2. Bridging the Gap from Abstinence- Based Addiction Treatment to Harm Reduction Treatment: My Personal Journey Barry Lessin, M.Ed., CAADC Licensed Psychologist Certified Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor

3. Porch to Portland

4. War on Drugs = War on People War on people

5. Facing the Gap

6. Objectives IIlustrate what contributed to the gap, for me, between Abstinence-Based (AB) and Harm Reduction (HR) treatment. Offer a systems approach to facilitate the transition to HR. Share a perspective to allow others to integrate HR into their work.

7. My path to HR: Career Summary Training/Workplace dichotomy Career burnout Profound personal experience Public health advocacy

8. Client-Centered & Developmental: What I Learned Carl RogersLifespan Development

9. Conflicting Views: What I Learned vs, What I Was Doing vs.

10. Conflicting Views: What I Learned vs. What I Was Doing vs

11. Managed Care: A Two Headed Monster

12. Training & Professional Experience A Systems View Family TherapySchool Psychology

13. Training & Professional Experience: Path to Independent Practice

14. Career Burnout

15. Personal Experience: My Nephew

16. Perfect storm of: treatment gap addiction stigma system-wide failure

17. Personal Experience: My Nephew Tough Love prevented crucial connection to loved ones My “expert” role was bogus Returned to my roots of addiction treatment

18. Transition Begins: Back to the Future (2011)

19. Learning About Public Health Policy

20. Witnessing the Gap in the Professional Community Drug Policy Alliance 2011 Conference

21. Engaging in Public Health Advocacy Grief Recovery After a Substance Passing www.grasphelp.org Broken No More www.broken-no-more.org

22. When Grief Support Vanishes

23. My path to HR: Career Summary What I learned vs. What I did Career burnout Profound personal experience Public health advocacy

24. A-HA Moment!

25. From Transition...

26. ...To Transformation

27. Moving forward...

28. Systems Interaction: Micro vs. Macro

29. Connecting the Dots

30. My Burnout Blame Addict How Systems Inform Us:Micro vs Macro Stigmatizin g, criminalizin g system Micro View Macro View

31. How Systems Inform Us: Micro vs. Macro MicroMacro More Effective Clinician Empower to educate/change

32. Integrating and Evolving...

33. Barry Lessin, M.Ed., CAADC Licensed Psychologist Certified Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor 1244 Ft. Washington Ave. Suite E2 Ft. Washington, PA 19034 bless1244@yahoo.com 215-694-9146

34. Resources “In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts”, Gabor Mate’ Practicing Harm Reduction Psychotherapy, Patt Denning & Jeannie Little Harm Reduction Psychotherapy, Andrew Tatarsky

35. Resources www.gradualismandaddiction.org, Scott Kellogg www.gradualismandaddiction.org Coming to Harm Reduction Kicking and Screaming, Dee Dee Stout How to Manage Your Drinking, Kenneth Anderson