This email came in to the Service Center this week from a counselor in Dublin, Ireland:
I am writing to you in the hope that I may receive information about facilitating LifeRing meetings within our organisation. We are a community based organisation based in Dublin 12, we work with both problematic alcohol and drug users. We have at the moment A.A meetings being held each week, but it has come to our attention that the amount of people attending these meetings is far less than the amount of people who need help. When we put the question to the people who don't attend, their response is that they believe it was themselves who chose to drink or take drugs and that it should be themselves who chooses and has the power to stop. Since finding out about and from reading your web-site,(which I really enjoy and agree with) I have mentioned it to some of our service users and they seem excited at the idea of attending these meetings.
I understand that there are 2 meetings being held in Dublin, but I am hoping that maybe we can facilitate them here also. Is there any possibility of this? Or can I receive some information please about training myself to become a convenor of LifeRing.
Dennis S., the LifeRing convenor who founded the first two LifeRing meetings in Dublin, promptly contacted the writer and offered his assistance and cooperation. It's very likely, from the looks of it, that Dublin will soon have three LifeRings.
Note that this email comes from a counselor at a program that so far is exclusively 12-step oriented. If you looked at this program from the outside, seeing only the surface, you might write it off as a stone 12-step program, beyond hope.
But the clients on the inside have different ideas. The amount of people attending the 12-step meetings, the writer observed, "is far less than the amount of people who need help." That's just about a universal condition in every 12-step program. As we know from AA's own triennial membership surveys, reported in Don McIntire's journal article (covered in my book Empowering Your Sober Self), out of 100 people who approach AA, at the end of 90 days, 90 per cent have walked away.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that there's a gap here. To its immense credit, the staff at this program in Dublin actually asked the people who don't attend AA, why don't they? This is almost revolutionary in a profession that's very strong on talking at clients but not so good at listening to clients. But the client-centered spirit of Carl Rogers is penetrating even into substance abuse treatment, the most backward province in the kingdom of mental health treatment, and the result is what you see: clients who insist that they're not powerless to get free of alcohol and drugs, and who want support groups that acknowledge that power and reinforce it. In short, clients who want LifeRing.
Even in Ireland. Or perhaps: especially in Ireland.
I had the distinct pleasure this afternoon of speaking about LifeRing to a group of interns in San Francisco. These were all students at different colleges, ranging from trade schools and community colleges to UC Berkeley and even an Ivy League school or two. Some were undergraduates, some were working on a Psy.D. degree or M.F.T. certificate. They were all interning at New Leaf, the major center for counseling services to the LGBT community in San Francisco and the region, and they were a bright lot; you could feel the electricity from their brains crackling in the air.
Just one problem: almost none of them had heard of LifeRing before. You'd think, wouldn't you, that their teachers somewhere along the line would have mentioned to them that there are other approaches to substance abuse besides 12-step, and named some names?
In a recent New Yorker article, the writer tried to find out whether professors of economics in the universities had updated their theories in light of the recent economic crash. The answer was mostly negative. Most of them got their minds cast in cement a couple of decades ago. Could it be that something like that is going on with the professors of addiction studies?
I can think of some honorable exceptions: teachers who regularly send their students to check out support group meetings, including LifeRing. But clearly, judging by the experience of these interns, we have work to do. We need to educate some educators.
If you are a student in addiction studies and related fields and you have a teacher who has never heard of LifeRing, please forward their contact information to service@lifering.org, and we will undertake to send them some educational materials. Or, if you prefer, we'll send you the material and you can hand deliver it -- the best way.
And if your class would like to have a live LifeRing lecture, we can probably arrange that, too. Get in touch with the LifeRing Service Center, service@lifering.org or 1-800-811-4142.
P.S. Pietro Carnini, the New Leaf staff counselor who set up the gig, sent a very nice follow-up letter saying:
The interns found your presentation to be very informative, and they were pleased to hear about an alternative self-help program for those struggling with addiction. Their knowledge regarding this topic has been increased, and I believe that this is a result of your excellent presentation. I would welcome you to return next year to provide training on this topic.
And thank you, Pietro, for the invitation. I look forward to doing it again.
Nicolaus offers us a clear window into the basic approach of LifeRing Secular Recovery, one of the major secular alternatives to AA. LifeRing was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999 and became a national organization at a founding conference in Florida in 2001. LifeRing hosts face-to-face recovery support meetings, a range of e-mail lists for member- to-member communication, online (www.unhooked.com, www.lifering.org) chat rooms and Internet forum (bulletin board), an online social network (lifering.ning.com), LifeRing social events, and the annual LifeRing Congress.
In Empower Your Sober Self, Nicolaus has created an engaging text for individuals seeking recovery and for service professionals wanting a greater understanding of LifeRing’s core ideas and recovery support strategies. Empower Your Sober Self also includes the voices of many LifeRing members whose personal stories illustrate key points in the book.
The discussions in this book include some of the more controversial issues in the addictions field. Nicolaus outlines positions on these issues clearly and forcefully and in ways that help distinguish LifeRing Secular Recovery from 12-step programs and from other 12-step alternatives. This book is intended to inform rather than convert. Not everyone will agree with the ideas and approaches set forth here, but for the past decade, individuals and families have used LifeRing Secular Recovery as an effective framework to initiate and maintain long-term recovery from life-impairing addictions. Those recoveries are cause for celebration, and this book details how they did it. Those seeking a solution to alcohol and other drug problems and professionals assisting people with such problems will find great value in Empower Your Sober Self.
This strikes me as a fair and even-handed assessment and I'm grateful to the writer. It's also a good sign that the journal, which goes to the more research-minded echelons of the treatment profession and to academics, has taken note of this book. Hopefully, the review -- and the book, for those who will read it -- will persuade a larger number of treatment professionals to include LifeRing meetings in their referral pool.
For a PDF copy of the complete review, click here.
Stephanie Bryan emailed the lifering.org website yesterday:
I'm a therapist in private practice in Boulder. I recently learned about LifeRing as I was searching for a secular support system for a client. I attended a Wednesday meeting in Denver, learned about Empowering Your Sober Self, found copies at The Tattered Cover (the premier locally-owned bookstore in Denver) for my client and myself, read the book in its entirety and loved it, took my client to a Thursday meeting in Denver, was able to purchase a copy of Recovery by Choice at that meeting, and was able to use it with my client before he left town for a long-term in-patient treatment program in Arizona for people age 17-25.
I purchased two copies of Recovery by Choice directly from the LifeRing Service Center so I will have them for future clients. I notice you do not have any treatment providers listed in Colorado, so I was wondering if I could be listed. This is what I would like:
Stephanie Bryan, LCSW, CAC III, NCAC II
REAL Parenting
1530 55th Street
Boulder, CO 80303
303-397-0646
"I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Addictions Counselor, and Certified Parent Coach. I have worked in mental health and addictions since 1984. My parent education and parent coaching work is primary prevention, helping parents raise kids who won't make some of the poorer choices their parents made. I recently learned about LifeRing when I was seeking a secular recovery program for a client. I attended some LifeRing meetings, read Empowering Your Sober Self, and realized the LifeRing approach is compatible with the clinical work I do. I am trained in Cognitive Behavior Therapy, EMDR, and Brainspotting."
Stephanie:
Thanks for your post. On the lifering.org website there is a "Find Treatment" tab and a page listing "Preferred Providers." Preferred providers are, of course, providers like yourself who offer their clients treatment modalities beyond (or other than) 12-step. We do not charge for these listings, although we always appreciate it when listed providers make a tax-deductible donation. I, as the webmaster, am sometimes slow in responding to emailed requests for a listing, particularly when the request doesn't indicate any particular affinity with the LifeRing approach. Sometimes the requests come from stone 12-step programs that are pretending to be better than they are so as to lure more clients. But in a case like Stephanie's I am happy not only to post her listing, but to feature it in this blog, because Stephanie has actually read and used LifeRing literature with a client and has personally checked out a LifeRing meeting. That makes her a Preferred Provider, for real!
Dr. B. J. Davis and I had a good day Saturday Nov. 21 in Sacramento CA, teaching a group of addiction counselors about LifeRing and Choice Theory. LifeRing convenor Robert O. in Sacramento deserves major kudos for getting the event on the calendar and getting every detail, including ample refreshments, in place on the day of the event. Two leading members of CAADAC (the California Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors), namely regional director Pete Nielsen and regional vice-president Karl Hexberg, arranged for Continuing Education Units, email-blasted the regional membership, and prepared the paperwork, and Karl sat through the entire session.
We started at 9 am, and I began my 200-slide PowerPoint about half an hour later. I covered basic facts about LifeRing, such as where the meetings were located and typical characteristics of our membership, and then outlined the 3-S philosophy. I got to the end of the second S by lunch time. It was a good interactive session with just about everyone in the room getting into the discussion and nobody falling asleep.
After lunch I finished the third S, and then Dr. Davis talked for about 45 minutes about Choice Theory and his research into Quality of Life in recovery. Then I picked it up again and covered the LifeRing meeting format and the Recovery by Choice workbook. I had to cut it short as we ran out of time but certainly the main points got across. The audience were attentive the whole time. There was lots of crosstalk, all of it positive. Even though a number of folks present identified themselves as 12-step, there was no tension or animosity on either side.
Both Dr. Davis and I got a lot of thanks at the end, and I got a couple of inquiries about giving the LifeRing talk in other towns. There were people from Vallejo, Petaluma, Yuba City, and other towns plus local Sacramento folks at the session. Our only regrets were that not more people from social services agencies in the city attended, because apparently they were not included on the email lists. We're talking about repeating this training in the spring, this time with broader advance publicity.
My article, "Choice of Support Groups: It's the Law" is in the current issue of Counselor magazine, which is not only the best publication of its type but also, now, the official journal of the California Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC).
The article discusses the recent federal court decision holding that the 12-step program is religious in nature, when viewed in light of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
If you don't happen to receive this publication in the mail, I've scanned this article and made a PDF file for downloading. It's at http://lifering.org/discussion/Counselor-Choice-Article.pdf -- be patient, it's a 16 mb file and takes a bit of time to download.
This article is an expansion and update of the LifeRing brochure of the same title, available for download here.
You can also view a slideshow and an informal video of a talk I gave on this topic, here.
Today is my seventeenth anniversary clean and sober. I woke up at 5 am and by a quarter to six was on the road from my home in Berkeley to Sacramento to staff the LifeRing table at the annual conference of CAADAC, the California Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors. Here's a snapshot of the Sacramento skyline from my car window at dawn.
Shortly after 7 am I landed in the LifeRing meeting in the Rose Room of the Marriott. This was the first LifeRing meeting ever at the annual CAADAC event. When I arrived, the CAADAC organizers were still setting up and there was no lobby sign directing people to the meeting, but the nice person unpacking at the registration desk immediately answered my request for directions to the LifeRing meeting. And lo! There were familiar LifeRing signs in the hallway and outside the door, and inside, Sacramento convenor Bob O. had assembled a pioneer bunch of LifeRing participants to make the meeting real. We didn't have all that many CAADAC people in the room at that hour, but the fact that the meeting was on the schedule helped a great deal with name recognition as I sat at the LifeRing exhibit table this morning.
We had a good table just inside the entry door of the exhibit room -- a considerable improvement over last year when we were packed like sardines -- and CAADAC CEO Rhonda Messamore came over and delivered a friendly welcome early in the morning. Later in the day I had a few minutes of chat with CAADAC President Joe Aragon, and gave him the sixty-second version of how LifeRing works. I also had a chance to pick up copies of the new October issue of Counselor, the magazine for addiction professionals, containing on p. 40 my article, "Choice of Support Groups-- It's the Law!" This mag goes to all CAADAC members as part of their membership, and a stack of copies was on the next table over.
Of the dozens who stopped at the table to look and chat, just one person walked away in a pout when told this was a way to get clean and sober other than via the 12 steps. Everyone else perked up in interest. Every counselor I talked to knew that client resistance to 12-step is a reality, and most understood that professionalism means offering the client options. It was particularly rewarding to talk with the many chemical dependency students who were attending the conference. Almost without exception, they were being taught that there are multiple roads to recovery and that they need to understand and provide options to their clients.
The future is bright.
But there's a way to go. The theme of this year's CAADAC event was "Moving Beyond Tolerance: Creating a Multiculturally competent workforce." You would think then that the keynote plenary address would take off on this theme and feature -- dare we hope -- a speaker from some culture other than Wonder Bread? Wrong. There was no greater cultural diversity among the plenary speakers this year than in past years. One of the few speakers on the program who has genuine credentials of birth, scientific competence and clinical experience in this subject -- Dr. B.J. Davis of Strategies for Change -- was marginalized to an afternoon breakout in competition with four other speakers. Davis would have been the logical plenary keynoter for a conference with this theme, if the Association meant "development of a multiculturally competent workforce" as more than window dressing.
Things were slower in the exhibit hall on the second day and I had a chance to chat at some length with Bob O., the LifeRing convenor in Sacramento whose quiet energy has a lot to do with the fact that we now have seven -- count them -- seven LifeRing meetings in the Sacramento area. The work that Bob has been doing exemplifies in my mind the role of area convenor (or "regional coordinator") that we are developing as part of the LifeRing expansion project. Sitting with me at the table all day Saturday, Bob had a chance to meet some of the CAADAC bigwigs and, perhaps more importantly, local area treatment providers and students.
It was also a pleasure to get a message from Jo Marie G., the pioneer convenor who started the first LifeRing meeting in Sacramento not so very long ago. Her job kept her away but she is doing fine and keeps in touch.
I also had the chance to meet the newest LifeRing convenor in Sacramento, Dan F. Dan is a counseling student and started the new Friday afternoon meeting in south City.
During dull moments in the exhibit hall Bob and I chatted with several people who took turns staffing the NA table. One of them told us that some judges in Marin County discriminated against NA and would only refer people to AA. That surprised me, but then it's not news that some judges need educating.
Speaking of educating, one of the people who stopped by the LifeRing table was a Washington lobbyist who represents counseling professionals. He said that his biggest headache is persuading legislators that addiction is a disease on a par with other mental health illnesses. They think it's a spiritual maladjustment or a character defect. But once he has them convinced it's a disease, he has to do a 180 degree turn and convince them that you don't need medical qualifications to treat it.
Just a few days before the conference, CAADAC sent out an emergency appeal to call the governor and tell him to veto a bill on his desk that would require addiction professionals to have the same educational background as other mental health treatment providers, namely a Master's degree at a minimum. This would throw the huge majority of California treatment professionals out of work. In this state you can provide front line treatment for the disease of addiction without having a high school diploma. Disaster was averted by amendment at the last minute.
My lobbyist friend was fully aware of the irony. Addiction professionals demand parity in funding but reject parity in qualifications. It's an Alice-in-Wonderland world.
In this regard, Bob O. asked why LifeRing spends the money (around $700) to put an exhibit table in this conference. Shouldn't the conference be paying us to be here? Certainly we don't make the money back in book sales. This is not, on the whole, a book buying crowd; counselors are notoriously underpaid. The answer, if there is a good one, is name recognition. We are still widely unknown in the profession, and it costs money to fix that. We're buying space in the "aha" region of the addiction professional's brain. If our name comes up, it sounds familiar to them, instead of strange. And that translates, over time, into referrals to LifeRing meetings. That's what we're paying for. It is, in my opinion, money well spent. Although really, for the price, the conference should throw in lunch.
Email received at the LifeRing Service Center today:
I am married to an alcoholic who is currently attending AA meetings and finds them helpful and fulfilling. I am looking for ways to help myself heal emotionally and cope with her recovery; she strongly recommends Al-Anon, AA's companion organization for friends and loved ones, but I am uncomfortable with the 12-step format and the religious content. LifeRing was, I believe, recommended by an acquaintance (it may have been my father-in-law, come to think of it) and looking over the website, the LifeRing Partners program sounds perfect for me. Unfortunately, I'm not having any luck finding a schedule of LifeRing Partners meetings in the Northern California area. Is one available, and if so, where might I find it?
Thanks,
A.
Dear A:
A quick answer. LifeRing Partners as of today is "all hat and no cattle." Energy has been put into drafting a Statement of Principles (how nice!) but so far no one has stepped forward to actually organize anything. Sooner or later someone with the talent and tenacity to turn this concept into a living reality will appear. Watch the website for announcements.
The turnout of treatment professionals for my full day LifeRing training yesterday surpassed expectations. More than 25 people squeezed into the conference room next to the Service Center in Oakland. Some had come from as far as Sacramento for the six-hour session. All except three, who were LifeRing convenors, were working in the addiction treatment field.
Peg Miller, a Vice-President of CAADAC and responsible for organizing trainings in CAADAC Region 4, which includes the Bay Area, organized the event, handled logistics, and awarded people their certificates of completion at the end. LifeRing CFO Robert Stump organized coffee and pastries in the morning and helped set up the room. Service Center volunteer Lou A. assisted with room setup the previous day.
The program took six hours, not counting an hour for lunch. During five of those hours, I presented a slide show of exactly 200 slides. Here's my outline:
LifeRing
An Introduction for Addiction Professionals
By Martin Nicolaus MA JD
CAADAC Region 4 Training
Sept. 19, 2009
Objectives
• To understand basic facts about LifeRing
• To get how LifeRing works
• To pick up tools that can be used with clients
• To facilitate client involvement with LifeRing
Hour 1: Basic facts about LifeRing
• What is LifeRing?
• Where is LifeRing?
• Who goes to LifeRing?
• How is LifeRing organized?
Hour 2: The Three-S Philosophy
• Sobriety
• Secularity
• Self-Help
Hour 3: How LifeRing Works
• Empower Your Sober Self: A short overview
• In more depth:
o The Divided Self
o Horizontal Synergy
o Confrontation v. Support Strategies
Hour 4: The LifeRing Meeting Format
• Circle seating
• “How was your week?”
• Crosstalk
• Limits
• Aim: Living Room atmosphere
• Closing ritual: Round of applause
• Peer leadership
• Signup sheet -- basket
Hour 5: How people build Personal Recovery Programs (PRP)
Two Pathways to PRP
Through the “How Was Your Week” Meeting Format
“Random access”
Through the Recovery by Choice workbook
• Nine Domains (Work Areas)
• My Decision
o The A-S T-chart
• Domain 1: My Body
• Domain 4: My People
• Relapse Chapter
• Pulling the PRP Together
Result: Diversity of Programs
Pros and Cons of PRP
Closing Thoughts
• LifeRing is a Strength-Based Approach
• The Aim of LifeRing is Choice
o We need more pathways
o Choice should not be controversial
What can providers do?
Choice is good program policy
More choices = more recoveries
For more information:
www.lifering.org – LifeRing, the organization
www.lifering.com – LifeRing Press e-commerce store
LifeRing Service Center, 1440 Broadway, Ste. 312, Oakland 94612
service@lifering.org
1-800-811-4142
P.S. Today, Monday, Peg Miller kindly sent me the program evaluations (feedback sheets) filled out by participants at the end of the program. Namely:
WORKSHOP EVALUATION (scale is 0-below satisfactory to 5-above satisfactory)
Your overall rating of subject matter:
• 20 5's
• 2 4's Your overall rating of the trainer:
• 17 5's
• 5 4's Your overall rating of the materials'handouts:
• 15 5's
• 4 4's
• 1 2
• 1 0 with comment (needed handouts--powerpoint printouts)
• 1 not marked--"handouts" circled followed by comment: "sparse hard to follow" Your overall rating of the training/workshop:
• 16 5's
• 6 4's Your overall rating of the fees:
• 18 5's
• 3 4's
• 1 not marked and with comment: "two days I went to training in NAPA... cost $75...$10 is nice"
Comments on this page:
Very good TR...affordable in very hard times
Educational, motivational in terms of realizing the need for choice.
Helped solidify what I had gleaned from the web site and publications
It was great!!!
Uncomfortable room
Enjoyed this training...learned a lot
Very interesting!
Excellent presentation Very worthwhile
I am glad that I had a chance to learn more about the organization.
Most important point missed...we refer less to LR with clients because there are few, and we teach clients to stay connected to others, to stay sober.
I was surprised by how much I learned today.
Difficult to sit in these chairs in small room
Lots of good info... Some areas/topics were too lengthy--redundant. Good program--Glad to see it growing in availability.
POST TEST INFO:
What did you learn today from Martin A. Nicolaus about LifeRing?
• Three-S Recovery Philosophy; Strength-Based Sober Self Empowerment engine is positive practice of reinforcement; abstinence only is foundational; Personal Recovery Plans are highly individualized through support mtgs plus workbook; able to combine with variety of the models
• Choise is best...many different paths
• LifeRing is truly secular; LifeRing offers a choice other than faith based or 12 step; LifeRing emphasizes empowerment and positive reinforcement of the individual
• A lot. Ways I can improve the program I work for by LifeRing tech and beliefs.
• Many interesting things, among others personal recovery plan, that I found very powerful tool in recovery.
• The S & A model for recovery and how it works through reinforcement. That all "personalities" are equally capable to become addicted.
• It is focused on building on strengths of the individual--provides a choice--Personal Recovery Plan.
• Lots--the choice factor; the love--feeding the S; forgive me--I'm way too tired and burnt to say more, but I got so much out of it.
• Philosophy and history of LifeRing. I am a convenor.
• How to get treatment programs to mention LifeRing as a group option.
• That it mirrors my thinking about Treatment Approaches.
• We have another option
• Focus on individual treatment.
• The client is instrumental in his own recovery if given the opportunity.
• Secular spirituality--support sober self.
• There is an alternative approach to group support other than NA/AA.
• Friend.
• Lots! I knew nothing of LifeRing.
• The PRP program.
• Philosophy...mtg structure.
• It gives clients more of a choice.
How will you incorporate this information into your practice as a drug and alcohol counselor personally and in the agency you work in?
• Philosophy and concepts (client choice, strength based, flexible treatment and support options); Skills--workbook exercises--alt. HWYW support mtg formats.
• Continue with MET, RET use LifeRing principles in class, educate staff, talk with LifeRing meetings as Option more.
• By A--facilitating myself with the visual and cognitive tools and use them in 1 on 1 sessions and groups; B--suggest to agency to use LifeRing possibily in continuing care program.
• Investigating L.R. for and in my own recovery. The applying LR to the program.
• I will use the point that the patient takes responsibility for his own recovery more than I did before. I would share todays experience with coworkers.
• The strengthening of each individual will be the focus. And shifting the focus from flaws to what they are capable of and what they find works for them.
• Help clients and staff understand the nature of building up the sober self through the interchange bewteen people--focusing on here and now
• I bought the work book--I'm sure I'll use it next week!
• My meetings will have an enriched meaning due to the workshop today.
• Refer
• I will introduce the information about LifeRing to my director.
• Gives me encouragement to do more research on the subject.
• Already do--offer as a choice of support group.
• I hope to start a group for teens.
• Present client with choices...give basic info about LifeRing.
• Working more with clients to focus on a personal service plan.
• Plan to discuss implementation of LifeRing on the approval by my Program Director.
• Consider choice.
• LifeRing used to do presentations at NCADA...can do again.
• Not in field.
• I am a convenor.
How can you contribute this material to your fellow counselors?
• Educate and consult re: LifeRing as resource; inputs to program policy and planning; follow ups to stay current on related research
• In community meeting; 1 on 1 discuss content
• Familiarizing myself with the materials and sharing them at staff mtgs.
• Word of mouth. Introducing things from work book into our program.
• Through LifeRing Website.
• Case conferencing, loaning my materials and discussing the information.
• Not sure yet.
• I will discuss the information with other convenors ASAP (any who were not present)
• Talk about it
• Sharing interaction. Communicating presentation ideas.
• Tell them to check it out.
• Already do.
• Do presentation.
• Share information, go to LifeRing meeting, go to web site; present it in Case Conference.
• Staff Meeting.
• Discuss this training with them.
• Shared information.
To your clients?
• Client info and materials re: LifeRing; use workbook exercises--ind, and group; Encourage ? families LifeRing
• Will use stuff from workbooks; agian, refer as much to LR as AA
• Sharing the ideas learned; by continually recognizing the sober person living inside my clients
• Introducing things from workbook into our program--word of mouth.
• Refer them to the closest meeting place and website.
• The strengthening of each individual will be the focus. And shifting the focus from flaws to what they are csapable of and what they find works for them.
• Plan to start a LifeRing group and turn it over to a group member eventually.
• Pamphlets of where meetings are and the workbook.
• NA
• None yet.
• Continue letting them know there is no one road or treatment towards recovery.
• Give them another option.
• Give them choice at intake.
• Do a presentation.
• Incorporate LifeRing materials to practice.
• One on one sessions.
• Paroles/State prison
• Consider choice.
• Shared info.
P.S. 9/28/09: I've posted the PowerPoint at http://www.unhooked.com/trxpro/CAADAC workshop.ppt -- just the slides, no sound track. When I get time I hope to create a sound track and make a Flash video (or a series of them) based on this presentation. -- MN
This email came in to the LifeRing Service Center today:
I am a 54 year old recovering alcoholic, 25 years sober today actually. I've read Martin's book [Empowering Your Sober Self] and am very excited. I am a licensed alcohol counselor in practice for 17 years and my experience is that about 60% or more of clients DO NOT want anything to do with AA. For all the reasons that Martin cites.
I've always wanted to do something for the community (vs. for my own practice/income) and I think starting LifeRing in this area is the ticket. I'd like to know how to get started. I've got a place to hold the meeting, for up to about 12 or so. After it gets bigger I can deal with finding a bigger place. This is a VERY rural area so even AA meetings hover around 6 to 18 very seldom going over 25. But I'm sure there is a hunger for some alternative to "the 12 steps" in addiction recovery around here and I'd like to get a meeting off the ground. There are no [alternative] meetings even close to here. ...
Please let me know how to start and what help is available from your organization. I've read Empowering Your Sober Self and have the workbook on order.
The book that this writer probably needs most immediately is How Was Your Week? That's version 1.0 of a handbook for LifeRing convenors (meeting starters and meeting facilitators). A key chapter, dealing with how to start meetings in new locations, is online free here. More information about available resources is on the Meeting Starter page of www.lifering.org. I wish the writer the very best of success in starting LifeRing in his neck of the woods, and congratulations on 25 years clean and sober!
Quite a few recovering people in various treatment programs have expressed the wish that LifeRing filled more than an hour in their week. The desire for "more LifeRing" is especially strongly felt in programs where the other hours consist of heavy-duty 12-step lectures and meetings.
Of course, there is no such thing as a LifeRing treatment program, and there probably oughtn't to be. We are a peer-to-peer support group, and should always remain that. So much of our fundamental approach is premised on horizontal support dynamics that the introduction of vertical relationships -- inevitable in today's insurance-dominated treatment settings -- would bring about wrenching distortions. Still, wouldn't it be liberating if today's treatment professionals saw their role as not only facilitating 12-step involvement but also facilitating LifeRing involvement? Whatever works best for the client?
For treatment professionals in Northern California, an opportunity to learn the basics of LifeRing is coming on Saturday, Sept. 19. Thanks to sponsorship by CAADAC, the California association of addiction professionals, I'll be presenting an all-day workshop at the LifeRing Service Center in downtown Oakland. I'll be selecting material from Empowering Your Sober Self (my new book), from the Recovery by Choice workbook, from How Was Your Week (our convenor handbook) and from other sources. This six-hour program is aimed at treatment professionals, and six hours of Continuing Education credit, plus an hour of Professional Development credit, are offered. However, space permitting, any interested person, including of course any LifeRing participant, is welcome to take part. It only costs $10.
Here's a page with details about the venue, parking, meals, etc. Hope to see you there!
The October issue of Counselor magazine, the premier monthly journal of addiction professionals, will include an article I wrote about a recent federal court decision that requires a secular option in coerced treatment settings.
I reported on this court decision -- Inouye v. Kemna -- in a talk to the 2008 CAADAC conference, and there is an informal video and a slide show of the presentation on the LifeRing website, here. But the upcoming Counselor magazine article is the first print coverage of this important federal court decision, and of its precedents, in a nationally distributed medium read by addiction professionals.
The court decision says, in a nutshell, that criminal justice officers and addiction treatment professionals in a government setting should be aware by now that they cannot force clients into 12-step treatment or support groups over their objection, but must provide secular alternatives; and if they do coerce clients into 12-step, they and their agencies can be sued for money damages.
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.
A few weeks ago, as I reported elsewhere, I was invited to speak about LifeRing at Mountain Vista Farm, one of the oldest rural inpatient treatment programs in California. Mountain Vista's reputation is that of a citadel of the 12-step approach. Yet there was genuine interest in hearing about the LifeRing approach, and my presentation appeared to resonate with quite a few of the counselors in attendance.
Now comes an invitation to speak about LifeRing at another well-known bastion of the 12-step approach, the Henry Ohloff program in San Francisco. I will be addressing staff at the outpatient center on June 2. Like Mountain Vista, this program is not ready to host a LifeRing meeting, and it may be quite a while before the treatment protocol opens up to the reality that there are many roads to recovery. But meanwhile, there are staff members in these tradition-bound programs who have their eyes and ears open for new developments that may help some of their clients.
This is certainly a welcome sign. If I ask why it is occurring, the answer is that patients/clients are driving it. In at least 80 per cent of the cases where we are contacted by a treatment professional and asked for more information about LifeRing, a patient or client was the driver. A patient or client introduced the professional to LifeRing literature or the LifeRing web presence, or informed the professional that he/she was attending LifeRing and that it was helping.
And even when an individual patient or client is not directly the driver, in the sense that he or she located LifeRing and put LifeRing on the professional's radar screen, it is still patients/clients who drive the process passively, by voting with their feet when the professionals only offer an approach that does not work for them. A treatment program that only offers the 12 steps and nothing else is going to experience, sooner or later, the reality that 80 per cent of newcomers to AA walk away within 30 days (and 95 per cent within a year).
While few treatment programs retain a patient as long as a full 30 days -- the average stay at one nominally 28-day program I know is around 10 days -- the client resistance to 12-step may well show up from Day One of treatment. If the program has nothing else to offer, it's going to lose clients earlier than if it offered choices. Monomodal treatment translates into high patient turnover. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.
And so, the wheels turn, and sooner or later a call goes out to LifeRing, or another alternative approach. Quite a few LifeRing convenors now have had the experience of explaining LifeRing before audiences in treatment programs. To be sure, it's far too early to proclaim a tsunami, but if we compare the interest in LifeRing from treatment programs ten years ago and now, we're almost in a new era. Ten years ago, most minds were closed and we couldn't get in the door. Today, we're frequently in the embarassing situation of getting requests from a program director to start a meeting, and not having a convenor to take the room. It's a problem, but it's a better problem to have.
"Choices abound to help you stay on the path to recovery" is the upbeat title on a Jan. 7 story by Jodi Mailander Farrell, posted on the Sober24 blog. She leads off with that wonderful 1944 quote by Bill Wilson that's also a tagline on www.unhooked.com: "The roads to recovery are many."
Another nice quote is: "There are not just 12-step programs anymore," spoken by Pat Taylor, executive director of Faces & Voices in Recovery. F&VR is an advocate of the new recovery model charted by William L. White and others, reviewed here and in my New Recovery blog, and it's a good sign to hear Taylor say it. Was the echo of Dorothy's line, "We're not in Kansas anymore" intentional?
Among the options Farrell includes is peer-to-peer counseling at recovery centers, pharmacological treatment, and non-religious groups. I was naturally very pleased that, under this last heading, Farrell cites LifeRing. But I was dismayed to read the next sentence:
"LifeRing Secular Recovery, a California-based nonprofit, bills itself as the anti-12-Step approach."
That's just flat wrong. Farrell must have us confused with some other group. We have never "billed ourselves" as "anti'" any other recovery approach. Although our approach differs in some fundamental ways from 12-step, we are not "anti" 12-step or anti-anything else that helps some people get sober. We specifically bar attacks on any other recovery approach during our meeting hours. About a third of our membership also participates in 12-step groups, and that's fine. We are not about negating other approaches. We are about adding to the range of choices available to the recovering person.
In my forthcoming book, Empowering Your Sober Self: The LifeRing Approach to Addiction Recovery, I begin by taking note of a central fact that emerges from solid statistics and from widespread clinical experience: only a small minority of people who start in AA stick with it. (At the end of one year only five per cent are still attending, and not all of those are sober.) I then go on to outline the LifeRing approach , suggesting that more people will get sober if there are more different roads for them to walk on. Much later in the book (Ch. 5 of 7) I ask why so many people walk away from AA after trying it, and I suggest that one big turnoff is the doctrine of powerlessness, which derives from one particular and widely rejected stripe of theology. I also criticize some versions of the disease concept and an exaggerated emphasis on genetics. But to criticize some of the theoretical foundations of the 12-step approach in a book is not to become "anti" the whole organized 12-step effort. No matter how wrong-headed I think some of the 12-step theory is, the 12-step organizations remain social groupings where (mostly) sober people gather, and it's fundamental to my understanding of recovery that any gathering of sober people is a good thing and deserves support.
Unfortunately the blog post where Farrell's story appears doesn't allow for reader comments. So I've posted my remarks to Farrell's Facebook page (incidentally, I had to join Facebook to do so (groan, more computer time)) and I've asked her to please post a correction.
Farrell's paragraph on LifeRing goes on to say:
The group’s meetings encourage give-and-take dialogue with no religious overtones, as opposed to the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) practice of uninterrupted monologue.
That's true enough, but again the phrase "as opposed to" puts an unnecessary edge on things. There are people who like "uninterrupted monologue" and it works for them, and they also like LifeRing meetings, where we have dialogue. It's not necessarily either-or, it's both-and. The point is not to knock one thing down, but to broaden the range of choices available.
P.S. Farrell responded to my email with surprise that this item of hers was picked up just now; she wrote it a long time ago and "It's been out for a long, long time...I'm sure some of it is outdated."
A blogger who focuses on recovery from opiate addiction observes that there are now recovery options besides 12-step, including LifeRing, but wants to talk with people who use them to find out what it does for them.
If you are recovering from opiate use in LifeRing, you might want to sign onto that blog and share your experiences.
From Kathleen Gargan, who represented LifeRing at the American Psychological Association Conference in Boston:
I'm back from the 2008 American Psychological Association Conference in Boston. This was a fascinating, if exhausting, experience. The exhibition Hall was open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and from 9;00 a.m. to noon on Sunday.
On Thursday and Friday, I handed out 317 "Welcome to LifeRing" pamphlets, and repeated my "In a Nutshell" description of LifeRing: "Can I tell you about LifeRing? LifeRing is a non-profit, secular alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous for people who don't relate to the spiritual or religious focus of the 12 step approach."
I learned quickly how important it was to get the word "nonprofit" out of my mouth as soon as possible, since most of the other booths were there to sell something. On Saturday and Sunday, traffic was much lighter and I gave out 75 pamphlets and visited exhibit booths of treatment centers, as well as academics who were giving papers on addiction related topics.
I also visited the AA and NA booths and was received cordially in each case. By far, most of the people I talked to were very positive about LifeRing. No one wanted to argue about The One True Way to get clean and sober.
One man asked if AA was "threatened" by our group. I told him that it certainly doesn't need to be, and asked him what made him ask such an interesting question.He laughed and said something about territoriality.
Even people I interrupted as they walked by very quickly with the "my destination is more important than anything you could possibly tell me" vibe thanked me for stopping them when they heard about LifeRing.
Several people wanted to know if we had studies to show the effectiveness of LifeRing; some asked if we were related to Rational Recovery, and many people expressed surprise to hear that such a thing as a secular recovery program could exist!
Therapistsfrom Oregon, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Massachusetts and Utah wanted to know if there were face-to-face meetings in their area. Psychologists and students from Kuwait, Egypt, Spain, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico now know about LifeRing.
I collected cards from several people who want more info One author from Pennsylvania expressed interest in doing an article about non 12 step recovery programs for the state Psychologists' journal. I plan to follow up with an email to each one.It was wonderful to hear so many people say that there is a great need for a secular alternative to 12 step programs.
It seems to me that having a presence at this event automatically gave LifeRing a certain gravity; as if we should be taken seriously as a resource for recovery. There were no representatives from Women for Sobriety, Smart Recovery or S.O.S. Likely this is because it is expensive to participate. (I learned when I arrived that we were
required to rent 10 square ft of carpet, $218.00 for 3 & 1/2 days,
and if we wanted a table and chair, we would need to rent them as well, and for equally appalling amounts)
I also feel that it would be helpful to have more than one person "personning" the booth. Sometimes as I was talking to someone, I noticed 4 more people walking by. Also, as time went on, I found I had less energy to approach people. I would have helped to have had at least one other person there to reach more people and to trade off with. Of course this will not always be possible, but it's something to think about for future conferences.
All in all, I'm very glad I got to do this gig, and I recommend to all!
I'm sure there is pertinent information I am leaving out. Please ask me questions if you want to know more!
As noted on the bulletin board, the Ontario (Canada) based group Addictions are Us recently affiliated with LifeRing.Addictions are Us brings their own "Recovery Stills" format where meetings consist of three parts, an open discussion (much like How Was Your Week), a directed topical discussion (like one section of a Recovery By Choice Workbook group), and a carry-over of a past discussion.The group's new brochure describes the format in more detail.Take a look at it here.
What may be of most interest to LifeRing convenors is the rotating topics list for the second section.Most are topics that appear in Recovery by Choice.Some are not.Some convenors may have a list like this – plus topics of local interest – handy for times when their group wants to do something a little different.
Cravings & Triggers Daily Program Trust – Using it and re-building it. Dreams About Using Setting Goals How to Handle New Free Time Expectations Communication Importance of Diet Importance of Exercise Problem Solving Small Steps – Large Changes Journalizing Anger Management Identifying Feelings Allowing for Change in Yourself Alternative Sources of Support Cycles in Mood Stress Management Helpful Criticism – How to deal with it. Substitute compulsions / addictions Dealing with loss Holidays – Extra plan for handling those special functions Post Acute Withdrawal symptoms
Convenors seeking to make their own brochures may also find Southern Ontario example illustrative.
This past week I've given LifeRing presentations to two groups of lawyers, one in Hayward and another one here in Oakland, today. At the Oakland talk a number of social workers were also in the audience. There were expressions of surprise both from the lawyers and from the social workers when I mentioned the recent federal court case that said 12-step groups are religious and that a government official cannot refer a client exclusively to 12-step groups. I was surprised they were surprised -- I kind of thought that maybe lawyers would know this stuff and that social workers would have been told by their employers. Am I naive, or what! Sooo, right after the noontime talk today I drafted up a new LifeRing brochure, called "Choice of Support Groups: It's the Law," and I would appreciate it if those of you concerned with this issue would have a look at it and give me the benefit of your comments on the brochure. The draft is posted for your download here. Please post comments on the brochure here.
The text of the brochure is drawn largely from my earlier blog post about this court case, there. Please post comments about the court decision there. Thank you.
Two of my favorite scholars have combined to write a powerhouse of an article that everyone interested in addiction treatment will want to read. William R. Miller, co-author of the Handbook of Alcoholism Treatment Approaches (reviewed here), and William L. White, author of the monumental history Slaying the Dragon (reviewed here), have written what hopefully will be an obituary for an era, entitled "Confrontation in Addiction Treatment." It's in Counselor Magazine.
I've posted excerpts and a short comment in the New Recovery Blog; go there.
This email came in to the Service Center this week from a counselor in Dublin, Ireland:
