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Addictions & Spiritual Transformation: Making Twelve-Step Recovery More Effective

by Richard W. Clark

448 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-0153; ISBN 1-4120-8398-2; US$33.03, C$37.99, EUR27.14, £19.00

An advanced, detailed, insightful examination of addictions, twelve-step recovery, and spirituality – with guidance for recovering addicts and the professionals who help them.

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About the Book

About the Author

Excerpts

Catalogue Information

About the Book

Twelve-step programs have been proven to be the most (and some might say the only) effective method for addiction recovery. This is evidenced by their global popularity and universal influence on treatment modalities. However, in addition to the long, difficult process of comprehending and completing the twelve steps, there are the addict's ego defenses, their suspicious and defiant attitude, puzzling program clichés, confusing jargon, various "twelve-step" myths, inaccurate information, and (very often) preexisting therapeutic issues. Interventions that support abstinence or the normalizing of addictive behavior, such as in work or sex addictions, often fail because of this profoundly complex constellation of symptoms and issues. What adds to the addict's struggle is the often-heard, fear-based, inaccurate, blaming statement: "Well, addicts who relapse don't really want recovery. They don't try hard enough."

With the drastic increase in the number of professionals and addictions-treatment centers, the huge influx of people into twelve-step programs, the many new versions and applications of the twelve steps, and too many false promises about what twelve-step programs can do, there's been a disastrous blurring of the boundaries between therapy and addictions recovery. The efficacy and spiritual integrity of twelve-step programs has not withstood this tidal wave of change. The spiritual solution presented in the original twelve-step literature is now virtually lost in this modern morass.

There are Abstinence Available Addictions (alcohol, tobacco, drugs) and Abstinence Not-Available Addictions (sex, work, relationships, anger, religion, etc.). The second category, because of the nature of the addiction itself, causes all manner of confusion and irresponsibility in both the twelve-step and professional communities. Addicts get lost in this confusion and too often the consequences are relapse or death.

There is a perennial philosophy at work in the twelve steps, but very sadly, most alcoholics or addicts, even though they have the instructions, miss it almost completely. Addictions are the self-destructive outcome of deep spiritual dislocation.

There's a beautiful synergy to the world and twelve-step people are part of that synergy. They add to it, but where do they fit? If they buy into the historical and cultural perspectives of additions, there's shame and isolation - they lose. If they buy into the twelve-step myth that they're unique and that "outsiders" can't help them, they're arrogant and isolated - they lose. If twelve-step people participate in the social hypocrisy rampant in the groups, they may be popular but won't become spiritual - they lose. Any of these take them out of the universal synergy.

This book is a detailed explanation, in real terms that people can understand, of how to escape these destructive and isolating traps; how to negotiate through the twelve steps and become spiritual (get recovered). This is not a quick-read book. It's an in-depth examination of the journey from addicted to recovered, and examines the myths and realities of twelve-step programs, psychology, culture, and spiritual transformation.

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About the Author

Richard Clark trained for four years in addictions treatment, and many of the issues related to addictions, at Grant MacEwan College, the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, the Justice Institute of B.C., the Human Potential Institute, and the Whole Person Recovery Center. He is a Certified Addictions Counsellor (CAC II) through the Canadian Council of Professional Certification. Additionally, he is certified in body energy healing (Emotional Freedom Techniques/Advanced practitioner), table-massage therapy (acupressure work and relaxation massage), Self Regulation Therapy® (through the Canadian Foundation for Trauma Research and Education), and is a Certified Life Skills Coach and Coach Trainer, and completed special training in adult education (University of Alberta). He has been a therapist and addictions counsellor since 1986, and worked in energy healing/energy psychology since 1999. Richard has lectured and led seminars in Canada, the US, China, and Russia. He presently writes, teaches, offers seminars, and maintains a private counselling and healing practice in Vancouver, Canada.

For more information about the author, his book, or his work, please visit the author's website: www.richardwclark.com.

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Excerpts

From The Prologue: The Manner of Presentation

Addictions and spiritual transformation are multi-dimensional, interrelated, and layered. To say they are complex is a magnificent understatement. Imagine an intricate, three-dimensional spider's web where every point of intersection of web is somehow directly connected to every other point of intersection: nothing is linear; everything is connected to everything else. The dynamics of addictions and of getting recovered exist like a massive spider's web of symptoms and issues that are all connected, and it all happens at once. You get sick everywhere and throughout your entire personality all at the same time, and you become spiritual everywhere and throughout your entire personality all at the same time. This is why getting recovered is so painstakingly slow. Being addicted, like being spiritual, is a state of existence...

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I have been asked whether this book is for therapists or for ordinary people getting recovered. First there's this: Counsellors and therapists are ordinary people. Second: There have appeared two closely related and pervasive myths; not even myths exactly, but a malignant ambiance in the attitudes about addicts and alcoholics. These are that addicts don't really want to get recovered, and they're incapable of comprehending complicated things. Granted, there are ex-ceptions, but for the most part, addicts are capable and do want to get recovered. However...(book continues)

Please note: There are extensive, additional excerpts at the author's website. Please use this link: richardclark.com

The author is greatly indebted to Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. for their generous permission to quote at length from their published material. The material quoted and excerpted from Alcoholics Anonymous, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, and other published material they hold copyright on is used with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Permission to use this material does not mean or imply that AA has reviewed or approved the contents of this work, nor does it mean or imply that AA agrees with the views expressed in the book. Alcoholics Anonymous is a program of recovery from alcoholism only: use of their material in connection with programs and activities which are patterned after AA, but which address other problems, or in any other non-AA context, does not imply otherwise.

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Catalogue Information

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