We used to think of “addiction”, or what we now call dependence, as a moral failing. This had the result of blaming the person who was addicted – it was a matter of willpower and they just weren’t trying hard enough. So the obvious solution was shaming and scolding until they did. In the mid-20th

If you’ve ever felt frustrated, exhausted or helpless about a client in treatment, you will know what it means to feel stuck in therapy. We’ve all been there. There are telltale therapist signs: Second-guessing yourself, feeling just a little bit relieved when they call to cancel the session, frantically changing therapy direction. And there are telltale signs from the

Alcohol and other drug problems aren’t destiny – apply the learning model of addiction in treatment Under a cognitive behavior model both alcohol and other drug use and addiction are considered to be learned behaviors that emerge over time, and can therefore be ‘unlearned’. They are assumed to operate within a context of a range