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Harm reduction therapy with families and friends of people with drug problems
Author(s) -
Denning Patt
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.20671
Subject(s) - psychology , incrementalism , substance abuse , pessimism , harm reduction , grief , psychotherapist , harm , psychiatry , family therapy , clinical psychology , social psychology , medicine , nursing , public health , philosophy , epistemology , politics , political science , law
This article describes and illustrates the ongoing development of a treatment for working with families and friends of drug users using harm reduction principles. The author was instrumental in applying harm reduction principles to substance abuse and has used these same principles to help families deal with the pessimism, pain, and grief that accompany their relationship to a person with an active substance abuse problem. The treatment involves learning decision‐making processes based on both self‐care and love for the substance abuser and is based on the values of harm reduction, caring, and incrementalism, rather than those of codependency, tough love, and abrupt behavior change. A long‐term family therapy group and two family consultations illustrate the treatment and its applications. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 66: 1–11, 2010.