Creating Change: A Past-Focused Treatment for Trauma and Addiction

This flexible, evidence-based manual offers counselors a gentle, compassionate approach to help people with trauma, addiction, or both explore their past. Creating Change guides clients to understand how trauma and addiction arose over time, grieve losses and regrets, create a new perspective on their life story, and take pride in their survival. The manual has 23 topics that can be implemented in any order with individuals or groups. Topics include Relationship Patterns, Break the Silence, Deepen Your Story, Darkness and Light, Emotions and Healing, and Influences: Family, Community, Culture. Creating Change can be implemented with any other treatment, including the author’s present-focused model, Seeking Safety. The book has a convenient large-size format and includes 70 reproducible handouts, many of which can be downloaded and printed at the companion website.

See also Seeking Safety: A Treatment Manual for PTSD and Substance Abuse, and the self-help guide Finding Your Best Self, Revised Edition: Recovery from Addiction, Trauma, or Both, an ideal client recommendation.

Lisa M. Najavits, PhD, is Adjunct Professor at T.H. Chan School of Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School, and Director of Treatment Innovations. She was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital for 25 years and Boston University School of Medicine/VA Boston for 12 years. Dr. Najavits specializes in the development of new counseling models for trauma and addiction, clinical trials research, and community-based care. She is author of over 200 publications, including the books Seeking Safety: A Treatment Manual for PTSD and Substance Abuse; Finding Your Best Self: Recovery from Addiction, Trauma, or Both; A Woman’s Addiction Workbook; and Creating Change: A Past-Focused Treatment for Trauma and Addiction. She has served as president of the Society of Addiction Psychology of the American Psychological Association and has consulted widely on public health efforts in trauma and addiction, both nationally and internationally. She is a recipient of the Young Professional Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the Early Career Contribution Award from the Society for Psychotherapy Research, the Emerging Leadership Award from the Committee on Women in Psychology of the American Psychological Association, the Betty Ford Award from the Association for Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance Use and Addiction, and the Distinguished Alumna Award from Barnard College. Dr. Najavits is a licensed psychologist in Massachusetts and conducts a psychotherapy practice.