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Editor’s Note: Counselor Magazine does not endorse any of the alternative treatment methods discussed within this article, they are simply offered as options to traditional treatment methods and as discussion points. Counselor will occasionally present non-traditional therapies, especially as the field of Complementary and Alternative Medicine continues to grow. This is the first in a series of three articles that concentrate on “What is Working in the Trenches” for frontline counselors.
In an average week, Americans drink 1 billion cups of coffee, 3.4 million cups of tea, 4.5 billion sugared or caffeinated soft drinks, 2.3 billion alcoholic drinks; smoke 8.25 billion cigarettes and consume 400,000 tons of sugar, and 20 million pounds of chocolate. On top of this we take 20 million antidepressants, puff our way through 25 million joints, and pop 1 million tabs of Ecstasy. Whether it’s to relax, get a boost, or just plain feel good, it is clear that we are dependent on chemical stimulants.
These statistics were reported in Natural Highs, by Cass and Holford (2002), who write about the impact and effectiveness of alternative, holistic strategies for overcoming addictions and other life challenges. They promote the value of — and need for — a new set of alternative core competencies for healthier living.
Professionals in the addictions field rarely agree on the most effective treatment modalities. But when they do agree — it’s on the fact that there is no silver bullet. The debate roars on as to the causes of addictions, and the most appropriate interventions.
Recovery tools help counselors guide their clients toward important core competencies, thereby boosting their chances of a successful recovery. “Your therapeutic results will improve as you incorporate a wider variety of effective therapeutic tools in your treatment armamentarium,” (Coombs, 2001).
This article explores five alternative recovery tools to help you assist your clients with their addictive disorders. We hope this review expands your awareness of alternative tools and encourages you to explore them in more detail.
Autogenetics training
Autogenetics training (AT) teaches clients how to lower their daily stress level (Linden, 1990). AT is a systematic program that helps both mind and body relax thereby enabling the person to return to a normal state. To the external observer, AT may resemble meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, or visualization. However, the internal process utilizes body sensations (e.g., person focuses on a left arm feeling heavy) as the antecedent to the healing state (mild trance).
AT teaches a person what is referred to as “self-regulation.” The person is taught how to use their mind to directly influence their body’s self-regulative systems: circulation, breathing, heart rate, etc. This strategy can reduce the damage of the fight or flight response.
AT has its roots in hypnosis, dating back to the last century, when a well-known German brain physiologist, Oskar Vogt, started to explore the correlation between trance and stress reduction. Another German psychiatrist, Johannes H. Schultz, developed Vogt’s work into what is now known as AT. It is still being taught and has growth potential with the increasing numbers of professionals exploring alternative treatments.
AT may not presently be the first choice of recovery tools among professionals, but this may change with education. Since most addictions co-exist with stress damage, this tool lends itself to addictions treatment. Although a fairly easy strategy to teach, it may take up to six months before a client is able to realize the full potential of AT.
Research suggests AT can be as effective as hypnosis in reducing stress and anxiety (Ambulante Kurztherapie von Angstpatien-ten mit, 1994; Greenberg, 1999; Davis, Eshelman, and McKay, 1995). The latter authors advance the usefulness of autogenetics training and its potential for mainstream acceptance. Davis, Eshelman and McKay’s book has sold over 400,000 copies, suggesting strategies like AT are gaining recognition in North America. Visit the following web sites for more information and training opportunities:
Changing sub-modalities (Neurolinguistic programming)
Changing sub-modalities is one of the hundreds of neurolinguistic programming (NLP) techniques. Changing sub-modalities involves changing a person’s perception. This process can be used to assist people with cravings that involve the five senses (sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing). For example, a person who craves chocolate can be taught to change their perception of the chocolate experience.
The client is first asked to choose two items: the food they want to stop craving, (for e.g., chocolate), and a food they dislike (for e.g., runny eggs.) Then the counselor uses a checklist to survey the sub-modalities, stored by the senses, for each food. The client might be asked several questions detailing visual associations for chocolate. There are 30 questions for each food, involving each sense. Once sub-modalities are collected, the client is coached to exchange them. The client is asked to recall, for example, the visual sub-modalities of chocolate, and replace them with the visual sub-modalities of runny eggs. This technique ruins chocolate for some for a long period of time. This technique has also had good success with smokers.
NLP originated when John Grinder, then Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, collaborated with Richard Bandler, then a student of psychology. Together they developed NLP while studying Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, and Milton Erikson (Howatt, 2000). Today NLP comprises many different strategies and techniques many of which can be used on their own as effective recovery tools.
Barlow, Esler, Vitali (1998) and Dilts (1990) extol the effectiveness of NLP in helping people change their internal belief systems. Over the last 20 years the popularity of NLP has grown and the approach appears to be assisting many people with addictive disorders who need to take charge of their lives.
Changing sub-modalities, in particular, isn’t only effective in clinical settings, but has been appropriated by teachers, parents, trainers as well as corporations, wherever individuals can benefit from re-aligning their perceptions in a self-chosen direction.
Visit the following web sites for training opportunities and more information:
Self-hypnosis
Self-hypnosis happens without a hypnotist, but offers the same benefits as traditional hypnosis: stress reduction, relaxation, and stimulation of the body’s natural repair system (Alman and Lambrou, 1992).
A counselor oversees the preparation steps, which entail developing a script — a story containing the suggestions the client wishes to ingrain in their sense of being. Once this is accomplished, the client may then begin work on his/her own self-hypnosis tape.
Before starting, the individual is taught guided imagery and encouraged to find a place where they feel safe practicing it. Progressive muscle relaxation also is taught to help the person calm down sufficiently to start the process.
Ultimately the person goes to their chosen quiet spot, settles down with some progressive muscle relaxation, and turns on the tape to begin their self-hypnosis. It is amazing how empowering one’s own voice can be!
Hypnosis is derived from the Greek word for “to sleep,” and indeed, offers many of the same benefits of dreaming sleep (REM), but without the loss of complete awareness.
One of the earliest recorded applications of hypnosis dates back to the early 1800s, when a Dr. Esdaile, a Scottish surgeon working in India, claimed to have performed several hundred painless operations using only hypnosis (mesmerism) as an anesthetic. Hypnosis has continued to have applications since that time, for both psychology and medical use, particularly in dentistry.
Addiction counselors, therapists, hypnotists, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, trainers, and corporations are among those who back self-hypnosis for stress reduction.
Self-hypnosis also can help boost a person’s motivation to change through self-suggestion. It can help the substance abuser connect to internal strengths he or she may have forgotten, as well as provide a framework for self-control. Self-hypnosis can help the addict discover his or her own unique path to recovery (Dubrow-Eichel, 1997).
David Spiegel, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University argues that opinions on hypnosis can no longer be a question of belief. (For more information see “Proof of the Effectiveness of Hypnosis,” The Times, February 18, 2002.)
For more information on this method, visit the following web sites for training opportunities and more information:
Thought field therapy
Thought field therapy (TFT) is a process that stimulates acupuncture meridians through the light tapping of meridian sites (Callahan, 1995). The area tapped is dictated by the client’s concern. The cure for cravings, for example, suggests 20 taps under the eyes with both hands (Gallo, 1999). The originator, Dr. John Callahan, also developed a set of protocols for dealing with what he defines as psychological reversals, i.e., to help clients align their motivation along with their conscious desires.
The client will normally be instructed to tap with only two fingers — index and middle. In addition, the counselor using TFT will use the technology of applied kinesiology (muscle testing) to affirm the correct tapping protocol.
According to Callahan (1995), the root cause of negative emotions is neither a traumatic event nor a person’s thoughts about it. Instead, Callahan postulated that negative emotions are stored in what he called perturbations (disturbances) in the thought fields and stored throughout the body. The active storing of past negative events triggers the neurological, chemical, hormonal, and cognitive changes in the person, which result in the experience of negative emotions.
Addiction counselors, psychologists, and social workers, are among the professionals who advocate TFT as a strategy for negative emotions and cravings.
The most prominent study on the effectiveness of TFT was conducted by Carbonell and Figley (1999), which suggested TFT is an effective intervention for emotional discomfort.
It is important to note that in recent years TFT has come under fire for its high claims of treatment success. Gaudiano and Herbert (2002) questioned the clinical effectiveness of TFT, because to date there is insufficient reliable evidence to prove its effectiveness, or confirm the success rates it claims. Many professionals have claimed great success with TFT, but no one knows why it works, and clinical evidence is inconclusive.
Visit the following web sites for training opportunities and more information:
Timeline therapy
Timeline Therapy (TLT), a strategy with roots in NLP, focuses on influencing the client’s temporal experience and changing his/her view of negative life experiences. TLT provides the client a framework with which to address past issues. Details, facts, and painful emotions are not rehashed, because in this model there is no need to know them.
TLT presents the client’s entire past as a metaphor that informs their temporal experience. The goal is to release negative emotions that have remained troubling in the present.
The client is invited to change their understanding of past negative events, and separate them from the negative emotions and limiting the decisions these events precipitated. TLT can assist people with depression, anxiety, and other emotional concerns such as anger, so that they can move forward and create the future they really want.
More than any other strategy listed in this article, TLT demands effective training and awareness on the part of the addictions professional. Time Line Therapy is an outgrowth of NLP and Ericksonian Hypnosis. Tad James developed this strategy in 1985, based on co-creator Richard Bandler’s studies of how people store memories, and the effects of these storage patterns on the personality of the individual (James and Woodsmall, 1988).
TLT has been used among addiction counselors, therapists, hypnotists, psychologists, social workers, and medical doctors to help people with addictive disorders let go of harmful emotions that are holding them back — a common complication of addictions issues.
We did not find any formal clinical research on the effectiveness of timeline therapy, although there appears to be continued interest in timeline therapy among professionals who have been trained in the area of hypnosis and NLP. Dr. James claims to train hundreds of people each year in this strategy, as do trainers who teach and certify professionals. Web sites proliferate hailing TLT techniques as a giant leap forward for the psychological community. As believed by Joe Kovach, PsyD, of Calumet College of St. Joseph, “By quickly getting to the heart of one’s issues, Tad’s work significantly cuts down long-term psychotherapy” (http://www.
timelinetherapy.net).
See these web sites for training opportunities and more information:
The search continues for effective tools to help people with addictive disorders to live happy and fulfilling lives. We have introduced you to five relatively new alternative recovery tools. To be effective, of course, each requires the appropriate application of a well-trained professional. The strategies discussed here all share the same goal of helping people take charge of their lives. We encourage you to explore the suggested web sites for more information so you can make your own assessment of the potential value of these techniques.
William A. Howatt, PhD, EdD, ICADC, a Post-doctoral Fellow at the UCLA School of Medicine, serves on the faculty at Nova Scotia Community College and is Co-editor (with Robert H. Coombs) of the Wiley Book Series on Treating Addictions. He can be reached via e-mail at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Robert H. Coombs, PhD, CAS, Professor of Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine, has published 18 books, 180 other works, and is Editor, Section on Substance Use among Health Profes-sionals for Substance Use and Misuse.
References
Alman, B. M., and Lambrou, P.L. (1992). Self-hypnosis: The complete manual for health and self change. Brunner-Mazel: New York, New York.
Ambulante Kurztherapie von Angstpatienten mit (Jul 1994). Autogenem Training und Hypnose. Behandlungsergebrisse und 3-Monats-Katamnese. Psychother Psychosom Med Psychol (GERMANY) 44 (7) p. 226-34.
Barlow, D.H., Esler, J.L. and Vitali, A.E. (1998). Psychosocial Treatments for Panic Disorders, Phobias and Generalised Anxiety Disorder in Nathan, P.E. and Gorman, J.M. A Guide To Treatments That Work, Oxford University Press.
Callahan, J. (1995). Thought Field Therapy (TFT) algorithms for trauma: A reproducible experiment in psychotherapy. Paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association.
Carbonell, J.L., and C. Figley. (1999). A systematic clinical demonstration of promising PTSD treatment approaches. Electronic Journal of Traumatology 5(1). Available online at http://www.fsu.edu/~trauma/promising.html
Cass, H. and Holford, P. (2002). Natural highs: Supplements, nutrition, and mind/body techniques to help you feel good all the time. Penguin Putnam: New York, New York.
Coombs, R.H. (Eds) (2001). Addiction recovery tool. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, California.
Davis, M., Eshelman, E.R., and McKay, M. (1995). Relaxation & stress reduction workbook. New Harbinger: Oakland, CA.
Dilts, R. (1990). Changing Belief Systems with NLP. Meta Publications: Capitola, CA.
Dubrow-Eichel, S.K. (1997). Hypnosis in Client-Centered Addictions Counseling: Evolution of a Paradigm. This paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Psychological Association.
Gallo, F. (1999). Energy Psychology: exploration at the interface of energy, cognition, behavior and health. CRC Press: New York; New York.
Gaudiano, G.A. and Herbert, J.D. (2002). Can We Really Tap Our Problems Away? A Critical Analysis of Thought Field Therapy. Skeptical Inquirer, Mar/Apr. Buffalo, New York.
Greenberg, J. (1999). Comprehensive Stress Management. McGraw-Hill: New York, New York.
Howatt, William A. (2000). The Human Services Counseling Toolbox, Brooks/Cole.
James, T. and Woodsmall, W. (1988). Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality. Meta Publications: Capitola, CA.
Linden, W. (1990). Autogenetics: A clinical guide. Guildford Press: New York, New York.
Spiegel, D. (2002). “Proof of the Effectiveness of Hypnosis.” New York: The Times, February 18.
This article is published in Counselor, The Magazine for Addiction Professionals, June 2003, v.4, n.3, pp. 62-65.
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