Description:
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.
Review Quotes: "This fluent, engrossing book takes us to the heart of the therapeutic relationship, into the experience of the therapist and the inner lives of clients. Powerful elements of 12-step approaches are interwoven with narrative therapy's brilliant use of letter writing. The poetic energy of Diamond's voice ties these strands together as he provides his own vivid commentary and reflections. Therapists, teachers, students, and concerned general readers should find in this book instruction without tears."--Lynn Hoffman, ACSW, author of Exchanging Voices
"Ever wonder how therapy feels to a recovering addict? Then you'll want to read this book and its many accounts of pain, loss, suffering, and recovery. Stories of survival tell more than any diagnosis about what has gone wrong in a person's life--some of the more impressive letters included in this book are addressed to the substance that started the addiction. Reading these stories and learning of their role in treatment, we begin to see how the images and metaphors that go into their telling are healing in their own right. Instead of punctuating his sessions with interpretations, Diamond weaves a coherent account that tries to make sense of an often-interrupted past, and his clients are clearly grateful. This book should be useful both in doctoral clinical programs and in workshops for experienced practitioners."--Donald P. Spence, PhD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, UMDNJ; author of Narrative Truth and Historical Truth "Poignantly describing the experience of the addict and of the therapist working with addiction, this book provides good advice for acting quickly and therapeutically with clients. Diamond draws extensively on his own experience to model a therapeutic stance that is open, direct, and egalitarian, without ever abdicating the importance of knowledge and clinical skill. He is always reality-based, whether dealing with behavior, affect, or unconscious motivation. The narrative method is well presented, and best of all is the sense the reader gets of the therapist's real presence and engagement. This book is a basic primer to help therapists become bicultural and bilingual--to become 12-step literate without giving up their own beliefs, theories, or first therapeutic language. Diamond moves away from a narrow, rule-bound, 'fix-it' mentality to offer a much-needed expansion in thinking, attitude, and principle."--Stephanie Brown, PhD, Director, Addictions Institute, Menlo Park, CA; author of The Alcoholic Family in Recovery "I strongly urge anyone interested in understanding addiction to take this journey with Jonathan Diamond. This is an engaging and richly diverse guide to understanding the complexities of recovery. Diamond is a kind and creative advocate for the multitude of addicted adults and adolescents asking to be heard."--Dusty Miller, EdD, author of Women Who Hurt Themselves