Family Strategies: Practical Tools for Treating Families Impacted by Addiction

It is a great book for counseling

The contents of this book - that of coaddiction-codependence - is built on a wholly faulty premise, which is also an extremely toxic dangerous one for spouses of any addicts. It is striking that this author continues to embrace this archaic, faulty thinking while so much physical and social scientific research has now proven it to be totally false - and a VERY dangerous falsity at that. This author would do well to read and study all of Dr. Sue Johnson's EFT books and also to become EFT-certified. As Dr. Johnson teaches - that there is NO such thing as codependency but only effective dependency and INeffective dependency. If Black would study the tons of, decades of, research done by multiple researchers beginning with John Bowlby and many thereafter including Johnson, Black would come to understand Attachment Theory and Attachment Wounds, Relational Wounds & Trauma - inflicted BOTH by parents AND also by an addict (i.e. alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling) upon their spouses and the children. No matter WHAT the promoters of coaddiciton/codependency may say, shoving spouses' heads into the toilet of the coaddiction/codependency baloney is extremely shaming and blaming them, and very frequently goes into minor or major to "tar and feather" spouses of addicts. What is TRUTH/reality is that every single adult addict is 100% to BLAME (i.e. the definition of blame is that of 'being held responsible for one's behaviors'...i.e. going through a red light and causing a car accident, one is to "blame" for the accident...the same applies to all addicts all the time) for every single one of their wrongful adult behaviors, including every single one of their wrongful behaviors which stem from their addiction(s). If one understands the SCIENCE of Attachment Theory, one easily and quickly sees the faulty and dangerous teachings of coaddiction/codependency. As is written in Drs. Cloud's & Townsend's book "It's Not My Fault" is explained that every adult person is completely responsible to heal any childhood or other wounds and no one is at all excused - and no one ELSE is to BLAME - for their wrongful adult behaviors, addict or not. Read and see in Dr. Sheri Keffer's book "Intimate Deception" the SPEC brain scan done by Dr. Daniel Amen clinics the brain diagram of the PTSD Diamond Pattern in brains of traumatized, sexually betrayed wives/wives of sex addicts, which this is the SAME PTSD brain pattern shown in vets returning from having served in war zones. There are so many therapists authors now - particularly in the realm of sex addiction (but addictions themselves have so much similarity as does their recovery processes, and as does the traumatized wife and children healing recoveries) - have done research and have seen in their lengthy practices that of TRAUMA and NOT at all codependency theory - which, everyone must remember has NEVER been based on ANY scientific research. Please see books by Dr. Barbara Steffens, Dr. Sheri Keffer, Dr. Kevin Skinner, Michelle Mays (who also has a great online blog - Partner Hope), Dr. Milton Magness, and a lengthy scientific study shown online by Dr. Omar Minwalla, to name a few excellent resources explaining the TRAUMA experienced by spouses of sex addicts - and one can easily see how so much of what they have found and written applies for spouses of ANY type of addict. Another must-read for every single therapist and also for all spouses of all addicts is the excellent and short book "Prodependence" recently written by Dr. Robert Weiss, which does a superb job in explaining why coaddiction/codependency is SUCH a fallacy and how therapists employing it in their practices so inflict UNnecessary FURTHER severe hurt and harm upon spouses (and any and all family members). For those who are knowledgeable in constructing homes or other buildings, they would adamantly explain how the entire building being and remaining strong-stable-safe depends on it FIRST being built on a strong, solid FOUNDATION/premise...the SAME applies when working with spouses and/or children of any type of addict: it is Attachment Wounds and Complex-PTSD (i.e. trauma) and NOT at all EVER coaddiction/codependency!