Books by Brights
The SMART Recovery® Handbook
Author : Henry Steinberger, Ph.D. (Editor)
ISBN : 0-615-13135-2
To purchase: www.smartrecovery.org
Description
The Brights movement might rightly be concerned that both self-help and the professional treatment of all addictions in America is overwhelmingly dominated by the spiritually oriented 12-Step approach and programs like AA. For many, the path to ending a harmful behavior, like excessive drinking or drug use, is blocked by what appears to be an unnecessary attempt at a religious conversion.
SMART is an acronym for Self-Management And Recovery Training. I and other SMART Recovery® volunteers have written The SMART Recovery Handbook to bring the tools and techniques of our empirically supported, secular program to people who wishing to gain independence from their addictions, to their significant others and to anyone concerned about helping people with addictions.
The book first introduces our free face-to-face and on-line self-help meetings which can provide mutual support. Then our practical Four PointTM program is presented to teach the reader how to 1) Build motivation for change; 2) Cope with urges; 3) Manage thoughts, feelings, behaviors (and problems) without resorting to the addictive behavior; and 4) Find a balance of long and short term satisfactions. As a secular program SMART Recovery® neither promotes nor discourages religion, spirituality or faith in the supernatural, but leaves those matters up to the individual. Many people have found sobriety without supernatural beliefs or mandatory spirituality, and this book shows the reader how.
About the Editor
Henry Steinberger, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist in Wisconsin. He completed a fellowship with the free thinker and originator of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Dr. Albert Ellis. He holds the Certificate of Proficiency in the Treatment of Alcohol and Other Psychoactive Substance Use Disorders. As a volunteer he has helped developed science-based, secular forms of self-help for people with addictions, facilitated self-help meetings and has advocated secular alternatives to the spiritually guided 12-Step treatment programs amongst his colleagues. He is a volunteer member of the Board of SMART Recovery®. He lives with his wife and daughter in Madison, Wisconsin.
