Narrative Means To Sober Ends

Working with clients who abuse drugs or alcohol poses formidable challenges to the clinician. Addicted persons are often confronting multiple, complex problems, from the denial of the addiction itself, to legacies of early trauma or abuse, to histories of broken relationships with parents, spouses, and children. Making matters more confusing, the treatment field is too often splintered into different approaches, each with its own competing claims. This eloquently written book proposes a narrative approach that builds a much-needed bridge between family therapy, psychodynamic therapy, and addictions counseling. Demonstrated are innovative, flexible ways to help clients form new understandings of what has happened in their lives, explore their relationships to drugs and alcohol, and develop new stories to guide and nourish their recovery.

Originally developed by Alcoholics Anonymous, the Twelve Step program now provides life direction for the millions of people worldwide who are recovering from addiction and undergoing profound personal transformation. Yet thus far it has received surprisingly little attention from philosophers, despite the fact that, like philosophy, the program addresses all-important questions regarding how we ought to live. In Sobering Wisdom, Jerome A. Miller and Nicholas Plants offer a unique approach to the Twelve Step program by exploring its spirituality from a philosophical point of view. Drawing on a variety of thinkers from Aristotle to William James and from Nietzsche to Foucault, as well as a diverse range of philosophical perspectives including naturalism, Buddhism, existentialism, Confucianism, pragmatism, and phenomenology, the contributors to this volume address such questions as the relation of personal responsibility to an acknowledgment of powerlessness, the existence of a "higher power," and the role of virtue in recovery. Ranging in tone from deeply scholarly to intensely personal, their essays are written in an accessible way for a broad audience that includes not only philosophers, theologians, and psychologists but also spiritual directors, health professionals, and addiction counselors. Perhaps most important, the book is also conceived for those involved in Twelve Step programs whose lives are being transformed by the experience.

Narratives of Addiction: Savage Usury is the first book to argue, in the face of more than a century’s received wisdom, that drug addiction and alcoholism are undoubtedly evidence of individual moral flaws. However, the sense of morality that underlies this book is completely severed from Christianity. Instead, it is influenced in particular by the writings of the nineteenth-century German philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer and Frederick Nietzsche, both of whom insisted that a genuine morality was actually incompatible with Christianity. The sequence of chapters moves from addictions on the streets, into rehab clinics, and finally into the meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. This is the first book to argue that the search for pleasure drives alcoholism and drug addiction and not the “numbing of pain”. Throughout the book I reject the claims of the medical profession, as embodied by the American Medical Association, that drug addiction and alcoholism are diseases, and further argue that they do not have the authority to tell hundreds of millions of Americans that addiction is not a moral failing. I also query throughout the book the claims of neuroscience, psychology, and the social sciences that addictions to alcohol and drugs are attributable to causes that their specific disciplines are best suited to understand. I argue that there is nothing complex about addiction: it is a simple behavioural disorder. The language routinely employed to discuss addiction is similarly not complex, just confused, and so it is also the rhetoric of addiction discourse, especially its use of simile, metaphor and euphemism, that this book evaluates.

Adolescents are often an overlooked clinical population. Among school-based practitioners, there is a natural inclination to focus the delivery of mental health services, assessment measures, and intervention plans on younger children, and there is a strong research base to support these programs. On the other hand, the waiting rooms of most practitioners in private practice are filled with young and middle-age adults, couples, or families with young children. Because most therapists do not specialize in working with teens, who might make up only a small portion of their overall caseload, there is a need for high quality, easily implemented activities to help engage with adolescent clients. This book provides an overview of the principles of therapeutic storytelling, developmental issues of adolescents and young adulthood, and their strengths-based model, before moving into a series of chapters devoted to specific issues. Commonly encountered topics such as sexuality, parent & peer relationships, substance abuse, violence & gangs, bereavement, and cultural and religious issues are covered within the chapters. Includes a convenient companion website designed to facilitate ease of use for the busy professional or academic contains printable storytelling and activity worksheets, color photographs for phototherapy and guided imagery, and additional resources/website links.

This is a new edition of the wildly successful everyday reference for social workers. Like the first edition, it has been crafted with the help of an extensive needs assessment survey of educators and front-line practitioners, ensuring that it speaks directly to the daily realities of the profession. It features 40% new material and a more explicit focus on evidence-based practice.

Praise for the first edition "Finally, a social work practice text that makes a difference! This is the book that you have wished for but could never find. Although similar to texts that cover a range of practice theories and approaches to clinical practice, this book clearly has a social work frame of reference and a social work identity." --Gayla Rogers, Dean of the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary The major focus of this second edition is the same; to provide an overview of theories, models, and therapies for direct social work practice, including systems theory, attachment theory, cognitive-behavioral theory, narrative therapy, solution-focused therapy, the crisis intervention model, and many more. However, this popular textbook goes beyond a mere survey of such theories. It also provides a framework for integrating the use of each theory with central social work principles and values, as well as with the artistic elements of practice. This second edition has been fully updated and revised to include: A new chapter on Relational Theory, and newly-rewritten chapters by new authors on Cognitive-Behavioral Theory, Existential Theory, and Wraparound Services New critique of the Empirically Supported Treatment (EST) movement Updated information on the movement toward eclecticism in counseling and psychotherapy A refined conceptualization of the editors' generalist-eclectic approach

dependence, play therapy, and filial therapy; songs, music and sobriety; dance/movement therapy as an effective clinical intervention; using expressive arts therapy with young male offenders; a case study of dance/movement therapy with the dually diagnosed in a methadone treatment program; recovering identity and stimulating growth; individual drama therapy and the alcoholic; existential drama therapy and addictive behavior; and poetry therapy in the treatment of addictions. The strategies and discussions contained in this book will be of special interest to educators, students, and therapists as well as people struggling with substance abuse." --Book Jacket.

This highly practical resource integrates the powerful dynamics of family into residential treatment and outdoors-based therapy for young people. Recognizing both the family as the systemic base for promoting change in adolescents and the therapeutic potential of the residential/wilderness setting, experts show how aligning the two can enhance the healing value of the program while promoting higher standards for care. Chapters describe innovative, science-based interventions and techniques for treating common behavioral and emotional problems along a continuum of family involvement and separation, to address issues affecting the family as well as the identified patient. With its accessible ideas and compelling case studies, the book ably demonstrates the critical role of family in adolescent patients’ successful transition to post-treatment life. Among the topics covered: • A parallel process: home therapy while the adolescent or young adult is in residential care.• Intentional separation of families: increasing differentiation through wilderness therapy.• Emerging family therapy models utilized in residential settings.• Engaging families in Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare.• Research on coping skills used by youth with emotional and behavioral disorders.• Expanding our understanding of the place of family therapy in residential treatment. Family Therapy with Adolescents in Residential Treatment offers novel, exciting, and effective strategies and techniques for practitioners and mental health professionals particularly interested in family therapy with adolescents, and in related interventions and research.