Letter From a Faith-Based Treatment Program

This email came to the LifeRing Service Center today:

I am the owner of a outpatient drug and alcohol treatment facility located in B___, NJ. Some of our clients are resistant to the disease concept of addiction and to the "powerlessness" suggested in the 1st step of AA. Our agency is faith based, however, we are open minded regarding providing treatment services that are secular for those who are not inclined to practice the 12 Step philosophy. Do you think LifeRing secular treatment would be beneficial? What is LifeRings philosophy/vision statement? Thank you for your response.

Dear Ms. _________:

You are not alone. I have spoken with dozens of treatment providers at all kinds of programs and heard the same message that you have expressed. The 12-step approach works well for some clients, but by no means for everyone. A program that has high professional standards will offer clients choices, so that more clients find something that fits and works for them.

LifeRing publishes a workbook, Recovery by Choice, that embodies the LifeRing approach. Its 300 pages in 14 chapters contain many dozens of worksheets and exercises that treatment providers find useful in a variety of settings, inpatient or out. There is easily enough content for a long-term program. For shorter interventions, the counselor is advised to select key items from each chapter, or from the chapters that are most applicable to the particular client.

The LifeRing approach in the most general terms is based on positive social reinforcement. It is, broadly speaking, a cognitive-behaviorist approach.

You can find out more from the following sources:

http://lifering.org/faq/index.htm -- a very short FAQ page

http://www.unhooked.com/lsr/three_s_philosophy.htm -- outline of the basic philosophy

http://www.unhooked.com/trxpro/index.htm -- Introduction for treatment professionals, with more resources

http://unhooked.com/lifering.org/index.htm -- About LifeRing, the organization

http://lifering.com/ -- Online bookstore, where you can order print and CD publications about LifeRing, including the workbook

I hope this is helpful and that we can be of assistance in offering your clients more pathways to recovery.