s they can achieve them. We decide together what they need to work on and we try to get them to do things that will make them feel good about themselves."(Ewing, 1978)In sharp contrast to the AA approach, HRC counselors try to instill in patients the belief that they are in control of their destinies, that they have power over alcohol rather than the other way around.Network Therapy Twenty years ago, Marc Galanter was appointed as a career teacher in alcoholism and drug abuse by the National Institute on Mental Health. Galanter found nothing on the technique of resolving a drinking or drug problem for a patient who came to the doctor's office. Since then, researchers in addiction have begun to develop a systematic understanding of how drug and alcohol dependence wreak their effects on thinking and behavior. But there are still very few descriptions of a comprehensive approach that the therapist can apply to addicted patients. "Few therapists venture beyond recommending to alcoholics that they attend AA or take a long break from job and family and go away to a rehabilitation hospital." (Stepney, 1987)Marc Galanter developed an approach that engages the support of a small group - some family, some friends - to meet with the substance abuser and a therapist at regular intervals to secure abstinence and help with the development of a drug free life.The majority of Galanter's patients (77 percent) achieved a major or full improvement. They were abstinent or had virtually eliminated substance use and their life circumstances were materially improved and stable.Marc Galanter named his therapy network therapy. Family and peers become part of the therapist's working team, not subjects of treatment themselves. "Social supports are necessary for overcoming the denial and relapse that are so compromising to effective care for the substance abuser." (Stepney, 1987) Together, the group develops a regimen to support the recovery, one that includes ind...
