This brief, evidence-based guide is ideal for busy mental health professionals helping clients with opioid use disorders (OUDs). It examines the devastating global impact caused by opioids and is replete with information and resources that can be immediately applied to addiction work. The authors' pragmatic, strengths-based approach to treatment is based on a collaborative counselor-client working alliance to achieve client readiness for change, moderation, and abstinence. Topics discussed include current research on risk and protective factors, OUD assessment and diagnosis, the ethical and legal issues particular to addiction work, medication-assisted treatment, physical and psychological interventions for pain management, and the necessity of interdisciplinary care.
Kevin G. Alderson, PhD, is professor emeritus of counseling psychology from the University of Calgary. He has been a counselor for 40 years and a registered psychologist since 1986. He is serving a 3-year term as president-elect, president, and past president, consecutively, for the College of Alberta Psychologists, the body that regulates psychology in Alberta, Canada. Professor Alderson is a professional member of NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals, and holds the highest level of membership (i.e., Drug Demand Reduction Professional Membership) within the International Society of Substance Use Professionals. He currently sits on the editorial board for the Journal of Alcoholism, Drug Abuse & Substance Dependence and the Austin Journal of Drug Abuse and Addiction. He holds membership in the American Counseling Association, the American Psychological Association, the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, and the Canadian Psychological Association. Since 2008, Dr. Alderson has been the editor in chief of the Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, which is the only national peer-reviewed journal in the counseling and psychotherapy field in Canada. He currently works half-time for Yorkville University as its director for a proposed online doctor of counseling and psychotherapy degree program.
Samuel T. Gladding, PhD, was a professor in the Department of Counseling at Wake Forest University. He was a fellow in the American Counseling Association (ACA) and its former president. He also served as president of the American Association of State Counseling Boards, Chi Sigma Iota (international counseling honor society), and three ACA divisions: the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, the Association for Specialists in Group Work (ASGW), and the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors. He was an ASGW fellow and the former editor of the Journal for Specialists in Group Work.
Professor Gladding authored numerous books, scholarly articles, book chapters, teaching videos, and poems. His writings have been translated into half a dozen languages, including Korean, Indonesian, Chinese, Polish, and Russian. He was a mental health first responder to the 9/11 attack in New York and has twice been a Fulbright Specialist (Turkey and China). He is the recipient of ACA's Gilbert and Kathleen
