Treating the Alcoholic: A Developmental Model of Recovery

The book that revolutionized the psychotherapist's approach totreating alcoholism

When it was first published in 1985, Treating the Alcoholicchallenged traditional psychotherapeutic approaches to alcoholismtreatment. Since then, thousands of mental health professionals,using Dr. Stephanie Brown's treatment model, have found renewedfaith in their ability to help alcoholic patients achieve lastingrecovery.

The book begins by studying the experiences of people who havestopped drinking and provides firsthand descriptions of theinevitable emotional, physical, and psychological problems thatfollow. Dr. Brown then offers a model for treatment that replacesthe notion of abstinence as a static state with a dynamic,process-oriented "continuum of recovery" principle. She translatesthe twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous into psychological terms,taking particular care to explain the crucial notion of "loss ofcontrol." Perhaps the most surprising element of Dr. Brown's modelis her emphasis on the triadic therapeutic relationship in whichtherapist, patient, and AA counselor work in partnership to ensureongoing recovery.

Once considered a radical departure from the conventional wisdom,Treating the Alcoholic offers a now-proven approach that enablespsychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, alcoholismcounselors, and other mental health professionals to understand thedynamics of alcoholism and make profound contributions to therecovery process.

STEPHANIE BROWN, PhD, is the Director of the Addictions Institute in Menlo Park, California. She also founded and was a director of the Alcohol Clinic at Stanford University Medical Center. An internationally recognized expert on the treatment of alcoholics and their families, Dr. Brown is a licensed psychologist with nearly 25 years of clinical experience, a researcher, consultant, and frequent lecturer in the field of alcoholism. She is the author of Treating Adult Children of Alcoholics: A Developmental Perspective, also available from Wiley.