Couples With Substance Disorders: Strategies for Treating the Trauma of the Addiction Helping To Develop a “Couple Recovery”

In this episode, Bob discussed how originally substance misuse was not an area that he worked with, but after it kept showing up with his clients he decided he needed and pursued more training. He discussed how he was part of the Family Recovery Project at the Mental Research Institute with Drs. Stephanie Brown and Virginia Lewis, a study aimed at what happens in couple and family systems after beginning recovery. Bob’s research, a qualitative study on long-term couple recovery, led to him creating a model called the “Couple Recovery Development Approach (CRDA), a theory for explaining how couples can successfully navigate the challenges found in the transition from active addiction to active recovery. Bob talked about the impact of the trauma of addiction, and the trauma of recovery relating that the first year in recovery was challenging, and that relapse rates are high in that first year. He explained how with couples he externalizes addiction and explores how it has invaded their relationship, in a way so that they can both talk about the impact of this unwanted intruder. He discussed how clinicians often believe it’s important not to work on the couple relationship in the beginning of recovery, because each partner is supposed to focus on their individual recovery, but he pointed out that couples impacted by addiction have the highest divorce rate of any other comorbidities, and there actually isn’t any empirical studies to support that approach; in fact research does support the concept that healthy relationships are found to be the biggest predictor of long-term sobriety. It turns out that couples work is one of the most effective ways to identify addiction and move people into recovery. Rather than the common belief that addiction is contraindicated for couples therapy, We addressed the issues of codependency. While it can be helpful in defining issues for the non-using partner, it’s limited. Bob said he feels it is important to add the concept of secondhand harm, and post-traumatic-stress-disorder to normalize partner’s experiences and not pathologize them with the singular term “codependency”. He described his intervention called H.E.A.R.T. (Healing Emotions from Addiction Recovery and Trauma), which helps partners to process the trauma from addiction, without blame or defensiveness. Robert Navarra, Psy.D, LMFT, MAC is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Gottman Therapist and Master Trainer, and holds National Certification as a Master Addiction Counselor. He has trained counselors and therapists nationally and internationally. Dr. Navarra has co-authored several book chapters with Drs. John and Julie Gottman, and co-authored articles on Gottman Therapy for The Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy with Dr. John Gottman. Based on his research at Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto California, Bob created “Roadmap for the Journey: A Path for Couple Recovery”, a two-day workshop for couples in recovery from an addictive disorder. “Roadmap for the Journey” has been a featured workshop at Hazelden Betty Ford and has been given at treatment programs as well as in small, semi-private workshop settings. Bob and John Gottman are currently researching the impact of Roadmap for the Journey in helping couples integrate recovery into their relationship, a missing element in most treatment programs. In collaboration with the Gottman Institute, Bob has also created a one-day training workshop for counselors and therapists, called “Couples and Addiction Recovery.” He also teaches graduate classes on addictive disorders at Santa Clara University. You can learn more about Bob at www.drrobertnavarra.com.