My name is Michael Brown and I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist and Certified Gottman Therapist with Happy Couples Healthy Communities, a marriage and family therapy private practice in Bartram Park, Jacksonville, Florida. Today I’d like to talk with you about “couples in recovery from addiction” and the Couples Recovery Development Approach.
Couples in recovery from addiction face unique challenges in three areas.
- In managing the negative impact of addiction that has followed them into recovery,
- In adjusting to the new challenges of recovery (and they are real challenges!).
- In looking forward and setting new directions for the relationship now in recovery.
So how is this done? My friend and colleague, Dr. Robert Navara, a Senior Certified Gottman Therapist and Master Addiction Counselor, has developed what he calls “The Couple Recovery Development Approach”. It really integrates the best of what we know about couples relationships, addictions, and recovery. This approach attends tends to three areas: shifting relationship patterns, reworking intergenerational patterns of transmission of substance abuse, and attending to the relationship and to recovery at the same time.
If you are a partner or a couple in recovery and you’d be interested in learning more about this approach and working through some of these unique challenges of couples in recovery, please call me at (904) 289-2954 or contact me through my website athappycoupleshealthycommunities.com. Thank you.