Recovery Meeting for Legal Professionals Meetings: Every Thursday Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Location: St. Louis RC Church 35 Edward Street, at Main Street Buffalo, New York 14202 Support
for Families of Alcoholics Al - Anon 716-856-2520
These agencies do a great deal to help
the families of alcoholics, seeking to «add to the casework technique the spiritual values that have played a major part in the development of the Army.»
This chapter focuses on counseling
the family of the alcoholic, dealing with the family crisis, using the resources of Al - Anon, and helping the children of alcoholics.
Coming from
a family of alcoholics of which I wasn't one, I find any kind of drug addiction a horrible obstruction to a «normal» life.
Beyond this a pastor will need to have an acquaintance with what has been written concerning helping
the families of alcoholics to meet their problems constructively.
These resources are useful for the person counseling with
the family of alcoholics: Pastoral Psychology, Vol.
The counselor needs to know the mental hospital commitment procedures in his state to help
the family of an alcoholic with severe mental disturbance.
The average parish pastor has considerably more opportunities to help members of
families of alcoholics, than he has to help alcoholics.
13 (April, 1962), No. 123, special issue on «Counseling with
the Family of the Alcoholic»; John E. Keller, Ministering to Alcoholics, Chapter VI, «Counseling the Spouse,» pp. 124 - 37; Thomas J. Shipp, Helping the Alcoholic and His Family (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice - Hall, 1963), Chapter 12, «Helping the Alcoholic's Family,» pp. 120 - 32.
If all the troubles in
the family of an alcoholic were the direct effects of alcoholism, it would be reasonable to assume that, given a certain period of time after sobriety, most of these troubles would disappear.
One's general preparation for counseling alcoholics is also useful in counseling
the families of alcoholics.
Working with
the families of alcoholics represents multiple opportunities.
But where it is, the pastor will find that a vital resource for helping
the families of alcoholics is very near at hand — in his own church.
Frequently, it will mean helping
the family of the alcoholic relate to him (or her) in such a way that he will be confronted with the reality of his alcoholism at an early stage.
As Alanon, the group for friends and
families of alcoholics, notes:
Families of alcoholics and addicts need a solid support network that consist of friends, therapy, and 12 - step programs.
Al - Anon is a 12 - step program that addresses the needs of friends and
families of alcoholics.