LOCATION CHANGE: NOW WILL BE HELD AT CENTER FOR OPTIMAL LIVING (303 5TH AVEUNE, SUITE 1407, NEW YORK, NY 10016)

Addiction has been defined as a condition of powerlessness by the primary treatment modality in America - a definition that has been reinforced by claims made about modern neuroscience. But these models are deficient in terms both of explaining addictive behavior, and in their ability to remedy it. (For instance, in terms of encouraging self-efficacy.) Rather, as the concept of addiction expands into behavioral areas, including eating, sex, and electronic entertainments/media, the inadequacy -- indeed, the iatrogenesis -- of current concepts becomes more evident.

Dr. Stanton Peele will be leading a day-long training in current addiction theory and practice based on a modern, expanded concept of addiction along with the undeniable evidence and meaning of natural recovery in addiction. Dr. Peele will discuss new developments in practice that focus on mindfulness and self-empowering conceptualizations of self and addictive issues from an integrative harm reduction perspective. This framework and these methods build on both Dr. Peele's new book (written with Ilse Thompson) Recover! Stop Thinking Like an Addict and the clinical work being done with substance misuse at the Center for Optimal Living.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding changes in the definition and meaning of addiction, including DSM-5

• Understanding new concepts (e.g., SAMHSA) of recovery

• Recognizing the frequency and basis of natural recovery and its translation into clinical practice

• Identifying self-defeating thinking about the irremediable nature of addiction and the powerlessness of the individual to cope with it

• Learning key practices and approaches for promoting client resistance to addictive urges and cravings, including willpower, mindfulness meditation, S.P.O.T., motivational interviewing, relapse prevention options

• Understanding the roles of non-behavioral, self-referential factors -- such as purpose, values, and self-acceptance -- in recovery

About Dr. Stanton Peele:

Dr. Stanton Peele is a world-renowned addiction expert, therapist, and author whose books have sold more than one million copies. Dr. Peele has challenged and changed the way people understand addiction and recovery. Rejecting the widely accepted notion that addiction is an irreversible disease, Dr. Peele shows that in fact recovery is the norm. Dr. Peele has spent his career developing approaches that break the cycle of addiction, empower people with addictive behavior to take back control of their lives, and bring about the natural recovery process.

Read about how Stanton Peele and Ilse Thompson approach these issues through their PERFECT program in their new book, Recover! Stop Thinking Like an Addict, and how Hoffman's chief problem may have been the way he was educated to think about addiction.

Event FAQ's:

• Guests do not need to bring paper tickets with them and will be asked to register upon arrival
• This workshop is appropriate for mental health and substance abuse counseling professionals and graduate students in those fields
  
• For those who need to cancel, please notify us as soon as possible and we will issue full refunds if notified within 24 hours of event date
• Continuing education credits for CASAC's will be provided pending approval from OASAS for 6 clock hours.

This event is co-sponsored by The Center for Optimal Living and The New School for Social Research's Concentration in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Counseling. For additional information about this event, please contact mhsac@newschool.edu.