Addiction
Certification Level 1 (Part 1 of 2)
by
Tina Stacey |
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The last three issues of the Meta
Institute newsletter have carried articles which have outlined
some of the work I have been doing with Drug Action Teams, Street
Agencies and Rehabilitation facilities through the UK and Europe.
As a result of these articles, they have invited me to come to
Minneapolis and run the addiction trainings here. The Certifications
are at two levels and level 1 will take place from October 3–5.
My intent in the articles
has been twofold; primarily to define the issue of addiction
as being one that can be handled at strategic as well as personal
levels; secondly, and no less important, to assert that there
is hope and there are solutions to the “problem” of addiction
and to outline some of the techniques and perspectives that
can be used in order to work effectively in the field. To the
same degree that addiction is seen as a hopeless affliction
by professionals, they themselves are afflicted by their limiting
thoughts.
Any of you who have worked
in facilities will know how difficult it can be to be proactive in the face of
limited funds, time and staff interfaced with a client group requiring high input.
The solution is in working smart rather than working HARD! Take time out, review
your practice, consider new perspectives (even if only to convince yourself that
you were right all along!). To do this sounds like fantasy time to so many of
the professionals I have worked with over the years! What finally brings them
to a place where they choose to take time out to attend training and invest in
their professional (and inevitably their personal) well being is either the commitment
and health of their organization or a sense that there might just be some other
way of doing what they are doing without getting “burned out”. The purpose of this
training is to discuss the concept and function of therapy and
then move on to outline the structure of addiction (what is
it and how does it work?). It will be a fairly intensive three-day
training incorporating traditional teaching styles as well as
experiential work. It incorporates a wide range of therapeutic
philosophies and styles including Gestalt, Transactional Analysis,
Systems Theory, NLP and elements from traditional person centered
counseling practice. This training takes the best of all of
these and incorporates them into a practicable package in the
context of Addictions, Eating Disorders, Self Harming and other
dissociative disorders.
This program has been
running in a number of facilities: needle exchanges, rehabilitation
units, day care centers, prisons, hospitals, smoking cessation
units and psychiatric wards around the UK for the last three
years with great success. It has also run in Croatia where they
have a considerable problem with Alcoholism. If you are working
in the field and would like a shot in the arm (so to speak!!),
an affirmation of your current practice or simply a different
perspective, then you are very welcome to attend.
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