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eBook/Digital Version available from:
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Score: 98 |
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| Creating Change: A Past-Focused Treatment for Trauma and Addiction |
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ISBN: 978-1-4625-5462-1,
377 pages,
Soft Cover
ISBN-10: 1-4625-5462-8 |
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| Copyright: |
2024 |
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| Edition: |
1st |
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| Author: |
Najavits, Lisa M., PhD |
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Specialties:
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Psychology, Clinical
, Psychiatry |
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| Publisher: |
Guilford Press |
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| List Price: |
$65.00 |
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| Google: |
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At A Glance
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This flexible, evidence-based manual offers counselors a gentle, compassionate approach to help people with trauma, addiction, or both explore their past. Creating Change guides clients to understand how trauma and addiction arose over time, grieve losses and regrets, create a new perspective on their life story, and take pride in their survival. The manual has 23 topics that can be implemented in any order with individuals or groups. Topics include Relationship Patterns, Break the Silence, Deepen Your Story, Darkness and Light, Emotions and Healing, and Influences: Family, Community, Culture. Creating Change can be implemented with any other treatment, including the author...s present-focused model, Seeking Safety. The book has a convenient large-size format and includes 70 reproducible handouts, many of which can be downloaded and printed at the companion website.
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Reviewer:
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Gary Kaniuk,
PsyD
(Cermak Health Services)
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Range
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Question
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Score
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| 1-10 |
Are the author's objectives met? |
10 |
| 1-10 |
Rate the worthiness of those objectives. |
10 |
| 1-5 |
Is this written at an appropriate level? |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Is there significant duplication? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Are there significant omissions? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) |
4 |
| 1-5 |
Rate the authority of the authors. |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Are there sufficient illustrations? |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Rate the pedagogic value of the illustrations. |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Rate the print quality of the illustrations. |
4 |
| 1-5 |
Are there sufficient references? |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Rate the currency of the references. |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Rate the pertinence of the references. |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Rate the helpfulness of the index. |
5 |
| 1-5 |
If important in this specialty, rate the physical appearance of the book |
N/A |
| 1-10 |
Is this a worthwhile contribution to the field? |
10 |
| 1-10 |
If this is a 2nd or later edition, is this new edition needed? |
N/A |
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Reviewer:
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Gary Kaniuk,
PsyD
(Cermak Health Services)
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Description
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| This book is a manual for counselors who have clients with trauma or addiction issues. As the title suggests, the goal is to create change by exploring the past of how problems began and grew over time. There is a focus on grieving past losses and exploring a new perspective in order to live a fulfilling and productive life. |
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Purpose
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| This book offers counselors a more gentle, compassionate approach to helping people with trauma and addiction explore their past. These are worthy objectives and the book meets them. |
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Audience
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| The book is aimed at clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, mental health and addictions counselors, and psychiatric nurses. I agree with the above description of the audience but would add that graduate students in psychology and social work would also benefit greatly. The author is a credible authority on the subject matter of the book. Lisa M. Najavits is adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts and was on faculty for 25 years at Harvard Medical School. She has authored over 200 publications and three other books. Dr. Najavits has won awards for her work and has served as president of the Society of Addiction Psychology. |
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Features
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| The book begins with an overview on the topic of change, specifically for clients who are dealing with addiction, substance abuse, or both. The goal is to understand the etiology and process their pain or loss. These sessions can be conducted in individual or group format. It is evidence-based with a randomized control trial and two pilot studies. Dr. Najavits differentiates between present-focused and past-focused approaches to therapy. Creating change involves exploring the past, including painful memories, as well as an emphasis on positive memories of people who helped along the journey and resilient moments. These sessions include a check-in, inspirational quotation, handouts, and check-out. Counselors should inquire about addictive behavior during each session. There should be a written contract. The counselor utilizes a problem-solving approach and should realize that relapse is a real possibility. Also, therapists should be aware of counter-transference feelings. The book contains 23 different topic areas. The book includes digital downloads of selected handouts, online appendices, and other supplemental resources. The book is very readable and a practical guide to conducting treatment. |
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Assessment
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| This book is excellent. It is written by an expert in the field. It can be used in an individual or group format. The book is evidence-based and easy to follow. It can be used along with Dr. Najavits' other classic manual, Seeking Safety: A Treatment Manual for PTSD and Substance Abuse, Najavits (Guilford Press, 2001). Readers will not be disappointed with this treatment manual. |
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