Jonathan Diamond - Narrative Means to Sober Ends: Treating Addiction and Its Aftermath

Recent Volumes

Narrative Means to Sober Ends: Treating Addiction
and Its Aftermath

Jonathan Diamond

Collaborative Therapy with Multi-Stressed Families:
From Old Problems to New Futures

William C. Madsen

Couple Therapy for Infertility

Ronny Diamond, David Kezur, Mimi Meyers,
Constance N. Scharf, and Margot Weinshel

Short-Term Couple Therapy

James M. Donovan, Editor

Treating the Tough Adolescent: A Family-Based,
Step-by-Step Guide

Scott P. Sells

Strengthening Family Resilience

Froma Walsh

The Adolescent in Family Therapy: Breaking the Cycle
of Conflict and Control

Joseph A. Micucci

Working with Families of the Poor

Patricia Minuchin, Jorge Colapinto, and Salvador Minuchin

Latino Families in Therapy: A Guide to Multicultural Practice

Celia Jaes Falicov

Essential Skills in Family Therapy: From the First Interview
to Termination

JoEllen Patterson, Lee Williams, Claudia Grauf-Grounds,
and Larry Chamow

Narrative Means to Sober Ends

Treating Addiction and Its Aftermath

JONATHAN DIAMOND

Foreword by David Treadway

THE GUILFORD PRESS
New York London

Epub Edition ISBN: 9781462506071

2000 Jonathan Diamond

Paperback edition 2002

Published by The Guilford Press

A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc.

72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012

www.guilford.com

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher.

Last digit is print number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Diamond, Jonathan, Ph.D.

Narrative means to sober ends : treating addiction and its aftermath/
Jonathan Diamond.

p. cm.(The Guilford family therapy series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-57230-566-5 (hc.) ISBN 1-57230-835-4 (pbk.)

1. Substance abusePatientsRehabilitation. 2. Letter writing

Therapeutic use. 3. Substance abuseTreatment. I. Title. II. Series.

RC564.D535 2000

616.86 06dc21 00-026074

All of the stories and voices in this book are derived from the authors clinical experience in private practice and in various hospitals, clinics, and treatment programs. Names, places, and other details contained in these materials have been altered to protect the privacy and anonymity of the individuals to whom they refer. Therefore, any client or story found in this book that corresponds to an actual person living or dead is inadvertent and purely coincidental.

In memory of my father,
Malcolm L. Diamond;
and my aunt,
Susan Reingold Oshins

Jonathan Diamond, PhD, received his doctorate from Smith College School of Social Work, his MSW from the University of Connecticut, and his postgraduate training in marital and family therapy at the Brattleboro Family Institute in Brattelboro, Vermont. His previous experience includes establishing and directing outpatient substance abuse and inpatient dual diagnosis treatment programs for children, adolescents, adults, and their families. Dr. Diamond has been teaching and training in the fields of addiction and psychotherapy for the past 15 years. He is currently in private practice in Northampton and Greenfield, Massachusetts.

Dear Jon,

Its 6 A.M. Im sitting in my backyard as a murky humid dawn unfolds. The traffic noise is beginning to drown out the birds. I just finished your book. Your last sentence made me laugh out loud.

In another hour I will be in the chair again, privileged to be bearing witness to the rich mix of misery, courage, and mystery that my clients bring to me every day. Having just read your work, I feel renewed and ready. Undoubtedly, it will seem like a very good idea to suggest letter writing to most of the folks I see today. Then I thought I would start by writing to you.

As you may have already surmised, this is a somewhat unconventional foreword, but Narrative Means to Sober Ends is no ordinary book. From the first few pages, I knew I was reading something special. I could tell you were a creative and courageous therapist, and that youd written a book that truly reflects your exciting ideas, clinical acumen, and passionate commitment.

Narrative Means to Sober Ends is about storiesyours and your clients. Through being completely present to each of your clients in the therapeutic moment and then in your telling of it, you convey the elusive essence of therapy in full flight. In story after story, you reveal the complexity of integrating psychodynamic and addictions theory on the one hand, and narrative and family system therapy on the other, while maintaining the precious individuality of each client and each therapy relationship. Your book reveals the art and mystery of therapy. It captures the bird on the wing.

Job well done.

Its been odd reading your final draft this week because while you have written luminously about the magic of therapy and the healing power of recovery, Ive been slogging through one of those times when it seems like all my substance-abusing clients are referrals from what some Alcoholic Anonymous folks call the shoe department (i.e., the loafers, sneakers, slippers, and heels). Theres Sam, who after doing great for months, has landed in jail for drinking while driving. Ellen is sneaking sips of cooking sherry while claiming to be completely sober. One of my Georges was once again slipping while staving off his wife with lame promises about maybe starting to attend AA meetings in the fall. Then my other George is also back to drinking and told his furious wife yesterday, Sometimes a guys got to do what a guys got to do.

Its been one of those weeks when my 30 years of work in the addictions field feels like 29 too many.

On the other hand, reading Narrative Means to Sober Ends has been like going to an AA gathering. In any meeting, amid the telling of bottle stories and drunkalogues, theres always a renewal of hope and possibilitystories of people whose lives have been shattered but who somehow pick up the pieces and start over. Your book is similarly inspiring. On page after page, your belief in your clients shows through, and your willingness to go the extra mile or two or three comes through, too.

I believe, as you do, that addicts are folks looking for a spiritual home who have shown up at the wrong address. For us therapists, treating addicted people can often feel as though we practice at the wrong address, only to discover weve found our spiritual home. Addictions therapy is truly a spiritual practice. Your book reminds me that our work is an act of faith.

Good stories beget good stories. I thought I would share with you and your readers one of the stories that I draw on when Im having one of those bad weeks with the folks from the shoe department. As this book does throughout, the story of Sister Mary Catherine and the Johnson family reminds me to hang in there and keep on keeping on.

Leroy Johnson sat huddled up in the chair with his head hanging down toward his chest as if it were too heavy to hold up straight. His body seemed frail and shrunken underneath his black and gold New Orleans Saints warm-up jacket and his baggy khaki pants. He looked like a man of 80, even though the chart in my lap said he was 42. He had been let out of the hospital to come to this interview. He was flanked by his son, Jamal, and his daughter, Jamalya. The chart said she was 13 and he was 11. They sat protectively close to their father. Jamal held his left hand, and Jamalya held his right. It looked like they were holding on for dear life.