When it comes to quitting for good and remaining permanently and securely abstinent, there are no degrees and there is no mixing methods.
Everyone permanently and securely abstinent does it the self help route via a powerful burst of self determination, recognizing the desire for alcohol as alien and separating that desire from the mature self.
AVRT is simply a formalized lesson plan that summarizes and condenses that ages old process and decision-making matrix.
People can say lots of things - I did it with support groups, I attribute it to Eastern spiritual codes, the Frankenpanzer spatula hypnotized my uvula.
In all cases, with or despite any or all of that, the permanently and securely abstinent apply the principles of AVRT, even if they don't know it or won't admit it or attribute their abstinence to other factors.