This authoritative book presents an innovative relapse prevention program that integrates mindfulness practices with evidence-based cognitive and behavioral strategies. The user-friendly guide includes scripted examples of guided meditations and more than 20 reproducible handouts and forms. Reviews: "As any addictions treatment practitioner will tell you, what happens after a person commits to changing addictive behaviors is critical. Bowen, Chawla, and Marlatt step boldly into the arena of habitual behavior, reactivity to cues, urges, craving, and relapse with a potent tool: nonjudgmental mindful awareness. This excellent book integrates two rich traditions--mindfulness and relapse prevention--into a promising new clinical approach. Like a well-tuned GPS, the book helps professionals navigate each session, providing clear guidelines, suggested scripts, excellent clinical dialogues, home practice assignments, and troubleshooting tips."--David B. Rosengren, PhD, Director, Research and Evaluation Services, Prevention Research Institute, Lexington, Kentucky
"Here is a book that contains both an evidence-based program and an invitation to explore a wholly new way of dealing with addictive feelings and behaviors. It is based on many years of painstaking research on the factors that help or hinder the long journey to recovery after addiction. It explains in helpful detail the demands and huge potential of the mindfulness approach for clinicians and clients. This book will be an inspiration to all who read it, and transformative for those who practice it."--Mark Williams, DPhil, Wellcome Principal Research Fellow, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, United Kingdom "I’m very impressed by the systematic approach to recovery that Bowen et al. offer. This book gives clear guidance on how to blend mindfulness, a sometimes vague topic, with addiction treatment, a notoriously slippery enterprise. The result is an invaluable resource, well researched and practically oriented. I’ll be using this book in my own teaching."--Kevin Griffin, author of One Breath at a Time
"Mindfulness is the single most powerful tool available for those seeking freedom from addiction. Drawing on their notable wealth of research and clinical experience, Bowen et al. have created a groundbreaking relapse prevention program. For any therapist drawn to the practice of mindfulness, this guide provides a clear, accessible, and sensitive way to engage clients in a process of deep transformation and healing."--Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance
About the Authors: Sarah Bowen, PhD, is a research scientist and therapist in the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington, where she specializes in mindfulness practice for the treatment of addictive behaviors. Her research has focused specifically on mechanisms of change, including negative affect, thought suppression, and craving. She is particularly interested in the application of mindfulness-based work to dual-diagnosis populations. Dr. Bowen has co-facilitated mindfulness-based relapse prevention groups in numerous settings, including private and county treatment agencies and the VA Medical Center in Seattle. She also presents, consults, and teaches on the use of mindfulness-based treatment for substance use disorders.
Neha Chawla, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on the development and evaluation of mindfulness-based treatments for substance use disorders, issues related to therapist training and dissemination, and the assessment of therapist competence. Dr. Chawla has facilitated numerous mindfulness-based relapse prevention groups in private and community treatment settings in Seattle and on the East Coast, and has co-led several therapist training workshops.
G. Alan Marlatt, PhD, is Director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center, Professor of Psychology, and Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington. His major focus in both research and clinical work is the field of addictive behaviors. In addition to over 250 journal articles and book chapters, he has published several books in the addictions field. Over the course of the past 30 years, Dr. Marlatt has received continuous funding for his research from a variety of agencies, including the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, ABMRF/The Foundation for Alcohol Research, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is a recipient of the Jellinek Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to knowledge in the field of alcohol studies, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Innovators in Combating Substance Abuse Award, and the Research Society on Alcoholism's Distinguished Researcher Award. In 2010, he received the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy's Career/Lifetime Achievement Award. |
