John Gottman and Bob Navarra gave a useful workshop about working with couples in recovery from addiction, in Seattle yesterday. Here are some of the take-aways: "Mastery, Not Perfection" A wonderful thing to say to anyone learning a new skill ,is the "perfect" thing to say to recovering addicts, who are likely to be perfectionists.
Ulrich Lanius, a clincial psychologist, researcher, therapist, and writer in Vancouver sent me this: "The connection between dissocation, depression and addiction is a fascinating one and more likely than not related to attachment. An article written by Bessel van der Kolk some insight into this: http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/vanderkolk/ For more intensive reading, Alan Schore describes the effect between
I read an article about how naltrexone, an opiate suppressant, curbs the urge to engage in kleptomania. I've had dissociative clients who have successfully used naloxone and naltraxone to vanquish their endogenous (internal) opiates, in order to be able to stay present and process traumatic events, instead of switching or spacing out completely. (See EMDR Processing w/ Dissociative Clients: