovery and begin recognizing how addiction has affected the brain, body, emotions, thinking, and everyday life.
Recovery is not one change.
It is a life rebuilt piece by piece.
Fourteen CHAPTERS · FOUR DIMENSIONS · ONE WHOLE PERSON
REV. DR. PAUL KLAVERWEIDEN
Clinician · Educator · Author
Paul Klaverweiden is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, registered nurse, educator, and ordained minister whose work has included addiction recovery, mental health treatment, crisis response, and helping individuals and families navigate difficult periods of change.
His approach to recovery asks a broader question than simply whether someone has stopped using:
What needs to be rebuilt so this person can build a life capable of supporting recovery?
That question became the foundation of Getting Squared Away and the Squared Away Recovery Framework™.
BEHIND THE BOOK
Built From Years of Walking Beside People in Recovery.
Getting Squared Away did not begin as an idea for a book.
It grew from years of working with people whose lives had been affected by addiction—and seeing the same reality again and again:
Stopping substance use matters.
But people often need help rebuilding much more.
Mental and emotional health. Identity. Relationships. Responsibility. Purpose. The ordinary skills of everyday life.
The Squared Away Recovery Framework™ grew from that understanding and has been shaped through years of clinical practice.
Recovery is about more than what a person leaves behind.
It is also about who they are becoming.
EXPERIENCE · UNDERSTANDING · PRACTICAL RECOVERY
THE NEXT STEP
Start With the Book.
Getting Squared Away is not about changing everything at once.
It is about understanding what needs attention, beginning where you are, and continuing to build from there.
Whether you are rebuilding your own life, walking beside someone in recovery, or helping people professionally, the book offers a place to begin.