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How to Start a SMART
Recovery® Meeting
Dear Friend:
I am pleased to learn you are interested in facilitating a SMART Recovery® group in your area. We have a complete package of materials (Starter Kit) to assist you in getting a group underway, including the following items:
● The SMART Recovery Facilitator’s Manual available free in the bookstore (donations appreciated.)
● The SMART Recovery Handbook
● Five informational DVD’s: SMART Recovery, Who We are; Facilitating a Basic SMART Recovery Meeting, Facilitating an Advanced SMART Recovery Meeting, The SMART Recovery 4-Point Program; and SMART For Life.
● The SMART Recovery Baseball Cap (for passing the hat)
The Starter Kit is available for $45.00 plus shipping/handling in the SMART Recovery® Bookstore.
In addition to the Starter Kit, we provide a Distance Training program which allows you to review the Starter Kit materials, and then meet weekly with experts in our voice meeting room to review the materials, ask questions, etc.
To get you started, until such time as your Starter Kit arrives, please also view the following:
Bringing SMART Recovery® To Your Town (below)
Introduction to SMART Recovery®
Recommended Reading List
Purposes & Methods Statement
List of groups operating in your region
Our Central Office Staff will be pleased to assist you in any way and may be reached at the address, phone, fax and email noted on the main page of SMART Recovery's website.
We value the time and energy you will provide in starting a SMART Recovery group in your community, and we greatly appreciate your interest.
Tom Horvath
President
SMART Recovery®
Bringing SMART
Recovery® to Your Town
SMART has published an entire Facilitator's Manual on the subject
of how to start up a SMART meeting and how to lead it successfully. The
information covered in the Facilitator's Manual can be summarized briefly:
1. Gain a basic familiarity with the SMART Program
It is not necessary to become an immediate expert in any aspect of the
SMART Program. After a few hours of reviewing the Member's Manual, the
Facilitator's Manual, and asking questions of your Volunteer Advisor (see point 2 below),
you can be ready to begin your meeting. In time you can study these
books, as well as other books on the Reading List, in depth. The
discussions in each meeting will help guide you in choosing what
aspects of the SMART Program to focus on.
Once you have a basic familiarity with SMART, at your opening meeting
you could state something like this:
"I decided to begin holding SMART Recovery® meetings because I
find the ideas in the SMART program very appealing, and because they
have been personally helpful (describe how they appeal, and how they
have been helpful). I think that having a support group based on these
ideas could be helpful to me and to those who would choose to attend.
It takes awhile to learn the ideas in SMART, and the group could help
us do that. For instance, I mentioned (the helpful idea just
mentioned), and it took me awhile to understand how to put this idea to
use in my own life. What do you think of that idea, and how could you
put it to use in your own life? How helpful do you think it might be
for you?"
In time your meetings can follow more exactly the Meeting Outline that
is presented in the Facilitator's Manual, but at first a friendly discussion about the
helpfulness of various SMART ideas is a great way to begin.
2. Find a Volunteer Advisor
Your Volunteer Advisor is your primary point of contact for questions
about the SMART program, leading meetings, and operating your local
organization, both during start-up, and over
A Volunteer Advisor is typically a
licensed behavioral health professional with a background in the
scientifically based treatment of addictive behavior. SMART Central
Office may be able to provide you with suggestions for such individuals
in your area. However, even if such an individual is not available, a
member of the SMART Board of Directors would be pleased to advise you
until someone in your locality can be found.
3. Find a meeting location
The ideal meeting location is convenient to the Facilitator, free of
charge, convenient for newcomers to find, available indefinitely at the
same time each week, comfortable, large enough to accommodate
fluctuations in meeting size, unlocked during the time of the meeting
(so that the Facilitator does not need to keep a key), and in a safe
area with sufficient parking (or quick access to mass transit).
Fortunately, less than the ideal location will often be sufficient. Any
location that also hosts 12-step meetings is a possibility (addiction
treatment centers, churches, libraries, hospitals, bookstores with
coffee shops, public park buildings, etc.). The Facilitator's Manual gives additional
guidance on how to identify a meeting location.
4. Select a phone number
In the early stages, it's easiest to use a phone number that is already
in existence. You or the Volunteer Advisor may be able to attach an
answering machine with a meeting announcement to a back line (one that
is normally used only for outgoing calls) at home or at the office.
Some Volunteer Advisors include SMART meeting information as part of
their office answering machine outgoing announcement, and some
Facilitators simply use their home answering machine. In time a
dedicated phone line could be used. An example of an outgoing phone
message is given in the Facilitator's Manual.
5. Prepare a flyer
The Facilitator's Manual contains two SMART flyers that are ready to use once your local
phone number is typed in. A meeting flyer that gives time and location
information about your meeting is also useful.
Examples of local flyers are given in the Facilitator's Manual.
6. Publicize your meeting
There are two broad groups that need to be informed about the existence
of your meeting: treatment professionals and the public. Once you have
a starting date selected, consider making a few phone calls to
treatment programs listed in the yellow pages, getting local newspapers
to list your meeting in their events sections, and posting some flyers.
The Facilitator's Manual provides many additional suggestions regarding publicity.
7. Be persistent! Have
fun! Keep learning!
The Facilitator's Manual provides much additional guidance on the fine points of leading
your meeting and running your local organization. Your Volunteer
Advisor and the SMART Central Office are available to guide you.
Be prepared for a
minimal response to early meetings. Some meetings may have only you
present!
However, over time, as you learn more about SMART, and your meeting
attendance stabilizes, there is a very good chance that you will make
good friendships through SMART, and that you will find leading SMART
meetings to be one of the most rewarding activities in your life!
Welcome to SMART
Recovery® (Self-Management And Recovery Training)
A PROGRAM OF SENSIBLE SELF-HELP
SMART Recovery® (is an abstinence-based, not-for-profit
organization with a sensible self-help program for people having
addictive behavior problems. It includes many ideas and techniques to
help you change your life from one that is self- (and other-)
destructive and unhappy to one that is constructive and satisfying.
SMART is not a spin-off from Alcoholics Anonymous. No one will label
you an "alcoholic" or addict. You are not powerless,
and if you do not believe in a religion or spirituality, that's fine.
If you do, that's fine, too. We teach common sense self-help procedures
designed to empower you to abstain and to develop a more positive
lifestyle. When you succeed at following our approach, you may graduate
from the program, or you may stay around to help others.
BASED ON SENSIBLE THEORY
Addictive behavior can serve a purpose -- to cope with life's problems
and emotional upsets. There's a drawback, however. Many problems arise
from heavy drinking, drug using, gambling, overeating and other
excesses. So that kind of coping is not only impractical, it's
counterproductive.
To help you reverse your self-destructive behavior, we use a
cognitive-behavioral (thinking/doing) psychotherapy called REBT which
stands for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Psychologist Albert Ellis
devised this system in the '50s. It's effective and widely accepted.
According to REBT, thinking creates your feelings and leads you to act.
By changing the beliefs and emotions that lead you to continue an
addictive activity, you can empower yourself to quit. Then you can work
at problems you have with abstaining.
In SMART, we are not much concerned with the past, except to learn from
it. We focus on present-day events and the causes of self-destructive
behaviors. We concentrate on what to do about them in order to achieve
a positive lifestyle change, especially in the areas of our lives that
have related to addiction.
KEY AREAS OF AWARENESS AND CHANGE
In SMART we emphasize:
1. enhancing motivation;
2. refusing to act on urges to use;
3. managing life's problems in a sensible and effective way and
4. developing a positive, balanced, and healthy lifestyle.
Motives and Goals
Motivation is a key element in nearly all you do. Consider this: we all
have two primary goals-- survival and your happiness. You can increase
awareness of your motives for your addictive behavior and of your
reasons for quitting. Then you will feel better about changing your
behavior. We will show you how.
Beliefs
What you believe about addiction is important, and there are many ideas
being tossed around about addiction and recovery. You may believe, for
example, that you're powerless, or that after the first drink or use or
act you have to lose all control. These beliefs may actually be
damaging to you.
Some people have additional beliefs. For example, "I've tried and
failed, so I can't do it. I need alcohol to cope", or "Because I've
tried to quit and failed, I'm no good". Those beliefs, and many like
them, can't be justified because evidence just doesn't support them.
Emotions
Emotions are important too. People often use addictive behavior to cope
with their emotional problems including anger, guilt, anxiety, and low
self-esteem. SMART teaches you how to diminish your emotional
disturbances
and increase self-acceptance. Then you can have greater motivation and
ability to remain abstinent and to live more happily.
Behaviors
Changes in thinking and emotions are not enough. Commitment and
follow-through are essential. We encourage members to work at problems
and to become involved in enjoyable activities in place of their
addictive activities.
HOW HELP IS PROVIDED
Our meeting format is straightforward and organized. Our Facilitators
(some are professionals) are trained for the job. Some of them have had
personal experience with addiction, and some haven't. That doesn't seem
to make any difference. Remember, SMART is a mental health and
educational program: we're concerned with changing human behavior.
SMART meetings are serious but often fun. We're certainly not into
drunkalogs (war stories), sponsors, and meetings-for-life. We don't
dredge up the past about which you can do nothing. We can do something
about the present and the future.
We discuss our problems with addictive activities and our difficulties
in recovery. The primary tool used in SMART is the A-B-C method of
problem-solving. The A-B-Cs helps us gain awareness of our mistaken
beliefs that lead to problem emotions and behaviors.
Near the end of the meeting, the "hat" is passed for donations, which
are encouraged but not required.
SMART
Recovery® Purposes and Methods
By: A. Thomas Horvath, Ph.D.
1. We help individuals gain independence from addictive behavior.
2. We teach how to
. enhance
and maintain motivation to abstain
. cope
with urges
. manage
thoughts, feelings and behavior
. balance
momentary and enduring satisfactions
3. Our efforts are based on scientific knowledge, and evolve as
scientific knowledge evolves.
4. Individuals who have gained independence from addictive behavior are
invited to stay involved with us, to enhance their gains and help
others.
Commentary:
1. We assume that addictive behavior can arise from both substance use
(e.g., psychoactive substances of all kinds, including alcohol,
nicotine, caffeine, food, illicit drugs, and prescribed medications),
and
involvement in activities (e.g., gambling, sexual behavior, eating,
spending, relationships, exercise, etc.). We assume that there are
degrees of addictive behavior, and that all individuals to some degree
experience it. For some individuals the negative consequences of
addictive behavior (which can involve several substances or activities)
become so great that change becomes highly desirable.
To individuals who are, or think they may be, at this point, we offer
our services. Our groups are free of charge (although a donation is
requested). Our Internet listserve discussion group is free to those
who can access it. There is a nominal charge for our publications.
2. Gaining independence from addictive behavior can involve changes
that affect an individual's entire life, not just changes directly
related to the addictive behavior itself. Consequently there appear to
be as many roads to gaining independence from addictive behavior as
there are individuals. For many the road will lead somewhere other than
using our services. We recommend they follow the direction they have
chosen, and we wish them well. They are always welcome to return.
Individuals
who have been successful in gaining independence from addictive
behavior appear to have made changes in all four areas we teach about.
These four areas could also be described as maintaining motivation,
coping with craving, thinking rationally, and leading a balanced
lifestyle. Although we teach important information in each of these
areas, ultimately it is the individual's determination and persistence
to keep moving forward that will determine how much success is achieved.
Our
services are provided for those who desire, or think they may desire,
to achieve abstinence. Individuals unsure about whether to pursue
abstinence may observe in our group discussions how abstinence can be
achieved, and how it can help. Even those whose ultimate goal is
moderated involvement with their substances or activities may benefit
from participation in abstinence-oriented discussions. Benefit could
occur if the individual aims to engage in selected periods of
abstinence, or frames the goal as abstaining from over-involvement (as
opposed to all
involvement).
Much of the
information imparted by us is drawn from the field of
cognitive-behavioral therapy
(CBT), and particularly from Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, as
developed by Albert Ellis, Ph.D. Use
of the CBT allows us to use a rich and easily accessible
body of ideas, techniques, and publications. Some of these publications
we are able to make available directly to our participants, and others
are available through bookstores and other sources.
3. What we offer is consistent with the most effective methods yet
discovered for resolving emotional and behavioral problems. As
scientific knowledge advances, our teachings will be modified
accordingly. Individuals with religious beliefs are likely to find our
program as compatible with their beliefs as other scientifically
derived knowledge and applications.
4. The length of time an individual will derive help from our services
is variable. For many sincere participants there will come a time when
attending our groups, or participating in our other services, is more
in conflict with the pursuit of their life goals than enhancing them.
Although these participants will always be welcome back if they want to
come, this conflict signals that the time for graduation has arrived.
One of the most enduring satisfactions in life is helping others. The
individuals who have nurtured SMART Recovery® thus far have
reported intense satisfaction at witnessing the positive changes our
participants have experienced, and at witnessing the influence we are
having on professional addictive behavior treatment. We offer to
others, whether graduates of our efforts or not, the opportunity to
join us in experiencing that satisfaction.
Code of Conduct for SMART Recovery®
Facilitators and Volunteer Advisors
Principles Involved in being a SMART Recovery® Facilitator or
Volunteer Advisor:
1. Promote Independence From Addictive Behavior: We promote gaining
independence from addictive behavior based on the principles and
concepts of SMART Recovery®.
2. Serve as a Community Resource: We make SMART Recovery®
available to our local neighborhoods and serve as a resource for our
communities.
3. Respect the Dignity and Worth of the Person: We strive to treat each
meeting participant with care and respect, mindful of individual
differences and cultural and ethnic diversity.
4. Act with Integrity: We strive to act honestly and responsibly and to
conduct our personal lives in a manner consonant with the goals and
principles of SMART Recovery®.
Behavioral
Guidelines for SMART Recovery® Facilitators and Volunteer
Advisors
1. Maintain Commitment to Meetings and Participants: We are responsible
for conducting meetings consistent with the principles and concepts of
SMART Recovery®. This includes our striving to maintain focused
discussions and to balance opportunities for individual participation
with the needs of the group. We will endeavor to hold all meetings as
scheduled.
2. Support Self-Determination of Participants: We respect and promote
the right of participants to socially responsible self-determination
and assist them in their efforts to identify and clarify their goals
regarding addictive behavior within the context of SMART
Recovery®.
Where a
participant's goals are outside the scope of SMART Recovery®,
we can encourage them to seek more appropriate options for assistance.
3. Pursue Knowledge and Competence: We are expected to learn about the
concepts within SMART Recovery® and to apply them in
facilitating SMART Recovery® meetings.
Facilitators
function as leaders within a peer-group, self-help setting. It is not
the role of a Facilitator to provide an answer for every question or
for questions outside the scope of SMART Recovery®. Rather, the
Facilitator's role is to help foster a group process that encourages
learning and development in gaining and maintaining independence from
addictive behavior.
4. Support Social Diversity: We strive to actively understand and
respect issues of social diversity, including race, ethnicity, national
origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital/partner status,
political belief, religion, and mental or physical ability.
5. Protect Confidentiality: We respect and promote confidentiality and
the participants' right to privacy at all times, both in and out of
meetings, including all verbal, written, and electronic communications.
During the
course of a meeting, a Facilitator should not solicit or disclose
private information about a participant that is unrelated to the focus
of SMART Recovery® or that may put a participant at risk.
If a
meeting participant appears to be at risk of imminent harm to self or
others, a Facilitator may contact the local SMART Recovery®
Volunteer advisor, the local crisis intervention agency, or the local
police/medical/mental health authority. If required by local law, we
may be required to report to local authorities regarding disclosures
relating to child or elder abuse.
6. Avoid Conflicts of Interest: Under no circumstances should we
exploit a participant relationship or meeting to further personal,
religious, political, or business interests. We should strive to be
alert to and avoid conflicts of interest.
7. Avoid Engaging in Harassment: Under no circumstances should we
engage in any form of verbal, emotional, or physical harassment.
Under no
circumstances should we seek to exploit a participant relationship for
sexual activity or engage in sexual harassment of participants,
including sexual advances, sexual solicitations, requests for sexual
favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.
8. Work Together: We strive to work cooperatively with other members
the SMART Recovery® organization. We strive to acknowledge the
positive contributions of other programs aimed at gaining independence
from addictive behavior.
9. Provide Accurate Representation: We make clear distinctions between
statements made as a private individual and those made as
representatives of SMART Recovery®. We represent ourselves as
knowledgeable only within the scope of our experience.
Seek Solutions: In the event that a Facilitator or Volunteer Advisor
has an ethical lapse or an addictive behavior relapse, appropriate
members of the SMART Recovery® organization will be contacted
to determine an appropriate course of action.
12-17-09
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