Therapeutic Community (Paperback)

This is a new and updated edition of a previous title by the author. The book provides a fresh presentation of the Therapeutic Community (TC) using social systems perspective. It delineates the essential and interactive elements that contribute to the proper functioning of the TC. Using social systems thinking, the author identifies common pitfalls in implementation and practice of the TC, as well as its adaptation to various cultural settings.

Dr. Fernando Perfas has worked in the field of addiction, particularly in the application of the therapeutic community to various treatment populations, for 46 years. He spent more than 20 years with the former Daytop Village in New York as a clinician and later as part of its international training division. He worked in the training department of Phoenix House in New York for 4 years. Before moving to the U.S. he worked in TC in his native land, the Philippines, and was the first to introduce the TC in Thailand in 1979. In the last 28 years, Dr. Perfas has been a fulltime trainer on the TC and has travelled to more than 30 countries as a resource person and consultant in international drug demand reduction programs. He has provided training and technical consulting to government and non-government agencies in several countries. He has also written several books on the therapeutic community. Dr. Perfas earned his undergraduate degree in Philosophy and a master degree in Psychology as a government scholar at the Pamantasan Ng Lungsod Ng Maynila (University of the City of Manila) in the Philippines. He earned an advanced degree in counseling at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and a doctorate in social welfare at Adelphi University in New York. He lives in upstate New York with his wife.