1st Edition
Developing Competencies for Recovery Mastering Addiction, Living Well, and Doing Good
Developing Competencies for Recovery aims to help people struggling with addiction realize recovery by developing core competencies that will equip, enable, and empower them to master addiction, live well, and do good.
Competencies are clusters of related knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) that prepare a person to act effectively and reflect cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of learning. This book provides a cutting-edge guide to recovery by clearly depicting these core competencies in a manner that will prepare the reader with the ability to clearly understand and develop a course of action on how to manage recovery successfully. The first section of each chapter presents facts, concepts, principles, and theories about a particular competency, and it shares real stories about real people and their own recovery journeys. The following section suggests applications of the competency with questions, worksheets, exercises, and projects. In the final section, readers can evaluate their recovery work and competency development. Resources for recovery and references can be found at the end of the book.
Behavioral health practitioners and instructors and students of addiction studies will find this book a best-practice template for recovery work.
1. Begin Recovery Work 2. Face Addiction 3. Affirm Recovery 4. Develop a Strategic Recovery Plan 5. Set Recovery Goals 6. Determine Motivation for Recovery 7. Inventory Resources and Risks for Recovery 8. Draft Recovery Objectives 9. Act for Recovery 10. Evaluate Recovery Work and Competency Development 11. Record Recovery Work and Competency Development 12. Construct a Recovery Lifestyle
Biography
Sandra Rasmussen, PhD, RN, LMHC, CAS-F is a registered nurse, a licensed mental health counselor, and a certified addiction specialist with over 40 years of academic, professional, and personal experience with addiction, relapse, and recovery.
"In Developing Competencies for Recovery: Mastering Addiction, Living Well, and Doing Good, Dr. Rasmussen, a thoughtful scholar and practitioner, has created a masterplan for recovery based on the principle that, ‘recovery is an idea whose time has come’. To affirm and advance recovery, her book weaves theory, practice, learning and serves as a guide for individuals, group residential settings, outpatient programs, and correction facilities. Developing Competencies for Recovery complements medication-assisted treatment and will be especially appropriate for Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care.
Dr. Rasmussen recognizes that recovery requires commitment, courage, and work. Her book’s 12 chapters begin with real stories about real people and their recovery process, followed by a detailed framework for the recovery process."
Elizabeth M. George, Chief Executive Officer of the North American Training Institute, and the American Academy of Health Care Providers in the Addictive Disorders
"Faculty and students in addiction studies, counselors, and therapists can and will benefit from this book. I state this because recovery is a dynamic process that is dependent on developing a holistic and dynamic approach, which is rooted in possessing skills and competencies. As depicted in Dr. Rasmussen’s book, recovery cannot occur without knowledge and guidance of strategic ways to encourage the acknowledgment of use and desire to change. What I find most appealing about this book is that it provides a no-nonsense approach to addiction management by clearly depicting core competencies in a manner that will allow the clinician, instructor, and subsequently the client the ability to clearly understand and develop a pathway and/or direction on how to manage recovery successfully."
Dr. Samantha Leigh Fields-Salain, Behavioral Counselor II, State of Georgia Department of Community Supervision
"Born from lifetimes of experience, practice, and theory, Rasmussen’s Developing Competencies for Recovery: Mastering Addiction, Living Well, and Doing Good provides an exceptional template for those working or planning to work in a field that has frequent contact with people struggling with addiction. Rasmussen has managed to create a fine-tuned resource that is both comprehensive and formulaic, yet still flexible and harmonious with the individualistic nature of addiction. Behavioral health professionals and peer workers: clear a spot by your DSM-5, you’re going to be using this one just as much."
Bob Cabaniss, Founder of Williamsville Wellness & Summit Hill Wellness
"As our world struggles to redefine itself, the changes to the cycles of addiction and recovery are formidable. Addiction built upon the devastation of trauma can be reassessed and a life recreated through Developing Competencies for Recovery: Mastering Addiction, Living Well, and Doing Good. This book lights brave new paths towards recovery in our changing times. One's ability to grasp the eclectic competencies of addiction, its models, treatment, and application lead to mastering addiction which will reinforce recovery leading to a full life of goodness. Developing Competencies for Recovery: Mastering Addiction, Living Well, and Doing Good highlights this path."
Alessandre Singher, PhD, LPC, LCADC, CAACD, CCJP. Professor, Addiction Curriculum Developer, and Therapist
"In Developing Competencies for Addiction, Dr. Sandra Rasmussen provides a cutting-edge guide to competencies for addiction treatment and recovery management. Often addiction treatment is focused on the drug or problematic behavior. These competencies effectively examine the broader context of the recovery process. This journey begins with freedom from the problem substance or behavior, but is about the recovery of our self-respect, relationships, meaning, motivation, and hope. This guide effectively integrates the whole person as they return to living well!"
Kenneth Martz, PsyD, author of Manage My Emotions and Manage My Addiction
"Developing Competencies for Recovery: Mastering Addiction, Living Well, and Doing Good provides a sound and timely theoretical and competency-based framework for persons in recovery and for practitioners in the recovery field. It is a must-read for recovering addicts, practitioners, and public health professionals."
Damon Grew Peter Syphers, PhD, Lewiston, ME
