I was very fortunate this week to spend 20 hours in prison.  Not to worry I was not incarcerated but rather there to do my part in the 270 hour alcohol/drug counselor training program that is being spearheaded by Options Recovery’s Tom Gorham.  Mr. Gorham is also the President Elect of CAADAC (California Association of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Counselors) and he is committed to helping a group of 50 inmates at Solano State Prison in Vacaville California to become certified addiction counselors through CAADAC.

I was extremely impressed with the men’s enthusiasm and hunger for the training.  I also found them to deviate significantly from the stereotype of the “typical prisoner mentality.”  These men worked together collaboratively on the experiential components of my training and had great responses and insightful questions throughout the 20 hours of coursework.  I only wish all of my training audiences were as motivated and enthusiastic about learning.

For many of these men this will give real meaning to their lives as they will always be incarcerated.  Once they pass the CAADAC written and oral exams they will be able to start working with other inmates who have alcohol and other drug problems.  Some of them will now have a valuable skill when they are released from prison and will be able to get work as addiction counselors.  They will also have a head-start in breaking through to other chemically dependent criminal offenders to break the addiction cycle. 

Many people in prison today—it could be as many as 60-80 percent—are in prison due to alcohol or other drug related legal problems.  One of the main reasons recidivism is so high is also alcohol and other drug related.  Even people who get into recovery behind the bars are at high risk for relapse upon release do to the stressful change of environment and other obstacles placed in their way.  Many long-term incarcerated people are also suffering from Post Incarceration Syndrome (a complex form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and that also leads many of these individuals to fail at re-entry.

I am honored to be a part of this very worthwhile project and will be going back to Solano State Prison for two more training sessions with these men next month.  I look forward to see how much they have learned from some of the other top-notch trainers that Mr. Gorham has pulled together including Terrence Gorski, Stephanie Brown and Roland Williams.  In addition, Mr. Gorham will also be teaching the men as well as meeting with them one-to-one to address any of their problems along the way to full certification.  Thank you Tom for inviting me to be a part of this project.
 
One of the tools I’m teaching these men is the Gorski-CENAPS® Developmental Model of Recovery. I also include a motivational and hamr reduction approach in the begining with the goal being total abstinence. You can learn more about my views on harm reduction in my article Harm Reduction versus Abstinence for Addiction Recovery that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

To learn about two skill trainings coming up in Sacramento California designed to teach treatment strategies for people living with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including disorders including addiction please Click Here.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are living with chronic pain, especially if you’re in recovery or believe you may have a medication or other mental health problem and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing your pain and medication effectively, please go to our Publications page and check out my book the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide: Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To listen to a radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to this interview.

To read the latest issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.

Anyone in recovery from an addictive disorder is at risk for a potential relapse episode but people who are also living with chronic pain are at a much higher danger of relapse. These people need a different type primary treatment and relapse prevention treatment. That is why I have developed the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System—a system that addresses people living with chronic pain and coexisting psychological disorders including addiction.

I’ve worked with people living with chronic pain and coexisting psychological disorders including addition for over 26 years. In that time I have seen many people using and abusing their pain medication in some very self-destructive—and even lethal—ways.  The good news is that people don’t have to relapse if they have a plan. It’s important to remember that those who fail to plan - plan to fail!

I’ve been certified since 1991 in advanced relapse prevention therapy and teaching this to other addiction professionals through the Gorski-CENAPS® Corporation as well as working with thousands of patients with chronic relapse episodes. In addition to an addictive disorder, most of these people were also living with chronic pain as well as other coexisting psychological disorders. Paying attention to both conditions is crucial.

There continues to be confusion and misunderstanding about what relapse is and how it happens. In my work with patients and when I’m teaching other professionals I clarify my definition of relapse, how it happens and most important how to prevent people from entering the relapse cycle.

When a person is trying to move into recovery they need to learn new tools to move from an addiction centered life-style to a recovery-centered one. In the same way, when someone is trying to remain in recovery they need to learn all they can about the sobriety-based symptoms of an addictive disorder and to develop new tools.

One way to develop a new tool kit is through education. I believe that a recovering chronic pain person would greatly benefit from—as well as increase their chances to avoid relapse—is my, Addiction-Free Pain Management Recovery Guide: A Guide to Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery that you can review on our Publications Page. This book describes the information that people need in order to develop a relapse prevention plan that addresses both the chronic pain condition as well as the addictive disorder. Below you can also learn about the workbook that accompanies this Recovery Guide.

Like many other things in recovery, relapse prevention is simple—but not easy. And although relapse prevention is an inside job, that does not mean you have to do it alone. Help is out there for those who want it. Please remember, Knowledge is Power, the more you know the more you grow.

To learn more about the role of relapse prevention you can read my article Relaspe Prevention and Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

To learn about two skill trainings coming up in Sacramento California designed to teach treatment strategies for people living with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including disorders including addiction please Click Here.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are living with chronic pain, especially if you’re in recovery or believe you may have a medication or other mental health problem and want to develop an effective relapse prevention plan for both addiction and pain management, please go to our Publications page and check out my book the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Relapse Prevention Counseling Workbook. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To read the latest issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.

This week I’m at Valley Forge Medical Center (VFMC) and hospital in Norristown PA for our second of three APM™ Center of Excellence site visits and a three day staff training that they generously opened up to the professional community for the Relapse Prevention Counseling Certification School. VFMC is committed to becoming the first APM™ Center of Excellence and are well on their way to full designation.

The final Designation for VFMC will be the week of June 8th of this year.  At that time we will conduct the final site visit evaluation and present them with the full Center of Excellence Designation. Also during that visit I will conduct the three day Addiction-Free Pain Management® Certification Training on June 10-12, for the staff and again VFMC has genrousely opened this training to the public. For more information please go to our Calendar Page and scroll down for information or to register.

The Addiction-Free Pain Management® System uses as its foundation a multidisciplinary collaborative teamwork approach that includes the patient as an integral part of the team. One of the primary goals of APM™ is to provide concurrent treatment for someone with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including addiction using an evidenced-based manualized treatment approach.

Our mission is to collaborate with treatment providers who are committed to fully implement the Addiction-Free Pain Management® (APM) System. Our commitment is to recognize, support and help our APM™ Centers of Excellence (COE) partners reach as many people as possible with chronic pain and coexisting disorders who need and deserve state-of-the-art treatment.

Many treatment providers have asked me why they should go through all the time, effort and money to earn this designation when they can simply send staff to my APM™ Certification trainings and use my existing books with their clients. This is an excellent question and I invite you to review the information on our Center of Excellence page to see if the APM™ Center of Excellence is of interest to your agency. If you are interested please contact us to move to the next stage where we will send you a very comprehensive Center of Excellence overview and discuss fees and timing after your review.

To learn more about multidisciplinary treatment for chronic pain and coexisting disorders including addiction please check out my article The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are working with people in chronic pain and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing their pain and coexisting psychological disorders including depression or addiction effectively please go to our Publications page and check out my book the Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To listen to a recent radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to this interview.

To read the November issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.

To learn about two skill trainings coming up in Sacramento California designed to teach treatment strategies for people living with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including disorders including addiction please Click Here.