The Beyond Addiction Workbook for Family and Friends: Evidence-Based Skills to Help a Loved One Make Positive Change

by Jeffrey Foote, Kenneth Carpenter PhD, Carrie Wilkens PhD

A practical and compassionate approach for helping your loved one change. If you have a loved one who is struggling with alcohol or other drugs, you may have feelings of frustration, anger, fear, or sadness. You may also feel powerless and unsure of how to help them, and how best to support them over time. You don’t have to try a “tough love” approach or wait for your loved one to “hit rock bottom” before taking action. You can be a force for positive change in your loved one’s life. This compassionate guide will show you how. From the authors of Beyond Addiction , this healing and supportive workbook offers practical, evidence-based skills to help you address substance use or other compulsive behaviors with your loved one in a productive way—without creating conflict. You’ll also gain a greater understanding for their struggle, and learn essential strategies for improving communication and coping with your own feelings. Whether your loved one seems reluctant to change, or is actively seeking support, this workbook will give you the tools needed to help them on their journey. Using the authors’ Invitation to Change approach, you’ll

Genres: Addiction

216 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2022

Reviews

[Tina James · Rating 5 out of 5]

We cannot speak highly enough of this excellent book!

This review is from one of the forgotten 5 million family members in the UK affected by substance use disorder in their home. Our journey began back in 2008, but if yours is is just beginning, the information in this book is among the best we have found to date.

You may not yet have heard of approaches such as CRAFT (Community Reinforcement And Family Training), MI (Motivational Interviewing) and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) but these modern, evidence based techniques are all used in the development of this workbook. Better still, these skills are delivered in a simple easy to understand fashion that can be used in the highly stressful situations we find ourselves in.

From our experience of getting professional support, the material in the book is a great bench mark for those providing holistic support for those in recovery and their families. This workbook is a great update and practical guide to their previous excellent and widely read “Beyond Addiction”.

If you are contemplating setting up a peer support group, or want to update and improve your existing group, this book is an ideal resource. ITC is designed from the ground up for family support, not adapted from a recovery program.

The ITC method is broken down into three sections – Understanding, Awareness and Action. This resonates with families and helps us to have more compassion for our loved ones, whilst acknowledging our own difficulties. The action section means we are not “powerless” over our loved one’s recovery. ITC includes ways of positively collaborating and rewarding, which results in improved relationships and recovery outcomes.

We have now been providing free support for families since 2016 learning from various organisations and methods. In the last year we have moved over to using the latest ITC approach and it is a really good fit for us and we receive really positive feedback from the families we support.

The authors are extremely knowledgeable, high experienced and deliver these evidence-based strategies with true compassion in a user-friendly way. Sending a big thank you to the CMC team! (cmcffc.org/about/our-team)

Dave and Tina (Alternat+ves.org)

[Thus Kvothe The Raven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is there someone in your life who is spiraling? If so, you should know that this book is intended for people who have a close relationship (of any kind) with a person suffering from dependency issues. The material primarily relates to those with chemical dependencies, but it is still helpful for dealing with other types of disruptive behavior.

The authors, all experienced in treating people with dependencies, help friends, family members, and other loved ones take a fresh look at how we can helpfully respond to our loved ones. The strategies offered recognize that each person and situation is different, so no “cookie cutter” answers are given. Rather, the authors help the reader learn what’s going on and how to make sense of it, how awareness of ourselves and the situation is beneficial, and some actions that can be taken to steer the person to seek help. The “work” sections of this workbook are easy to understand and practice. I intend to use this material in my own interactions with addiction issues.

Five stars for how Foote, Wilkins, and Carpenter deal with such a difficult, heart-wrenching topic. They employ compassion, understanding, awareness, and evidence-based techniques to teach the reader how to appropriately love and assist our struggling loved ones. My sincere thanks to New Harbinger Publications, Inc. via NetGalley for this advanced reader copy. All words and opinions expressed are my own, given freely and without exchange.

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[joyce w. laudon · Rating 4 out of 5]

When someone is struggling with addiction, they are not the only person impacted. Anyone who has been in a situation where someone they love is struggling knows what it feels like to have awareness of the issue. Often people who love the person who drinks too much or uses drugs feels helpless, depressed, like like a failure, unsure of what to do or how to cope, and that is just the so called tip of the ice berg. This book speaks to those around the person who has an addiction with compassion, understanding and care. Its ideas and philosophy will make for essential reading and a welcome companion to many.

The authors offer evidence based therapy which is the current gold standard in mental health. For example they explain both motivational interviewing and acceptance and commitment therapy.

The evidence based approach means that what is proposed has been tested and found to be of help. The authors offer many ideas and practices to help those who want to help their family member or other person of importance to them. The practice is based on what is called Invitation to Change. Learn about The Wheel and how to put what is learned into as it may well be helpful and empowering. There is of course even more within the pages of this book.

I recommend this title to those around a person who is struggling. It may also be of help to clinicians who are learning more about substance abuse.

Many thanks to NetGalley and New Harbinger Publications for this title. All opinions are my own.

[Cordelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drs. Foote, Carpenter, and Wilkens have, through this workbook, created an incredible space for you to learn how to think about addictive behaviors, how to skillfully interact with your loved one through words and actions, and how to care for yourself in the process in a way that creates space for connection and change.

All that is needed is you.

With your participation, this workbook becomes a masterful partnership between you and the authors. They provide the skills and perspectives based on evidence and compassion, you supply the knowledge about you and your loved one; together you co-create a personalized path towards change for you, your family, and your loved one.

As a clinician who specializes in working with families struggling with a loved one’s substance use, and as a family member who uses the skills within my own life, I highly recommend this book to both family members and providers alike.

[Lisa Pogue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Resource!!!

[Cynthia Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

This evidence-based approach - countering some of the less helpful cultural messages out there - needs to get into the hands of more people.