Posts by Cynthia Hoffman
12-step doesn’t work for everyone: why I love harm reduction
An alternative to 12-step She comes in and sits on the edge of the couch, anxious. As she tells me why she’s sitting in my office, she looks over furtively, both fearful and defended. I ask personal questions, some that she hasn’t answered even for herself. For example, I ask her what alcohol does for…
Harm Reduction in Couples Therapy
“Substances serve a function for couples and in therapy it is important to find out what job the substances provide and see if there are other ways to achieve the same job. Treatment can’t be a cookie cutter design and therapists now know that substance use and relationship discord can be inextricably linked and in…
Crystal Meth, Men Who Have Sex with Men, and Harm Reduction
“Harm Reduction therapy can include a strategy of abstinence but that is not the main focus of this work including with users of Crystal. Really the focus of Harm Reduction is to first accept that crystal meth users can and do manage their drug use through a variety of methods. Looking together at the reasons,…
Drinking and Harm Reduction
I decided my first entry to psyched in SF would be talking about how people make changes in drinking patterns from a harm reduction perspective. I was speaking to some colleagues recently about this article and the word ‘addiction’ came up in conversations. I was described as an ‘addiction specialist’. It’s true, I have been…