Helping Women Recover, Community Journal, (A Workbook Program for Treating Addiction, sold separately and with the package)

A group therapy program for treating addiction tailored to the unique needs of women and written by the expert who designed the Women's Treatment Program at the Betty Ford Center. Brief Description: This program for treating addiction is designed especially for women. The program consists of two components: 1) the Facilitator's Guide, written for the practitioner running substance abuse groups for women, and 2) A Woman's Journal, a personal guide for the recovering woman to use outside of the group. This program is groundbreaking in its recognition of the special needs of women in recovery. Programs for treating substance abuse have traditionally been based on studies done with men, but men's and women's issues with addiction often derive from very different life experiences. Women's substance abuse is typically related to psychological trauma stemming from emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse, and any successful recovery program needs to deal openly with women's issues of trauma. The program is organized into four modules that reflect the major areas in a woman's life that need attention for recovery to happen: Self, Relationships, Sexuality, and Spirituality. Everything in this program is carefully guided for easy and comfortable use by the practitioner and the participants. For every group session, the Facilitator's Guide offers a Session Overview as well as an actual script with suggested language the practitioner can use if he/she chooses while running the group. A Woman's Journal includes self-tests, checklists, questions and answers, exercises, and guidelines, which the participants work through on their own outside of the group sessions. A Special Edition, with the same two components, is available for use in the Criminal Justice system. An alarming 85% of women in prison have issues related to substance abuse, and this program will be embraced by administrators of correctional facilities who increasingly need support for addressing the issues of women's addiction. Closely adapted from the community version, the Special Edition adjusts the Sexuality module in particular so that it is appropriate in tone and content to the correctional setting.