Goal: To gain the capacity, through initiating metacognition, to broaden critical thinking skills and creative abilities in reexamining how we approach the beloved alcoholics/addicts and their families to achieve a goal of more successfully fostering lasting sobriety, both emotional and chemical.
Objectives:
- Describe research that demonstrates what doesn’t create lasting change and what does, and how this challenges some of our long held beliefs and practices.
- Discuss why traditional approaches to families with loved ones in treatment must change before we can adequately contend with the chronic nature of this disease and the high rates of relapse, using a comparison to the success rates of impaired professionals who consistently show low rates of relapse when participating in multi-year diversion programs.
- Explain the basics of Structured Family Recovery™ and how a family team is transformed into a recovery team.
- Articulate how research professionals from leading universities approach science and research, and how that adjusts our own thinking and approach to what we do.
- Apply the findings by the Cochrane Collaborative, Harvard and Stanford to our thinking about how we design treatment and craft aftercare (continuum of care) plans.
- Examining language and the complexities that influence clients and their families.
- Evaluate the idea of choice, and a new understanding of the complications of offering choice and how it can impact clients.
- Compare and contrast thinking about boundaries with research about belonging.
- Identify the ingredients for wellness (Seligman) and analyze how we can apply the Wellness model into our work.
Debra Jay’s latest books are It Takes a Family, 2nd edition: Creating Lasting Sobriety, Togetherness, and Happiness, and Love First 3rd edition: A Family’s Guide to Intervention, both published by Hazelden
(2021). She is also author of No More Letting Go: The Spirituality of Taking Action Against Alcoholism and Drug Addiction, published by Bantam (2006). She co-authored the book Aging and Addiction, published by Hazelden (2002).
She is co-founder of a private practice providing clinical intervention services nationally and is founder of Structured Family Recovery® services and training. She designed the highly acclaimed Love First Clinical Intervention Training Program first hosted annually by the Betty Ford Center and now at The Retreat in Minnesota. Debra previously worked as an addictions clinician for the Hazelden Foundation (Hanley-Hazelden) working in inpatient treatment. She was the first coordinator of the older adult program and served as facilitator of the family program. She has served as trustee on several boards including the Care Continuum Board for the St. John Board of Trustees, and the Dawn Farm Board of Trustees.
Ms. Jay designed an advocacy website designed to help families concerned about an addicted loved one receive in-depth information at no cost, GetHelpGiveHelp.info. She also founded The Best Minds Podcast, creating a space for families and the best minds in the addiction treatment field to come together, lovefirst.net.
Ms. Jay regularly appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show for 3 seasons as an addictions expert. She has also been on The Dr. Oz Show, and has been writing a newspaper column since 1996 on issues related to addiction and the family.
Co-Presenter:
Kristy Roll, LCSW, services as a Director at Cumberland Heights working with Family, Spiritual Care and Experiential Services. Cumberland Heights is an addiction treatment center that has been in operation for over 55 years. Kristy has been a counselor for 20 years working in addiction treatment, community mental health and she also spent several years working with military families. Kristy received her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Ball State University and received her Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Southern Indiana. Kristy has worked with children, adolescents and adults in mental health and addiction and is EMDR trained. Kristy joined the Cumberland Heights team in 2012. She has served as an adolescent counselor in the Youth Program, the Young Men’s Program family counselor and as a Director at Cumberland Heights for 7 years. Kristy also served as an adjunct faculty at Belmont University teaching an addictions course.
