This workbook (used in the CEU course Adolescents Substance Abuse Treatment) comes after 35 years of recovery and working with teens committed to change their addictive and other problematic behavior. It guides participants through a series of steps already proven to work to help people change their lives.
As the person does the work they may feel many things they have not felt ever or for a long time. It takes dedication and a desire to change for these principles to work. The reader is the magic in this process. The book looks at the traditional 12 steps and I’ve added some new language to better fit the needs and reality of young people seeking recovery.
All recovery strategies work 100% of the time for 100% of the people who work them at 100%.
I added a chapter on challenging and changing negative core beliefs to help young people rethink how they look at themselves. Some of this work comes from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy I found useful in SMART Recovery and Rational Recovery which are alternative approaches to support that are different from the 12 step model.
The last chapter deals with saying goodbye to the pain of lost relationships. The relationships may be too dead or divorced parents or to a lifestyle that focused on anger, resentment, hurt, abuses, unresolved grief, trauma, PTSD, or chemicals and behavioral addictive disorders that no longer work for the person.
John Bradshaw read the book and gave a review, he said,
“This book is excellent. It captures the language and needs of young people in a very powerful supportive way. Michael Yeager went directly to the heart of the matter when he translated some of the 12 steps into “young person” friendly language. Young people in recovery need to be spoken to in their own language.
The chapter on challenging and changing core beliefs gets to the absolute center of all addictive, self-destructive behaviors. This work assists the young person in noticing first off what their “self-talk” is. Most kids, people, have never been taught to stand up to, or for themselves. This work helps them do just that. It is by challenging and changing one’s beliefs that one reconstructs their life changes one’s behavior.
Lastly, working on grief and saying goodbye to the pain in life is so necessary but is so often left undone. The book guides the young person to let go of their relationship to chemicals, addictive behaviors, past traumas, people who are no longer in their lives, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, or previous identities.”
“I wholeheartedly recommend this book”
~ John Bradshaw
Christina Lacono also was gracious to give us her review,
“Though we have not met in person…. You are still one of the most inspirational people!
Amazing work. Your 12+2 book has helped many people I know personally and professionally…including my own teen daughter! My daughter is bipolar too. This book was amazing! I’ve worked with many young adults with varying degrees of illness from addiction, depression, eating disorders….
“I can always use this book!”
~ Christina Lacono
The book is available on Amazon.
