This is a book that will lower parental anxieties and help teens engage in honest conversations about drug use. Lessin and Reiman have taken science and clinical wisdom to develop their IDEA structure- a collaborative conversation that places the complexity of teen drug use in the context of normal adolescent development.
Patt Denning, PhD, Director of Clinical Services and Training at the Harm Reduction Therapy Center, co-author of Practicing Harm Reduction Psychotherapy: An Alternative Approach to Addictions
In their new book, Harm Reduction Approaches with Adolescents Who Use Substances, Barry Lessin and Amanda Reiman are on the cutting edge of new thinking about working with adolescents. Called harm reduction, this approach has the following defining characteristics: 1) adolescents are treated with respect as collaborators in the change and healing process; 2) use of substances by young people is not entirely ruled out, nor taken as a sign of an irresolvable, lifelong disease. Rather, the entire child, their outlook and relationships with the people and the world around them, are the building blocks for the Lessin-Reiman adolescent helping approach. If their approach sounds like plain common sense, steeped in what readers understand to be the basics of sound parenting and youth development so be it. For Lessin and Reiman there can be no better sign that they are tracking with the best practices for yielding healthy functioning at any age.
Stanton Peele, PhD, founder, Life Process Program for Addiction Coaching, author of A Scientific Life on the Edge: My Lonely Quest to Change How We See Addiction
This book finally provides the much-needed response to the question that harm reductionists are asked every day: "But what about the kids?" In this comprehensive book, Reiman and Lessin provide families, providers, and communities with a framework with which to understand why young people use drugs and how to support them to make safer choices.
Sheila P. Vakharia, PhD, MSW, author of The Harm Reduction Gap
