Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Self-help, personal development & practical advice

BEYOND ADDICTION

Stephanie Higgs Nicole Kosanke Carrie Wilkens Jeffrey Foote

How Science and Kindness Help People Change

A groundbreaking, science-based guide to helping loved ones conquer addiction problems and compulsive behaviors through positive reinforcement and kindness, from the leaders in progressive addiction treatment in the U.S.

Substance abuse impacts 1 in 4 families in the United States. Beyond Addiction is a revolutionary guide for family and friends of people with substance or other compulsive behavior problems.

Collectively grounded in forty years of research and decades of clinical experience at the Center for Motivation and Change (CMC)--the leader in progressive treatments in this country--this book is a unique blend of practical advice based on scientific evidence delivered with warmth, optimism, and humor that has changed the lives of hundreds of CMC clients.

The evidence is clear: family and friends, more than anything else, help people change. Beyond Addiction defines a new, empowered role for friends and family and a paradigm shift for the field. Forget “waiting for rock bottom,” “detaching with love,” the harrowing theater of “interventions,” or remortgaging the house to afford eighty-thousand-dollar-a-month rehab. Readers will learn how to tap the transformative power of their relationships for positive change—starting now. They’ll practice, guided by exercises and examples, what really works in treatment and in everyday life: understanding, communication, reinforcement, choices, individualized treatment, and self-care. How to Help is a guide to not only helping someone change but helping someone want to change, a guide to the full and largely unknown range of evidence-based treatment options, and a guide to feeling better and enjoying life along the way.

Jeffrey Foote, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Executive Director of CMC and Psychologist for the New York Mets has been a leader in the science and humanity of change for twenty-five years.

Carrie Wilkens, Ph.D. is Co-Founder and Clinical Director of CMC and a dedicated practitioner and researcher of the most effective treatments for substance use problems and compulsive behaviors. She has extensive training in cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational techniques. Her expertise is regularly sought by the popular media, including the CBS Early Show, Fox News, Newsweek, O, The Oprah Magazine, and Psychology Today.

Nicole Kosanke, Ph.D. is Director of Evaluation and Family Services at CMC where she specializes in working with family members of people abusing substances. In 2008 Dr. Kosanke was featured in an O Magazine article about her experience in treatment at CMC, which was later published in O’s Big Book of Happiness: The Best of O.

Stephanie Higgs came to publishing in 1999 as an academic expatriate from MIT’s program in Science, Technology, and Society, where she was a doctoral fellow. As an editor at Random House she worked mostly on non-fiction, including self-help and popular science.

Available products
Book Published 2014-02-01 by Scribner
Book Published 2014-02-01 by Scribner

Comments

This is the most important new resource for the millions of families struggling with drug and alcohol problems, and all the hopelessness and helplessness that goes with it. First, it provides reason for hope based on science, not conventional wisdom. Second, it provides a comprehensive, compassionate, and understandable plan, not a recipe for a quick fix. And third, it reaffirms that applying the family’s natural kindness and positive reinforcement, rather than withholding it, is what makes change possible.

I am an expert in substance use disorders–quoted all the time. But I could never apply all that so-called expertise where it really counted–in my own family. I had scientific knowledge but no practical tools to use to help me and my affected family cope and return to sanity. This book would have saved my family and me a lot of time, money, and most importantly pain. I intended to read this book as a professional courtesy and to offer editorial and perhaps scientific comments. Instead I found myself taking notes on every chapter and Xeroxing some of the handy tables. Two weeks after reading the book both my son and I are using these basic lessons and specific techniques today with my grand-kids.

Beyond Addiction breaks out of the mold of traditional resources for families of people struggling with addiction. Unlike most popular self-help books in the field that suggest family members can only help themselves, Beyond Addiction empowers readers by (1) letting them know that they can help their loved one change and (2) showing them exactly how to do it. I started to put its invaluable suggestions into practice immediately in my personal and professional life. If you’re at the end of your rope, this book will provide hope, help you get your life back on track, and greatly improve the odds that your loved one will seek help.

Objectively written and conveyed with congenial authority, the book offers collective hope to families of substance abusers... Essential.

Finally there is a family-based treatment for addiction that works. Beyond Addiction is the first effective book addressed to families of those with substance abuse problems. Instead of the old bromides – detaching and boundary setting – that are based on assumptions of family helplessness, Beyond Addiction offers evidence-based methods for families to motivate and reinforce change for an addicted loved one. The focus here is on effectiveness training for families, using collaboration and kindness rather than confrontation to support behavior change. I highly recommend this book; it should be required reading if your loved one struggles with substance abuse.