Relational AI in addiction recovery: a symbolic storytelling and guided reflection framework for engagement between sessions

Recovery support often depends on tools introduced during treatment but difficult to access emotionally in the moments when they are most needed. Cognitive reframing, journaling, mindfulness, grounding, values work, and relapse-prevention concepts can be useful, but many individuals in early recovery struggle to remember, apply, or personalize these tools during periods of craving, shame, anxiety, isolation, or emotional overwhelm.

This presentation introduces Resurgifi, a relational AI and guided reflection system developed through lived experience, recovery-oriented design, and exposure to addiction treatment environments. Resurgifi uses a symbolic inner world called the State of Inner, where emotional patterns are represented through characters, locations, heroes, and villains. Instead of presenting recovery tools only as worksheets or generic prompts, the system turns reflection into an interactive narrative process. Users engage with themed characters such as Sir Renity, Cognita, Grace, Lucentis, and Velessa, each representing different recovery-supportive capacities including emotional regulation, perspective-taking, compassion, trust, and present-moment awareness.

The presentation will explore how symbolic storytelling, guided journaling, and emotionally responsive AI can help users externalize internal conflict, create language around difficult emotional states, and build continuity between treatment sessions. It will also discuss a companion coloring and reflection book as a low-barrier, phone-free entry point for group, residential, and early recovery settings. This physical format allows individuals to engage with the same emotional framework through art, reflection, and self-expression before continuing the experience digitally.

Rather than positioning AI as a replacement for therapy, Resurgifi frames relational AI as a supportive bridge between clinical encounters. The goal is not diagnosis, treatment, or clinical decision-making, but increased reflection, engagement, emotional awareness, and recovery-oriented conversation. This presentation will invite discussion around ethical, practical, and human-centered uses of AI in addiction recovery and behavioral health settings, especially as the field considers how emerging technology can be built relationally rather than transactionally.