SMART Recovery Family & Friends

Help yourself, and help your loved one, with an alternative to Al-Anon and Johnson Intervention.

An alternative to Al-Anon and intervention SMART Recovery would like to welcome you and help you find the information and provide you with the resources you can use to help yourself, as well your loved one.

SMART Recovery Family & Friends is a science-based, secular alternative to Al-Anon and Johnson Intervention. Our method is based on the tools of SMART Recovery and CRAFT (Community Reinforcement Approach & Family Training).

SMART Recovery Family & Friends helps those who are affected by the substance abuse, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, or other addictions of a loved one.

The SMART Recovery Family & Friends Handbook and Family & Friends Facilitator Manual are available in the SMART Recovery Bookstore!

SMART Recovery Online Volunteer Facilitators provide Concerned Significant Others (CSO) meetings to address specific issues encountered when a friend or family member tries to reach out and help a loved one affected by addiction.

The meetings share SMART Recovery tools that can be implemented by CSOs to help with emotional upsets, effective communication methods when dealing with loved ones, and more. Techniques employed within the CRAFT Program (Community Reinforcement Approach and Family Training) are shared for the benefit of meeting attendees.

To Participate

To participate in the Family & Friends meetings, registration is required at the SMART Recovery Online website: www.smartrecovery.org/community.

Several online Family & Friends meetings are held each week. For more information, check our schedule of online meetings.

A Family & Friends (Concerned Significant Others) Message Board Forum for additional support is also available.

In an effort to meet the interest and demand for locally-available SMART Recovery Family & Friends meetings, there is a growing number of areas where local (face-to-face) SMART Recovery Family & Friends meetings are now offered.

You can get more information on SMART Recovery meetings in the local meetings directory.

Are you interested in starting a Family & Friends meeting in your area or for your practice? Get more information

CRAFT: Community Reinforcement And Family Training

For concerned significant others, SMART Recovery recommends Community Reinforcement Approach & Family Training (CRAFT). CRAFT aims to teach family and friends self-protection and non-confrontational skills to help their addicted loved one find recovery.

CRAFT groups may be difficult to find, as this approach is very new, but more information can be found in two excellent books:

Get Your Loved One Sober offers a revolutionary program for those who are seeking recovery for their loved ones. CRAFT boasts a phenomenal success rate getting people into treatment and recovery.

Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change

Based on CRAFT, Beyond Addiction from the Center for Motivation and Change, offers a groundbreaking, science-based guide to helping loved ones overcome addiction problems and compulsive behaviors.

More About CRAFT:

An alternative to Al-Anon’s 12-Step tradition and detachment recommendations and the Johnson Institute’s confrontational interventions, the CRAFT program is based on non-confrontational and proven behavioral principles like finding and rewarding positive behaviors. It is a program congruent with SMART Recovery.

Families can learn to change their interactions with their loved one, which in turn changes the loved one’s behavior. In repeated clinical trials, CRAFT’s approach proved twice as likely as the Johnson intervention and six times as likely as Al-Anon to get a loved one into treatment.

Dr. Robert J. Meyers With CRAFT, arranging for one’s own safety and finding a happier life for one’s self takes priority. Getting a loved one to moderate, choose sobriety, or go into treatment are then offered as roads to a better relationship.

CRAFT was developed by Robert Meyers, Ph.D. Dr. Meyers has been in the addiction field for 33 years with 23 of those years being at the University of New Mexico. He is currently the director of Robert J. Meyers, Ph.D. & Associates and a Research Associate Professor Emeritus in Psychology at the University of New Mexico’s Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addiction. He has been involved in over a dozen clinical trials funded by the National Institutes of Health, including Project Match and the Clinical Trials Network.

SMART Recovery provides a Concerned Significant Others (For Families & Friends) area on our messageboard to provide online peer support. You are also welcome to use any of our online resources and attend our meetings if you choose.

Things to Do If Your Loved One is Addicted to Alcohol and/or Drugs.

The above article is also available here in PDF format

Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centers and Providers

Oxygen Mask Rule for Family & Friends

SMART Recovery® Family & Friends Handout

Our approach to addiction recovery

Event podcasts

Enjoy these podcasts with CRAFT experts Dr. Robert Meyers and Dr. Jeffrey Foote.

How Science and Kindness Help People Change with Dr. Jeffrey Foote May 2014

Family & Friends Special Event with Dr. Robert Meyers August 2013

Family & Friends Special Event with Dr. Robert Meyers April 2011

Family & Friends Suggested Reading List

Recommended readings for SMART Recovery Friends & Family participants and meeting hosts:

SMART Recovery Family & Friends Handbook: For Family & Friends participants, available in the SMART Shop.

SMART Recovery Family & Friends Facilitator Manual: For meeting facilitators, also available in the SMART Shop.

Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading, and Threatening: available from Amazon.

Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change: available from Amazon.

I’m Right, You’re Wrong, Now What?: Break the Impasse and Get What You Need: available from Amazon.

SMART Recovery Teen Handbook: For those concerned about teens. Developed via a grant obtained by The Community Coalition for Teens in Greenfield, Massachusetts, the SMART Recovery® Handbook was adapted to be applicable and helpful to teens. Available in the SMART Store.