Treating Alcohol and Drug Problems in Psychotherapy Practice: Doing What Works Book

This is the book chosen for AAMFT-CA's (American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists) online certification course for Substance Abuse. I thought I'd give it a look over before I decided if I want to spend $300 on the full course. Well, I really enjoyed this book! First of all it helped me realize how little I knew about addictive substances and the addiction process. This book covers a lot of issues including treatment suggestions, theory, the effects and consequences of the major classes of psychoactive substances, and how the therapist can work effectively with clients at various stages of change. I tried a new method of reading where I paused at the end of every major section and wrote a summary of its main points in the margins. There is hardly any white space left!

The authors are aware of when a topic is outside their scope of competence or outside the scope of the book and have provided a lengthy list of references to supplement their text. I've starred several of these that I want to read in the future.

The greatest benefit I derived from this book went beyond new knowledge and spread into recalibrating knowledge I thought I knew. Several chapters had me wide eyed with admiration at examples of how to bring up very tough subjects or work with reluctant or ambivalent clients. Other sections had me aghast at the mistakes I've made with clients in the past and offered helpful suggestions on how I could be more effective with clients in the future.

Throughout the text the authors hold and entirely respectful tone when talking about clients and caution the practitioner not to label struggling clients as "resistant" or "unmotivated." Clients are seen as people often caught in ambivalence who need supportive and patient guidance to explore the treatment that will work for them. While the authors are pro-abstinence as the best policy they are willing and enthusiastic about exploring alternative treatment options, maintaining the philosophy that providing treatment that gets the client coming back is better than sticking to a poorly-matched treatment that leads to drop out.