Concrete guidance on harm reduction treatment (HaRT) with substance-using patients:

Written by experts from the field
Details a unique evidence-based approach
Includes example scripts
Provides case studies
Includes downloadable handouts

Your clients don’t have to stop using to start recovery

Harm reduction approaches are effective, patient-driven alternatives to abstinence-based treatment for people who are not ready, willing, or able to stop using substances. This volume outlines the scientific basis and historical development of these approaches, and reviews why abstinence-based approaches often do not work. The authors then share their expertise about harm reduction treatment (HaRT), an empirically based approach co-developed with community members impacted by substance-related harm – a first of its kind. The reader learns in detail about the pragmatic mindset and compassionate heartset of HaRT and the three treatment components: measurement and tracking of patient-preferred substance-related metrics, harm reduction goal setting and achievement, and discussion of safer-use strategies. This volume walks practitioners through all components, provides example scripts for use in daily practice, and illustrates the work through case studies and input from community members. Handouts are available for use in daily practice. This is essential reading for clinical psychologists, psychotherapists, and researchers who encounter people who have substance use problems.

Praise for the book

“The authors have taken a significant leap forward in developing harm reduction therapy as a fully fleshed out model of substance use treatment. Rooted in a lifetime of love for the people they work with, they present a pragmatic sequence of treatment modules that are clear, specific, and accessible to both clinicians and clients and that allows professionals to work naturally and flexibly within the treatment. Drs. Collins and Clifasefi have built their model on research that began in the 1970s – research that is often ignored by other substance use professionals. Most brilliantly, they have worked all along the way with clients to create their treatment model, especially with those most marginalized, ensuring that it makes sense and is helpful to the most important people in the system.”
Jeannie Little, LCSW, Co-Founder, The Harm Reduction Therapy Center, San Francisco, CA; Co-Author of Practicing Harm Reduction Psychotherapy, 2nd ed., and Over the Influence, the Harm Reduction Guide to Controlling Your Drug and Alcohol Use, 2nd ed.

“The authors have made an impressive achievement with this book. Through a combination of personal and professional experience, standard and innovative research, and the wisdom and direction of their clients, they have brought us a new treatment model that stands in contrast to the traditional alcohol and drug treatment system, and with it, have managed a sophisticated and heartfelt takedown of that system. They make a solid case for abandoning dogmatic, prescriptive, and religion-based programs and describe in detail their well-researched guide to helping clients achieve the changes that they want in their treatment. Both new and seasoned clinicians will find their treatment model a much-needed blueprint to bring the spirit and mind of harm reduction into drug treatment.”
Patt Denning, PhD, Co-Founder, The Harm Reduction Therapy Center, San Francisco, CA; Co-Author of Practicing Harm Reduction Psychotherapy,, 2nd ed., and Over the Influence, the Harm Reduction Guide to Controlling Your Drug and Alcohol Use, 2nd ed.

“This comprehensive and tremendously well-written volume is a phenomenal resource for learning, adapting, and implementing harm reduction treatment. The book exudes the heart and soul of harm reduction through personal examples, stories of client experiences, and through first person accounts of how harm reduction can meet people where they are at and transform lives through compassion and genuine concern for all persons.”
Katie Witkiewitz, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Center on Alcohol, Substance Use, and Addictions at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

“Harm reduction and treatment are not incompatible! This book shows how to bring them together to help people who use substances minimize risk and improve their lives, providing a model based on care and evidence. A must-read for clinicians and counselors who want to apply harm reduction practices.”
Maia Szalavitz, Author of Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction Is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addiction and Contributing Opinion Writer for the New York Times

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Harm Reduction Treatment for Substance Use