“Getting It” (Motivation For Maintenance,) Part I

Motivation for Maintenance, Part I

 Developing Discrepancy from “Wishful” Decision-making

George DuWors, MSW, LCSW, BCD

This one-day workshop starts by demonstrating that physical relapse universally starts with one of two attitudes. Today we focus on the “wishful” (“One won’t hurt,” etc.) decision that denies experience, painful consequences, and the disease itself. As much as possible, we will build upon participant experience, personal or clinical.  Our first exercise, “Force of Memory Scale,” develops the first of four generic discrepancies between the client’s thinking/perception and a typical self-ideal. “Possible Facts and Conditions” develops the particular discrepancy called “dis-ownership,” followed by two modules developing two more discrepancies, “willpower” and “insanity.”  Each of these discrepancies implies maintenance tasks well beyond the “action” stage of change. And each connects with the 12 step description of the problem and corresponding solutions for achieving and maintaining recovery.

Objectives: The Participants will be able to:

  • Elicit “wishful thinking” from clients who have relapsed.
  • Develop four generic motivational discrepancies from such thinking.
  • Develop maintenance plans based on the client’s own  experience of discrepancy.
  • Utilize the workbook “Getting It: Building Motivation from Relapse”

Target Audience: Anyone frustrated by clients not getting connection between the ongoing work of recovery and continued abstinence.

Content Level: Core to advanced (some experience preferable)

Methods: Combines over thirty PowerPoint slides with matching workbooks to make entire workshop both interactive and portable. Role-play, small group brainstorms, sharing dyads.

Instructor: George DuWors,MSW, LCSW, BCD is a seasoned addictions specialist, who has led workshops across North America and in the United Kingdom. He is the author of White Knuckles and Wishful Thinking, Learning from the Moment of Relapse in Alcoholism and Other Addictions (Hogrefe and Huber: Seattle, 2000). He also created the client workbook, “Getting It: Building Motivation From Relapse” (amazon.com, 2013).

Contact information: