For many of us, changing our relationship to alcohol and other drugs on our own was next to impossible. Likewise, individual therapeutic responses, such as psychotherapy, did not provide enough support.
Collaboration Over Expertise
We are cautious about approaches that position professionals as the primary authorities on people's lives.
The Deconstructing Addiction approach is collaborative.
People are encouraged to become investigators of their own experiences.
Local knowledge matters.
Lived experience matters.
The people most affected by a problem often possess knowledge that experts cannot see.
Beyond Labels
Many addiction frameworks encourage people to adopt permanent identity descriptions.
Narrative practice offers another possibility.
Instead of defining people by categories, we become curious about the stories they carry about themselves and the stories they would prefer to live into.
A person's life is always larger than their problems.
Our approach embraces the possibility that identity is not fixed.
People can revise their relationships with substances while also revising their relationships with themselves.