Relapse Prevention Counseling for African Americans: A Culturally Specific Model

By Roland Williams and Terence Gorski

Relapse is a serious problem for all recovering people, but it is especially sever for African Americans seeking recovery from addition. Roland Williams, a certified Relapse Prevention Specialist heavily involved in promoting recovery in the African-American community, partners with Terence T. Gorski to provide an in-depth look at relapse among recovering African Americans and what can be done to prevent it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9781483591353

Book preview

Relapse Prevention Counseling for African Americans

All rights in this book are reserved. No part of the text may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the authors, except brief quotations used in connection with reviews in magazines or newspapers. For questions or to schedule training visit Roland Williams’s site, http://www.rolandwilliamsconsulting.com/

©2007 Terence T. Gorski

ISBN: 978-1-48-359135-3

Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1: Origins of the Model

Chapter 2: Addiction and the Black Community

Chapter 3: Statistics

Chapter 4: High-Risk Thoughts, Feelings, and Action Urges

Chapter 5: Guidelines for Clinicians: Working with Chemically Dependent African Americans

Chapter 6: Working with Clients: Problems and Concerns

Chapter 7: The Relapse Process

Chapter 8: Using the Relapse Warning Signs List

Chapter 9: The Original CENAPS Relapse Warning Signs List

Chapter 10: CENAPS Brief Warning Signs List

Chapter 11: Relapse Warning Signs for African Americans

Chapter 12: Underlying Recovery Issues

Chapter 13: The Seven Clinical Processes

Chapter 14: Working with the Mandated Client

Chapter 15: Practical Clinical Exercises

Afterword: A Challenge for You

Acknowledgments

So much has changed since the first edition of this book was published in 1997. I left the job that I’d had for fifteen years and helped start an amazing new program outside of San Francisco called Bayside Marin. I also completed my master’s degree, traveled all over the world, and presented trainings on Cultural Considerations in Addiction Treatment nationwide. Many programs around the country that work with addicted African Americans have used this book to help their staff and their clients. I’ve received hundreds of letters and have done talk shows and interviews discussing this work. Throughout this time, I have never lost sight of the fact that none of this would have been possible without the love and support of several people in my life.

It’s important for me to acknowledge the people who contributed to the original version, because they so encouraged and inspired me. I started out with many ideas and much passion for this work, but these individuals helped me channel that into the book that you’re holding in your hand. They challenged me, questioned me, and supported me. This process reinforced for me something that I learned early in my own recovery: You alone can do it, but you can’t do it alone.

First, I give thanks to God for his amazing grace. He has relieved me from the obsession to use and instilled in me a desire and ability to help others.

The brothers listed here are all treatment professionals who met with me on a regular basis to discuss the development of the original edition of the textbook: Thomas Fendress, George Jurand, Jamal Bey, Calvin Cregg Johnson, Mel L.B. Turner, Kenny Hall, and Carl B. Skinner. All of them are still actively contributing to the field of addiction treatment with a special focus on African-American issues. I also received much support on the project from the following people through their time, enthusiasm, critique, and love: Charles Vincent, M.D.; Luther Brock Sr.; the entire staff of Free at Last in East Palo Alto, especially Lynne White, Priya Haji, Kirsten Shields, Vincent Froehlich, Bill Eckles, and Mary Jane Saska.

Also much love to my little sisters: Barbara Jeanrenaud, Beth Burton (may she rest in peace), Elga Torres, and Jackie Mikkelsen. To my still best friend, Rick Glendon, who watches my back, and my hero and sponsor, Chuck Norman, who totally inspires me. To my two brothers from another mother, Richard Ayala and Tony Norman, thanks for being there through thick and thin. Thanks also to Richard Lindsey who lit the fire in me and to this day is the best therapist I’ve ever met.

Thanks to Peter Bell, who has paved the way for me and so many others when he dared to speak on the subject of African-American Issues in Addiction Treatment. Peter is The Man, and I’ve learned much from him.

Much love to Peggy Thomas and Madalynn Rucker at Ontrack Program Resources in Sacramento. I am so proud to be a part of the incredible work you are doing in the state of California.

A very special thanks to my men’s group, The Circle of Recovery: Tony Norman, David Lewis, Al Haysbert, Dorsey Nunn, Wilbur Jackson, Ron Caracter, Patrick Brock, and Sylvester Irving. Thanks for giving me a place where it’s OK to not be OK and for loving me no matter what.

Thanks to my brother Phillip West in Detroit, for his tireless dedication to helping black folks get clean and for the years of love and support he has shown me. Thanks to Dr. Irv Williams of Lakeview Center in Pensacola, Florida, for his role in putting together one of the most amazing programs I’ve seen. He is changing the lives of thousands of African-American families struggling with addiction. And, to my dawg in Atlanta, David Whiters, for keeping it real.

To Terence Gorski, who mentored me and encouraged me throughout my career. He is an amazing man who’s made an incredible mark on the world. I’m so very proud of him and glad to be his friend. To Tresa Watson, the glue that holds CENAPS together.

Last, and most importantly, I want to thank my beautiful wife, Nanette, who has always believed in me and takes such good care of my family; my number one son, Ramone, who fills me with pride; and my baby boy, Nicholas, who I look up to, literally.

-Roland Williams

Foreword

By Terence T. Gorski, President, The CENAPS Corporation

The book Relapse Prevention Counseling for African Americans by Roland Williams represents the first major effort to adapt the CENAPS Model of Recovery and Re lapse to the specific cultural needs of African Americans.  I am confident that this book reflects, in a general way, a number of special obstacles faced by African Americans that are not experienced by members of the majority culture who seek recovery.

The CENAPS Model is intentionally designed to be as culturally neutral as possible. Certified Relapse Prevention Specialists are trained in methods for making cultural translations as the warning signs are personalized and analyzed. Over the years many counselors who work extensively with African Americans have identified, in a general way, a collection of warning signs that are unique to African Americans. These counselors have reported that when these culturally specific high-risk situations and relapse warning signs are translated into language that their clients understand, more clients can avoid relapse. The Relapse Prevention Specialists who have done this cultural translating report that their patients benefit by identifying issues related to relapse that would not have been identified had the specific cultural context been ignored.

In reading this book it is important to remember three things. First, there is great diversity in the African-American community. There is no one, single African-American culture. As a result, there is no one, universal set of African-American relapse warning signs. There do, however, seem to be some common themes related to the black experience in America that create special problems for a significant

number of African Americans in recovery. If these issues are identified and  matched  with appropriate coping strategies, it is possible that many African Americans who  now consider themselves hopeless may find the key that  will open the lock that shuts them out of long-term recovery.

Second, African Americans represent only one of many cultural minorities in the United States. Many of the other minority cultures may benefit from reading about these spe cific African-American relapse warning signs. Hopefully this work will prompt others to develop culturally-specific relapse warning signs.

Third, a minority culture is always defined in relationship to the majority culture. A person does not understand the issues related to discrimination until and unless they find themselves as a minority in a majority culture. It is easy for members of the majority culture to look superficially at minority cultures and say that discrimination does not exist. It is not helpful to minimize or deny that there are special issues that block initial entry into recovery and often lead to dropping out of recovery and into relapse.

I am pleased and honored that Roland Williams undertook this first step in what has become a major initiative in understanding and becoming more effective at identifying and managing the culturally-specific issues that lead to relapse.

Introduction

This is a book about culture, chemical dependency recovery, and relapse prevention. I will focus primarily on African-American issues, but the format is such that it can be used with any minority population. I will share some informal statistics that are the result of a nonscientific, informed survey. However, they do illustrate the need for a culturally sensitive approach to treatment and relapse prevention. I will introduce Relapse Warning Signs for African Americans. These are twenty-two warning signs that might surface in addition to the warning signs experienced by every other addict/alcoholic. I have attempted to illustrate several issues that have been problems in recovery for me and other African Americans.

A whole chapter is dedicated to helping clinicians work more effectively, specifically with African Americans but also with any minority population. This book will assist both the counselor and the African-American client to have a more productive recovery experience. If this book saves one black person from relapsing, it will be a success. If one clinician reads it and delivers better quality treatment as a result, it will be a success. If this book serves as a model to individualize a relapse prevention treatment for any other minority group, it will be a success. I have much passion about this topic, and I hope this book demonstrates that.

I will use the model of Relapse Prevention Therapy designed by Terence T. Gorski as the foundation of this work. I believe this is currently the most effective model available and has a proven history of success. This model has been used for years throughout the country in treatment centers and individual counseling practices. Thousands of therapists have been trained in this model and hundreds have been certified as Relapse Prevention Specialists. Terry Gorski has continued to modify his work so that it addresses current issues such as brief therapy and managed care. He has revised the training sessions to make them more available, affordable, and effective.

Clinicians and clients using this book should become familiar with Gorski’s CENAPS Model of