These days more then ever I seem to be seeing people who are carrying extra loads of anxiety, stress and anger. But according to research in these areas, human beings aren’t the only ones who experience stress. All vertebrates–fish, birds, and reptiles–respond to stressful situations by secreting the same hormones that we humans do, such [...]

There is a colloquial saying in 12-step recovery fellowships: If you don’t do a fourth, you’ll pick up a fifth.” The fourth step in a 12-step program asks the alcoholic/addict to take a “searching and fearless moral inventory” of himself (Alcoholics Anonymous World Service, 2001; p.59). The colloquialism suggests that if this inventory cannot be [...]

For many decades there existed parallel treatments – one for individuals with addictive disorders and another for sufferers with mental health conditions. Typically these treatment opportunities existed in different parts of hospitals or in entirely separate facilities. One either went to “rehab” or to the “psych ward”. It wasn’t until the mid 1980’s that programs [...]

Shame is a critical issue to the client (behaviorally, emotionally, spiritually, cognitively, and physically) and therapist.  The purposes of this article are to discuss and educate about the nature of shame and approaches to allevating shame in a clinical setting. An operational definition of shame According to Merriam-Webster, shame is “a  painful emotion caused by [...]

The impetus for the groundbreaking implementation of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) into the Therapeutic Community (TC) came from Amity Foundation’s interest in providing innovative therapies which help to unravel the complex knots that addictions and co-occurring disorders create. In this article we describe the theoretical basis of MBCT and outline methods of implementing this approach [...]