Saturday, December 5th, 5:00PM EST
Presented by Dr. Tom Horvath, President, SMART Recovery
Listen to a podcast of this past event!
Join us to hear Dr. Tom Horvath explain how SMART Recovery plans to expand availability and its numbers of meetings, and how you can be a part of it!
SMART Recovery finds itself facing the exciting challenge of a phenomenal increase in awareness, acceptance and demand for SMART meetings. SMART’s meetings are based around a standardized format for open discussion and group interaction, guided by a trained facilitator, and based on CBT, motivational interviewing skills, and exploration and examples of SMART Tools. In order to be a SMART facilitator, one must complete significant training through SMART’s Get SMART FAST — Facilitator and Support Team Training program. The training is phenomenal and in-depth BUT demand is outpacing our ability to get new facilitators established as quickly as is needed.
SMART recently announced a brand-new option, Hosted meetings. Hosted meetings allow SMART to establish face-to-face meetings much more quickly and easily. Hosts are provided a minimal amount of training, but operate under the mentorship of a trained facilitator. Hosted meetings are conducted following a carefully crafted meeting script and enforce three basic rules: no lengthy statements, no advice, no off-topic discussions: https://smartwww.wpengine.com/host-training.
SMART hopes this more casual form of meeting leadership will lend to expansion. Barriers to entry for host training are low (no cost, much less time), and the requirements of the role are simple. Individuals who want to more widely establish SMART in their communities have an easy way to do so. The option of having hosts fill in when the regular facilitator is away is an added benefit. In time, SMART believes that many hosts will be motivated to complete the Get SMART FAST training, and we highly encourage that! It’s a wonderful new way to get your feet wet with volunteering, and it fills a huge need!
Tom Horvath, Ph.D., is a California licensed and board certified clinical psychologist (ABPP). He is the long-standing President of SMART Recovery, the founder and President of Practical Recovery, a self-empowering addiction treatment system in San Diego, the past president of the American Psychological Association’s Society on Addiction Psychology, the world’s largest organization of addiction psychologists.
Dr. Horvath is the author of Sex, Drugs, Gambling & Chocolate: A Workbook for Overcoming Addictions, listed by the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies as a “Self-Help Book of Merit.” In 2014, he established the Self-Empowering Addiction Treatment Association (www.seatainfo.org) which provides free listings for self-empowering providers.