Introducing Collaborative Addiction Care to the Client
Practical Recovery aims to offer ideal addiction treatment for any substance or activity addiction. We describe our approach as “collaborative addiction care.” Because each client is unique, and we are fully collaborative, no two treatment plans are alike. Hence we do not offer a “program.” Our treatment intensity can be as high as alcohol and […]
Is Collaborative Addiction Treatment Effective?
Unfortunately, Practical Recovery does not yet have any long-term follow-up data on our clients. The task of designing the data collection is daunting. No two clients do the same treatment! However, we are in the process of designing a basic data collection system. We expect it to reveal that our clients do about as well […]
Introduction to Collaborative Addiction Treatment
Why consider a collaborative addiction treatment relationship with someone who, by definition, is making very bad decisions? Addicts and alcoholics keep using and drinking and are often irresponsible in other ways. How could they meaningfully contribute to treatment decisions? Don’t they need to be told what to do, and be made to do it long […]
Leading Edge Psychotherapy: The Psychotherapy Team
A psychotherapy team involves multiple therapists who meet successively with the same client for individual therapy. Leading edge psychotherapy teams have begun to emerge, in varying degrees, in a few state-of-the-art addiction treatment facilities. Their emergence may have occurred somewhat serendipitously but as Pasteur remarked “chance favors the prepared mind.” To my mind, the experience […]
Treating Psychiatric and Addiction Comorbidity with a Cognitive-behavioral (non-12-step) Approach
As more addiction treatment programs treat comorbidity it seems likely that client confusion about treatment approach will increase. Comorbidity is here defined as having both a mental health disorder (such as anxiety or depression) as well as an addictive disorder. Client confusion might arise because CBT (cognitive behavior therapy) has become the treatment of choice […]
Coping with Craving
If you have had strong cravings, you may not need a description of one! Like hunger (which is what we call craving for food), craving is a complete (cognitive, emotional, and physical) experience. Your mind is distracted. You feel tense and/or frustrated. You get physically uncomfortable. Craving motivates us to engage with whatever we are […]
What Is the Best Alcohol Treatment?
There are three myths about alcohol treatment, according to some of the foremost researchers in the area, led by psychologist William R. Miller (Handbook of Alcoholism Treatment Approaches: Effective Alternatives, 3rd edition, edited by Hester & Miller, published in 2003 by Allyn & Bacon). The first myth, and possibly the worst, is that there is one and […]
Addiction and Youth
Addiction, Recovery and Society How society should view addiction Ending recoveryism Let’s stop insisting addiction is a disease Will insurance cover addiction treatment if addiction is not a disease? AA’s dominance in the US is harmful Court-ordered 12-step attendance is illegal CRAFT: An alternative to addiction “intervention” Substance abuse evaluations in child custody cases Addiction […]
Substance Abuse Evaluations in Child Custody Cases
A. Tom Horvath, Ph.D., ABPP I make a number of assumptions when conducting a substance abuse evaluations as part of a litigation process: The individual’s use is usually not less than the individual reports, but it might often be more (or much more). Inaccurate accusations of substance abuse are common because there is usually little […]
CRAFT: An Alternative to Addiction “Intervention”
By: Tom Brown, Ph.D. CRAFT (Community Reinforcement and Family Training) is a non-confrontational approach to getting a loved one to enter addiction treatment. It is an approach designed for the concerned other (spouse, family member, friend), who is seeking assistance in getting their loved one help. CRAFT can also help the person you are concerned […]