The Alcoholic Family in Recovery: A Developmental Model

by Stephanie Brown PhD, Virginia Lewis Phd

Overview

Family relationships change dramatically when one or more members stops drinking. Far from offering a "quick fix" to family problems, in fact, the first years of sobriety are often marked by continuing tension that fuels marital stress, acting-out kids, and difficulties at work. This book explores the process of recovery from addiction as it affects the entire family, presenting an innovative model for understanding and treating families navigating this difficult period. The authors draw upon extensive clinical and research experience to demonstrate how families can be helped to regroup after abstinence, weather periods of emotional upheaval, and find their way to establishing a more stable, yet flexible, family system.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781462505562
Publisher:	Guilford Publications, Inc.
Publication date:	01/19/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	318
File size:	949 KB

About the Author

Stephanie Brown, PhD, is a clinician, teacher, researcher, consultant, and author in the field of alcoholism. She founded the Alcohol Clinic at Stanford University Medical Center in 1977 and served as its director for 8 years. A Research Associate at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, where she is Co-Director of the Family Recovery Project, Dr. Brown also maintains a private practice and directs the Addictions Institute in Menlo Park, California.

Virginia Lewis, PhD, a licensed psychologist, educational psychologist, and marriage, family, and child counselor, is Co-Director of the Family Recovery Project and Senior Research Fellow at the Mental Research Institute. In addition to her full-time private practice, she gives lectures and workshops on the Family Recovery Project and is coordinating and analyzing test data for journal publications. She has coauthored and been awarded several research grants with associates at the Mental Research Institute over the past 20 years, and has lent her skills to a number of research projects.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction
1. What Happens When the Drinking Stops?
2. The Developmental Process of Recovery
II. Stories of Families in Recovery
3. Transition and Early Recovery:
The Corwins and the Turners
4. From Early Recovery to Ongoing Recovery:
The Hendersons and the Warners
III. A Framework for Assessment
5. Assessing Family Functioning: Domains of Experience
6. Stages of Recovery: Drinking, Transition, Early Recovery, and Ongoing Recovery
7. Factors That Influence Recovery
IV. A Developmental Model of Family Recovery
8. The Drinking Stage
9. Transition for Couples and Families
10. Early Recovery for Couples and Families
11. Ongoing Recovery for Couples and Families
Epilogue

Interviews

Addictions treatment specialists, couple and family therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, and nurses; advanced students in these areas. Serves as a primary or supplemental text for graduate-level courses on addictions treatment, family counseling and therapy, and social work with families.

Editorial Reviews

Explores the process of recovery as it affects the entire family, presenting an innovative model for understanding and treating families in recovery. Overviews the family recovery process, identifying key stages and domains, and highlights the therapeutic tasks and pitfalls that characterize each stage, giving suggestions for expanding the therapist's role to include psychoeducation and supportive counseling. Experiences of four families are shared in first-hand accounts. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

"Well organized and clearly written....The strength of this book lies in the authors' stating early and often their biases and beliefs regarding alcoholism and the path of family recovery....The fact that they based this book on the findings of a research project and not just their own clinical experience is refreshing....Brown and Lewis wrote this book with therapists in mind....They clearly point out the role for therapists and the tasks at each phase of the recovery process."

Journal of Family Psychotherapy

"[The authors] present a well-developed model of alcoholism recovery, refined through their many years of clinical experience with alcoholic families and adult children of alcoholics, and they illustrate its implications for therapeutic strategies with a rich variety of case histories....This very careful and comprehensive exposition of the developmental model of recovery and its application to clinical situations should be useful and instructive for therapists and clinical students."

Addiction

"This user-friendly text is a valuable addition to the area of research on the multi-dimensionality of alcoholism....Useful for clinicians, researchers, students, families, and individuals."

Criminal Justice Review

"This brilliantly detailed book is a 'must read' for clinicians navigating the treacherous waters of working with families in recovery. Drawing on substantive research and years of clinical experience, Brown and Lewis bring to life the complex trauma of recovery for individuals and families. They have provided an explicit guide for clinicians of all theoretical backgrounds, focusing on how to help families understand and tolerate the turmoil that often ensues when the drinker stops drinking." —David Treadway, PhD, author of Before it's Too Late: Working with Substance Abuse in the Family

"This book makes an important contribution to the literature. Utilizing vivid case examples, Brown and Lewis document the impact of alcoholism and recovery on individual family members and the family as a whole, and identify the clinical issues characterizing each stage of the recovery process. Beginning and experienced clinicians alike will benefit from reading this useful book." —S. Lala Ashenberg Straussner, DSW, CAS, Professor and Coordinator, Post-Master's Program in the Treatment of Alcohol and Drug Abusing Clients, Ehrenkranz School of Social Work, New York University

"The Alcoholic Family in Recovery is a major contribution to the addiction field. For years, there has been talk of the 'family disease' without a comprehensive model for family treatment. Brown and Lewis now provide a clear, concise, accessible, clinically sound, theoretically based, and much-needed map for working with families." —Stephanie Covington, PhD, LCSW, author of A Woman's Way Through the Twelve Steps, Co-Director, Institute for Relational Development

"This book is a rare and valuable accomplishment. It successfully integrates tough-minded original empirical research, multifaceted conceptualizations of great subtlety and heuristic power, and clinical acumen. Brown and Lewis simultaneously vivify the particular and illuminate the general, bringing universal family processes to life while also demonstrating the uniqueness of every recovering family. Beautifully written, the book is sure to help readers do more efficacious therapy with recovering families. It represents a major contribution to the field." —Jerome D. Levin, PhD, Director of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counseling Training Program, New School for Social Research

From the Publisher