I know this is a podcast but I want to do something that has never been done in podcast history. I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to raise your right hand if you agree and left hand if you disagree. I’m wearing my special VR headset right now that will allow me to see which hand you are holding up. Trust me I am a professional podcaster so please don’t try this at home. Ok….let’s try this out.

If you or a family member fell into the dark world of addiction that required going to rehabilitation, would you want your loved ones to be there to support you?

Remember raise your right hand for agree and left hand for disagree. Ok….I see the hands going up. Let me count them really quickly. Remember you can raise your left hand if you disagree. Raise em high! Ok… I’m looking… So NO left hands….huh. That’s interesting. It appears that everyone listening to me right now would rather have support from their friends or family to help them recover from addiction instead of facing this daunting task alone. That is fascinating that you all think that 100% because the way rehabilitation has worked for many years is to isolate people recovering from addiction from their friends and family. As my Dad would say, “That sounds Ass Backwards to me” and based on my very scientific survey I just did you also agree. Of course, it’s great that we all agree and we can create some awesome “Outrage Theater” but that doesn’t get much done. Lucky for us there is a big brained doctor that is fighting the fight to get rehabilitation centers to change with real data from the Gottman Institute (I love them) to support having loved ones play a supportive role in recovering from addiction. I want to introduce you to him right now.

Our guest today, Dr. Robert Navarra is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Master Addiction Counselor, and Certified Gottman Therapist and Master Trainer specializing in a relational approach to addiction recovery. Based on his research of over 15 years he created “Roadmap for the Journey: For Couples in Recovery”, a two-day research-based workshop designed for couples in early and long-term addiction recovery. Roadmap is a featured workshop at Betty Ford Hazelden’s line up of workshops in 2019 and 2020. Act now to attend his next workshop in Center City, Minnesota September 27-29! Roadmap provides tools and strategies for couples to integrate recovery in couple and family life. Private and small group intensive couple recovery workshops are also available. Most recently he has authored “Systemic Addiction Treatment in Couple and Family Therapy” and co-authored three articles with Dr. John Gottman on Gottman Method Therapy (GMT) for the Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Additional publications include several book chapters on Gottman Method Therapy (GMT) with Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Gottman. Dr Navarra has also created and a one-day training in addiction assessment and treatment for therapists and counselors, “Couples and Addiction Recovery”. Coming soon, online training for professionals. See- I told you he was a big brained Doctor!

Websites: https://drrobertnavarra.com/ and https://couplerecovery.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CouplesRecovery
Twitter: https://twitter.com/drbobnavarra
Podcast: Relationship Notes (Coming soon) In the meantime visit Soundcloud station