Hi Wilting and welcome to SR. No, those using AVRT do not generally believe there is a hairy little beast living inside our heads. Terming our desire for alcohol as a third party entity - the Beast - is a semantic technique designed to create distance between our rational, logical, health-seeking Self and that illogical facet of our self that wants alcohol no matter the cost.
You might find it helpful to have a look at the AVRT threads from the beginning. Here's a link to the first one:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...iscussion.html
There's a bit of discussion about the limbic brain as the seat of addiction starting around post #80.
AVRT is a very rational approach to recovery - the seminal book on the subject is in fact titled Rational Recovery - so you may find it's a good fit for you. I do understand your concern about relying on a particular method for recovery only to later become concerned that you've built the foundation of your recovery on an illusion. As you become more comfortable with the process, you'll likely be able to pick and choose those techniques from all disciplines that are most useful to you, and leave the rest. Most of us do.
Good luck
