Outcomes are important because they ultimately provide accountability for those who deliver treatment, and for your own actions. There is a wide continuum of addiction treatment services available depending on severity of symptoms, ranging from outpatient options to residential or hospital stays. As you might imagine, there is a huge range in cost for these services as… [Continue Reading]
Healing Through the Arts
I am big believer in balancing our efforts to intervene on the pathological side of the equation of life issues, with efforts to enhance individual strengths, talents, and creative life energy. When we solely focus on problems, like addiction, depression, and trauma, we often – quite surprisingly and opposite to what you may think –… [Continue Reading]
Focusing to Move Beyond Addiction
Not long after my wife and I were married, we decided to proactively increase our chances of staying together by enrolling in one of Dr. John Gottman’s weekend couples workshops in Seattle. At the time I was deeply immersed in my graduate studies in counseling and was excited to spend some time with the world-famous marriage guru. What I had… [Continue Reading]
Addiction and the Perennial Philosophy
We have known for a long time that among the most powerful ways to overcome addiction is through spiritual interventions. The essence of such approaches is that addiction is a problem of the ego, of our lower self, of the body. By harnessing the powers and energy from our higher self, from the part of us that… [Continue Reading]
Siddhartha’s Path Out of Addiction
I’m not sure how I missed reading Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha (Hilda Rosner translation) in high school, but I did. It’s one of those enchanting books I wish I would have read earlier! If you are unfamiliar with the story, I encourage you to read it and soak in its many wonderful messages about life. I have… [Continue Reading]