Synopses & Reviews
This book uses composite clinical examples and the authors' own practical experience to demonstrate how to treat addicted survivors of trauma and abuse.
By integrating mental health paradigms with disease models of addiction, and combining psychotherapeutic techniques with 12-step recovery practices, the authors present an easy-to-replicate model for assessment and treatment. They provide an overview of the various types and resulting effects of childhood abuse and other traumas, and then describe the disease of addiction and its treatment. Simultaneously addressing both addiction and survivor issues, the book describes ways to identify and assess substance-dependent survivors, and organize, direct, and plan their treatment. In addition, it provides specific strategies for working with significant others, adolescents, and individuals who also exhibit antisocial, borderline, and narcissistic personality disorders.
This book is aimed at psychologists, chemical dependency counselors, social workers, and family therapists.
Review
"
Treating Addicted Survivors of Trauma deserves to become a basic resource for clinicians who work with addicted survivors of trauma. It is specific yet adaptable to a variety of therapeutic approaches. It is authoritative yet remarkably respectful of addicted survivors. The tone, as well as the content, of this book make it abundantly clear that the authors have 'been there' both as survivors and as therapists." --Marge Eide, Librarian, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI
"Despite a growing awareness of the links between childhood trauma and addictive behavior, few systematic clinical strategies have been developed for helping this client population. In this first-rate book Katie Evans and J. Michael Sullivan try to fill this gap. They offer a well-reasoned, conceptually sound and thoroughly referenced clinical model for working with addicted adult and adolescent survivors of childhood psychological and physical trauma.... It is the best clinical handbook for working with addicted survivors of trauma that I have come across.... Students and practicing clinicians will discover a gold mine of ideas in this book. Clinical researchers will find a coherent treatment model, which they can examine and subject to empirical verification." --Meredith Hanson, DSW, Columbia University School of Social work, New York, NY
"Incisive and sensitive at the same time; the best clinical guide of its kind."
--James Fine, MD, SUNY Health Science Center of Brooklyn, Clinical Associate Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry, Director, Addictive Disease Hospital
"Contains a well-referenced, practical therapeutic method for engaging, understanding, and treating this population. The book includes a great deal of case material which is approached theoretically from a variety of well-described and referenced models, such that the reader understands both the why and the how of dealing with common difficult clinical situations. As usual, Evans and Sullivan supply tables, charts, and other materials which can be utilized directly in the clinical setting by both therapist and client. While therapists with 12-step and other addiction backgrounds will find this approach friendly and consistent, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and other therapists will find it equally useful, sophisticated and effective." --Richard Ries, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Washington Medical School, and Director, Dual Disorder Programs, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, Washington
"This book has vitality and clinical savvy. It is rich in examples with many pearls of wisdom sprinkled throughout. I think it will appeal to both clinicians with a general practice and specialists in trauma and/or substance abuse." --Joan Ellen Zweben, PhD, Executive Director, The 14th Street Clinic & Medical Group and East Bay Community Recovery Project, Oakland, California; Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California Medical School, San Francisco
Review
"I can't speak highly enough of this book. Reading it will benefit anyone who works with addicted and/or traumatized people. -The Post"--Traumatic Gazette 1:3
Review
"This book fills an important gap in the existing literature on how to treat clients who present with these co-existing issues. It also presents a philosophy of treatment which is egalitarian, feminist, victim-sensitive and non-blaming. Though written for clinicians, the book contains information which may be helpful for survivors struggling with issues of alcohol and/or drug issues."--Coalition Commentary
Synopsis
This volume provides the tools professionals need to help adult and adolescent survivors of childhood abuse and other traumas who struggle with addictive disorders. Systematically integrating mental health paradigms with disease models of addiction, this easy-to-implement model combines psychotherapeutic techniques with 12-step recovery practices for effective assessment and treatment.
Synopsis
Adult and adolescent survivors of childhood abuse and other traumas often struggle with addictive disorders, yet most helping professionals are ill equipped to deal with dual problems. Providing the tools professionals need to help this population, this book systematically integrates mental health paradigms with disease models of addiction and combines psychotherapeutic techniques with 12-step recovery practices. The result is an easy-to-replicate model for the effective assessment and treatment of this often difficult-to-treat population.
In often transfixingly painful detail, this book uses the extended composite clinical examples to demonstrate how to treat a particularly challenging population--addicted survivors of trauma and abuse, usually endured during childhood.
Current surveys suggest that the experience of childhood abuse in this country is rampant, approaching rates of 1 in 4 for women and 1 in 7 for men in the general population. Substance abuse or dependence is an important part of the clinical picture for a substantial proportion of these survivors. As the authors caution, "unless treatment deals with the chemical abuse or addiction, treatment of the person's survivor issues will most likely be ineffective. Conversely, treating only the addiction of individuals with serious survivor symptoms is also likely to be unsuccessful."
Bringing a wealth of clinical experience and an equal measure of compassion to bear, Evans and Sullivan offer an innovative synthesis of mental health paradigms, disease models of addiction, psychotherapeutic techniques, and 12-step recovery practices. The end result: a replicable five-stage model for assessment and treatment that addresses "the synergism of addiction and trauma."
For each stage--crisis, building skills, education, integration, and maintenance--Evans and Sullivan have developed goals (ranging from maintaining immediate safety and health in the crisis stage to maintaining recovery and preventing relapse in the maintenance stage)...indicators...and an extensive repertoire of interventions (safety contracts, counseling and groups, help in boundary setting, managing negative feelings, recovery materials and workbooks, desensitization therapy, healing ceremonies, grief work, and many more). Throughout the often long and difficult journey, whether in individual or group work, the motto is always "safety first."
Recent year have seen a tremendous growth in our ability to treat the person with either a history of childhood abuse or a a problem with chemical dependency. But not both. Treating Addicted Survivors of Trauma effectively fills that gap.
About the Author
Katie Evans, CADC II, NAC II, is the President and Treatment Coordinator of the Evans and Sullivan Clinic. Ms. Evans is a Board Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor at both state and national levels. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in psychology with an emphasis in addiction treatment, and maintains a clinical practice.
J. Michael Sullivan, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist in Oregon and Washington. Dr. Sullivan is the Clinical Director at Evans and Sullivan Clinic in Beaverton, Oregon. He also maintains an active clinical practice.
Katie Evans and J. Michael Sullivan's previous publications include Dual Diagnosis: Counseling The Mentally Ill Substance Abuser, as well as numerous client workbooks, booklets, and videos. Dr. Sullivan and Ms. Evans are recognized nationally as outstanding presenters of both mental health and chemical dependency related topics, specializing in dual diagnosis issues.