Dr Garrett O’Connor shares discoveries from decades of experience on how to recover from addiction: the role of shame, resilience, spirituality and survival in mending broken people, commonalities with survivors of Auschwitz, training doctors – and protecting the next generation.

Successful psychotherapy

As long ago as April 1980, the American Journal or Psychiatry (Judd Marmor MD) published The Six Elements Critical for Successful Psychotherapy. In 1983, Margaret Yates and I followed up with The Correlation of 12-Step Approach with The Six Elements Critical for Successful Psychotherapy. These were and are:

1. release of emotional tension in the context of hope, and expectation of recieving help – steps 1,2,3,4,5,7
2. identification with the method – steps 1,2,3
3. suggestion and persuasion – 1-12
4. operant re-conditioning – 4,5,8,9
5. repeated reality testing – 4,5,9,10,12
6. cognitive learning about the basis for one’s difficulties

Science has caught up with practice to the extent that neuroscientist Professor Carlton Erickson stated at the UK/European Symposium on Addictive Disorders in May 2013 that “AA and NA are now regarded scientifically as evidence-based interventions for the treatment of addiction”.