If You Work It, It Works!: The Science Behind 12 Step Recovery

Gain a clear understanding of the science and latest research behind the success of the Twelve Steps, a critical program used by millions of people around the world to stay sober and one of the greatest social movements of our time.

Since the publication of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939, the Twelve Steps have been central to staying sober for millions of people around the world. Countless recovery and treatment organizations have adopted the Steps as their program for abstaining from addictive behaviors. But recently a growing chorus of critics has questioned the science behind this model. In this book, Nowinski calls upon the latest research, as well as his own seminal Project MATCH study, to show why systematically working a Twelve Step program yields predictable and successful outcomes.

Whether you’re thinking of joining a Twelve Step group, or simply want to understand the science fueling one of the greatest social movements of our time, this book is for you. As any AA member will tell you, “It works if you work it.”

Joseph Nowinski, PhD, is a clinical psychologist who has taught at the University of California San Francisco and the University of Connecticut, as well as serving as Supervising Psychologist, University of Connecticut Health Center. He is the author of Twelve Step Facilitation Therapy (TSF), listed in the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices and Almost Alcoholic: Is My (or My Loved One's) Drinking a Problem? with co-author Robert Doyle, and blogs regularly for the Huffington Post and Psychology Today. Nowinski lives in Hartford, Connecticut.