Joe Gerstein on the Necessity of Choice in Recovery

A recent survey found that 90% of US adults believe that when it comes to treating addictive behaviors, patients and doctors should discuss more than one treatment option. Unfortunately, the reality is that 44% of those in recovery said their provider discussed only one treatment option, and another 10% said they never saw a provider at all.

To discuss this issue we talk with Dr. Joe Gerstein, the founding president of SMART Recovery and a retired Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has personally facilitated over 4,000 SMART Recovery meetings, almost 800 of which were held in prisons, and he has invented tools currently used in the program. Dr. Gerstein has delivered approximately 100 lectures and workshops on SMART Recovery, many of those that include discussion of the importance of choice in recovery pathways.

Links:

Mobilize Recovery survey on choice in recovery

Mobilize Recovery website

Visuals regarding Plato Vs. Aristotle (ideal vs. empirical) that Joe references

Motivation and Hierarchy of Values video presentation by Joe Gerstein