WRAP Values & Ethics

WRAP Values and Ethics

Certified WRAP Facilitators:

• Honor the participants.
• Accept participants as they are—as unique, special individuals.
• Remind participants that there are “no limits” to recovery.
• Give participants a sense of hope.
• Validate each person’s experiences.
• Treat each person with dignity, compassion, respect, and unconditional high regard.
• Give each person choices and options, not final answers.
• Support the concept that each person is the expert on themselves.

Participants learn through their own experiences and the experiences of others. WRAP work is:

• Based on self-determination: It opens the door for individuals, but it doesn’t dictate their path.
• Rooted in the belief in equality: No one is any better or has higher value than anyone else.
• A mutual learning model: People work together to increase understanding and promote wellness.
• Can complement other strategies: WRAP is not necessarily a replacement for therapy or recovery strategies.
• Simple and safe for anyone, regardless of the severity of their difficulties or issues.
• Based on common sense: Anyone can create a personal WRAP; it doesn’t take medical training or education, just a better understanding of oneself.
• Infinitely doable. Everyone, no matter their life circumstances or experiences, can create and live their WRAP and find wellness.
• Always changing: The body of knowledge is always expanding, as is our education about ourselves. The WRAP evidenced-based practice remains the same, but how we do our WRAP work changes. Our WRAPs are living documents that change over time.
• Not based on any philosophy or model, but it can incorporate many philosophies or models.
• Not just a program—it’s a way of life.

Values and Ethics in Action

Here’s other ways for Facilitators to think about the WRAP Values and Ethics while facilitating:

• Each session supports the premise that there is hope, that people can get well and stay well for long periods of time and do the things they want to do with their lives. 
• Self-determination, personal responsibility, empowerment, and self-advocacy are key aspects of this program. 
• Each seminar supports participant decision-making and personal sharing. 
• There is unconditional acceptance of each person as they are—unique, special individuals—including acceptance of diversity in relation to culture, ethnicity, language, religion, race, gender, age, disability, diagnoses, life challenges, sexual orientation, etc. 
• Participants are supported in exploring choices and options and are not expected to find simple, final answers; nor do Facilitators provide answers to participants about their lives and decisions.
• All participation is voluntary. 
• It is understood that each person is the expert on themself. 
• The focus is on individual strengths rather than perceived deficits. 
• Clinical, medical, and diagnostic language and labels are avoided by Facilitators in WRAP seminars when referring to others. But participants are free to use such language or labels when talking about themselves and their challenges.
• The focus is on peers working together and learning from each other to increase mutual understanding, knowledge, and promote wellness. 
• The program emphasizes strategies that are simple and safe for everyone and avoids strategies or advice that may have harmful effects. 
• Difficult feelings and behaviors are seen as normal responses to traumatic circumstances viewed in the context of what is happening, not as symptoms or a diagnosis.