Trauma and the 12 Steps--The Workbook

Exercises and Meditations for Addiction, Trauma Recovery, and Working the 12 Steps--Revised and expanded edition

Foreword by Anna David
Look inside
$17.95 US
North Atlantic Books
36 per carton
On sale Aug 29, 2023 | 9781623179328
Sales rights: World
Your definitive trauma-sensitive guide to working the Steps: skills for understanding your addiction, processing your trauma, and navigating your recovery journey—the anticipated companion to Trauma and the 12 Steps.

    This addiction recovery workbook from clinicians Jamie Marich, PhD, and Stephen Dansiger offers skills to prevent relapse, enhance recovery, and understand how trauma impacts alcoholism, drug dependency, and even other types of addictions.
    Working the Steps for the first time can feel scary and unfamiliar—and depending upon the experiences you’ve had at AA or NA, you may question whether the 12 Steps are right for you. Here, Marich and Dansiger help you get to the root of your addiction while offering skills and exercises for an inclusive recovery program.
    Unlike some 12-Step programs, this workbook is open to all—regardless of your background, history, identity, or spiritual beliefs. It also recognizes that for most of us on recovery or sobriety journeys, each Step isn’t made to be worked through only once: this workbook is designed to support your individual needs, whether that’s practicing one step on a day-to-day basis, revisiting another at different times throughout your recovery process, or using the exercises as part of a yearly check-in.
    The workbook begins with a self-care inventory, then moves through each of the 12 steps with prompts, meditations, journaling reflections, and body-based exercises. The authors also offer coping skills and an open-minded approach that acknowledges that your recovery is as unique as you are: one-size-fits-all doesn’t apply. Compassionate, trauma-responsive, and grounded in the latest behavioral and neuroscience research, this workbook is your go-to addiction recovery toolkit.
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“This workbook can save a lot of 12-Step members pain and suffering in early recovery and beyond. Much gratitude to Jamie and Stephen for this offering!”
—Mackenzie Phillips, New York Times best-selling author of High on Arrival
 
“By incorporating trauma-responsive exercises, meditation, and expressive arts into 12-Step work, readers will be able to utilize the gifts of the Steps. Jamie and Stephen are on my gratitude list!”
—Claudia Black, PhD, addiction specialist and author of It Will Never Happen to Me
 
“Invaluable for anyone on the path of recovery for whom trauma is co-occurring—whether they are new to 12-Step recovery or a veteran.”
—Dan Mager, MSW, author of Some Assembly Required
 
“This is a sincere and informed offering to help achieve the goals of the Steps that seem out of reach for those dealing with trauma to become happily and usefully whole.”
—Jay Dee Daugherty, New York State Certified Addiction Recovery Coach and drummer in the Patti Smith Group
 
“I was already twelve years into my recovery when someone mentioned that “trauma” could apply to me. I had a visceral response and fought it with almost the same amount of energy that I immersed myself into it. In the ensuing years, as a devoted twelve-stepper, I have tried to marry the wisdom and beauty of the twelve steps with the healing of trauma work. Now, in 2023, in meetings I hear people talking about trauma a lot more. There is an (r)evolutionary conversation happening in recovery that is so necessary for the twelve-step community and our healing. Workbooks like this will be an essential tool to help us integrate synergistically these two perspectives. I deeply respect Jamie and Steve for their work and for their leadership and giving this gift of profound healing to all of those still suffering.”
—Dan Griffin, author A Man’s Way through the Twelve Steps
 
“I wish I had this workbook when I got sober. With gratitude and a deep breath, I highly endorse Trauma and the 12-Steps—The Workbook as a bridge between what we know works in twelve-step recovery and what we need to incorporate from our current trauma-informed knowledge base. This workbook will guide the reader towards an experiential relationship with each step. All too often, step work has become a strictly cognitive exercise, leading people in recovery to a perpetual whack-a-mole game with their ongoing, unresolved symptoms. Jamie and Stephen have combined their decades-long personal experiences in recovery with their expertise as trauma therapists to bring the steps alive in a comprehensive and holistic way, and I applaud them for it.”
—Ingrid Clayton, PhD, author of Believing Me

About

Your definitive trauma-sensitive guide to working the Steps: skills for understanding your addiction, processing your trauma, and navigating your recovery journey—the anticipated companion to Trauma and the 12 Steps.

    This addiction recovery workbook from clinicians Jamie Marich, PhD, and Stephen Dansiger offers skills to prevent relapse, enhance recovery, and understand how trauma impacts alcoholism, drug dependency, and even other types of addictions.
    Working the Steps for the first time can feel scary and unfamiliar—and depending upon the experiences you’ve had at AA or NA, you may question whether the 12 Steps are right for you. Here, Marich and Dansiger help you get to the root of your addiction while offering skills and exercises for an inclusive recovery program.
    Unlike some 12-Step programs, this workbook is open to all—regardless of your background, history, identity, or spiritual beliefs. It also recognizes that for most of us on recovery or sobriety journeys, each Step isn’t made to be worked through only once: this workbook is designed to support your individual needs, whether that’s practicing one step on a day-to-day basis, revisiting another at different times throughout your recovery process, or using the exercises as part of a yearly check-in.
    The workbook begins with a self-care inventory, then moves through each of the 12 steps with prompts, meditations, journaling reflections, and body-based exercises. The authors also offer coping skills and an open-minded approach that acknowledges that your recovery is as unique as you are: one-size-fits-all doesn’t apply. Compassionate, trauma-responsive, and grounded in the latest behavioral and neuroscience research, this workbook is your go-to addiction recovery toolkit.

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Praise

“This workbook can save a lot of 12-Step members pain and suffering in early recovery and beyond. Much gratitude to Jamie and Stephen for this offering!”
—Mackenzie Phillips, New York Times best-selling author of High on Arrival
 
“By incorporating trauma-responsive exercises, meditation, and expressive arts into 12-Step work, readers will be able to utilize the gifts of the Steps. Jamie and Stephen are on my gratitude list!”
—Claudia Black, PhD, addiction specialist and author of It Will Never Happen to Me
 
“Invaluable for anyone on the path of recovery for whom trauma is co-occurring—whether they are new to 12-Step recovery or a veteran.”
—Dan Mager, MSW, author of Some Assembly Required
 
“This is a sincere and informed offering to help achieve the goals of the Steps that seem out of reach for those dealing with trauma to become happily and usefully whole.”
—Jay Dee Daugherty, New York State Certified Addiction Recovery Coach and drummer in the Patti Smith Group
 
“I was already twelve years into my recovery when someone mentioned that “trauma” could apply to me. I had a visceral response and fought it with almost the same amount of energy that I immersed myself into it. In the ensuing years, as a devoted twelve-stepper, I have tried to marry the wisdom and beauty of the twelve steps with the healing of trauma work. Now, in 2023, in meetings I hear people talking about trauma a lot more. There is an (r)evolutionary conversation happening in recovery that is so necessary for the twelve-step community and our healing. Workbooks like this will be an essential tool to help us integrate synergistically these two perspectives. I deeply respect Jamie and Steve for their work and for their leadership and giving this gift of profound healing to all of those still suffering.”
—Dan Griffin, author A Man’s Way through the Twelve Steps
 
“I wish I had this workbook when I got sober. With gratitude and a deep breath, I highly endorse Trauma and the 12-Steps—The Workbook as a bridge between what we know works in twelve-step recovery and what we need to incorporate from our current trauma-informed knowledge base. This workbook will guide the reader towards an experiential relationship with each step. All too often, step work has become a strictly cognitive exercise, leading people in recovery to a perpetual whack-a-mole game with their ongoing, unresolved symptoms. Jamie and Stephen have combined their decades-long personal experiences in recovery with their expertise as trauma therapists to bring the steps alive in a comprehensive and holistic way, and I applaud them for it.”
—Ingrid Clayton, PhD, author of Believing Me