First, use it as you see fit. It is not a book that needs to be read cover to cover. It is too damn long.

If you are fresh off a lapse or relapse, go straight to Chapter Three. If those wishful thoughts were not your thoughts as you picked up that first drink/drug this time, go to Chapter Four, because you most likely said “F— it!” or some other expletive as you picked up.

If you are a counselor or therapist, you may want to cherry-pick the table of contents for issues that you recognize or that interest you. Eventually, you want to know your way around the book well enough to be able to connect the experience of the client in front of you with specific topics and the related assignments. Fairly high on my to-do list is yet another page giving a chapter-by chapter breakdown, a map of what is in the book. However, you can also let the patient(s) read a topic, individually or together, discuss it, do the homework. There are also group exercises, described in some detail, that you can facilitate and process.

For professors of CD studies, mostly it will depend on what you are teaching. (more to follow.)