Changing for good
|
|
Prochaska, Diclemente and Norcross
|
Amazon
Score: 7/10
|
The 'cycle of change', a paraphrasing of Prochaska's Transtheoretical Model (TTM), is probably the
most common therapeutic tool used in addiction work today. It holds that particular modalities of
therapy are successful or not based on their atunement to the stage of change a client is in at
any particular time. Many people have been on training centred on the principles but not many
have actually read the book. This book is a rather chatty little tome aimed squarely at the
self-help market (there are maybe 10,000 professionals in the world in this field that might be
interested in the book and 10,000,000 members of the public looking for answers to their
problems, for this reason important books are often written with both eyes on the public money).
This makes it less interesting than it should be. It is clear and the ideas present should be
digested by all workers (not least because despite being a regular therapeutic currency, many
workers have only very superficial understanding of the concepts involved). The AER has
published its own article on Prochaska's concept of precontemplation.
A cautionary note should be made: the TTM is a psychological theory on how the mind works and
as such is open to research programmes, many of which have found no clear evidence for the
clearly dileniated stages of change that Prochaska proposes.
Despite its shortcomings, this book makes it onto the 'must read' list - if drug workers continue to
use the concepts espoused they should read the book to be clear on the exact thinking behind
them.
|
|
