The Alcoholic Family in Recovery: A Developmental Model. - Review - book review

Adolescence, Winter, 2000

BROWN, Stephanie, & LEWIS, Virginia. The Alcoholic Family in Recovery: A Developmental Model. New York: The Guilford Press, 1999. 3l8pp. $32.50 (h).

Family relationships change dramatically when one or more members stops drinking. Far from offering a "quick fix" to family problems, in fact, the first years of sobriety are often marked by continuing tension that fuels marital stress, acting-out kids, and difficulties at work. This book explores the process of recovery from addiction as it affects the entire family, presenting an innovative model for understanding and treating families navigating this difficult period. The authors draw upon extensive clinical and research experience to demonstrate how families can be helped to regroup after abstinence, weather periods of emotional upheaval, and find their way to establishing a more stable, yet flexible, family system. Providing a developmental overview of the family recovery process, the authors identify key stages and domains--from drinking and transition, to early and ongoing recovery--and highlight the therapeutic tasks and pitfalls that characterize each one. The experiences of members of four recoverin g families are shared in moving first-hand accounts that describe the ways recovery has challenged and changed their relationships, and illuminate how painful the process can be even for the most motivated participants. Expanding the therapist's role to include psychoeducation and supportive counseling, the authors provide pointers for assessment and intervention with individual family members and the system as a whole. Readers learn to work with families to anticipate and overcome stumbling blocks to abstinence; make the most of AA and other outside sources of support; put relationship problems "on hold" while maximizing each person's individual development; and radically restructure family roles, interactions, and beliefs that have been shaped by addiction.