Recovery is, in its essence, a highly individualized, lived experience of moving through and beyond the limitations of one's disorder. Given the uniqueness of each person's recovery journey, the translation of knowledge about processes of recovery into principles for recovery-oriented practices and systems is neither straightforward nor direct. Before taking up the complex challenge of beginning to identify and elaborate on the implications of a recovery orientation for practice, we review some of the lessons which have been learned to date about the varieties of recovery experiences in the lives of people with addictions and/or mental illnesses.