I introduced the HEALTHY HEALING ADDICTION TREATMENT PROGRAM (HH) the middle of July 2009. This is an alternative holistic approach to the more traditional programs. For the past three years, my colleagues and I have used all the methods that are components of the HH program with remarkable results. Starting with this blog, I would like to share some of the findings from the work I have done to date, then, take you along on the single subject test I have just started at the beginning of August. My purpose in blogging this information is (1) it forces me to write about the program; (2) it helps me identify patterns coming up during the case study; and, (3) I want very much to have your feedback as I go along working the kinks out of the program. Who I would like to hear from are:
ADDICTS: Resisting going into treatment and why. Ever been in recovery? How long? What happened to throw you back?
RECOVERING PEOPLE: How did you get there? How long have you been in recovery? How do you maintain your recovery? How is life different for you? What is the ONE thing that made all the difference for you being where you are today?
PRIVATE PRACTICE PROFESSIONALS: If you specialize in addiction counseling, I want to hear from you. Comment on what I am doing, offer what you are doing.
ADDICTION COUNSELORS WORKING FOR AGENCIES: Share with me what your agencies are doing differently these days. What are the strengths of the program you work at?
Please let me know if it is alright to reprint your comments in my blog, articles, or other publishings. I will NOT use your name unless you give permission to do that.
To learn more about the HEALTHY HEALING PROGRAM go to:
http://www.lifestylechangescounseling.com
You can also send your comments directly to me at
maxfabry@lifestylechangescounseling.com
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Max: I can relate to being a late bloomer. I didn't really get focused until I started back in school at age 51. Now I am in grad school and will be a PhD at about the age others are retiring. In my 5 years in the field, I have done outpatient, intensive outpatient, intensive inpatient, detox, Brief Therapy (Motivational Interviewing model) and recently did a stint with a methadone clinic. Of the 5 different "co-occurring" programs I witnessed, only one was truly integrated. The rest were merely regurgitated abstinence-only, subtly shaming outpatient programs with the one difference being that they would accept patients with MH diagnoses. Although the methadone situation has severe problems, mostly based on overinterference by the DEA and special government laws, it also is populated almost entirely by self-referred clients. The methadone seems to buy them some breathing space to work on MH or other life problems. Sadly, when a person is ready, it takes almost a year to safely titrate off the medication. It is also blessedly free of 12-step self-shaming and disempowerment, mostly because almost all AA and NA meetings mistreat methadone users by telling them that they have simply traded one "high" for another and they are not "really" in recovery. Anyone who has ever experienced taking methadone even once would never confuse its effects with being high.
ReplyDeleteI would also encourage you to explore the non-clinical world of personal growth from private seminar companies. Most of the best technology from the 60's and 70's has fallen by the clinical wayside, again due to government strings attached to funding sources. These companies have rescued these experiential approaches and are presenting them as an educational experience.
Most CD treatment approaches, if truthful, are getting about 5-11% success, even from the very expensive ones. My experience in attending, and later helping present these seminars was that I witnessed a lasting success rate of better than 90%. The companies I am most familiar with are PSI Seminars (est. 1973) and Landmark. PSI is highly experiential, more fun and less butt-in-chair lecture mode stuff, while Landmark is more cerebral, but effective in its own way. There are many spinoffs, most of which are great -- Lance Giroux, Brian Klemmer, Dan Doerr, just to name a few, though these guys are mostly corporate consultants. I wish you well on your pioneering effort. It is desperately needed. I will be doing my own version in about 6 years, if not sooner.