Creative Recovery: A Complete Addiction Treatment Program That Uses Your Natural Creativity

For writers, artists, musicians, and creators in every field, this book offers a complete addiction recovery program specifically designed for the creative person. Full of explanations and exercises, this book presents ways to use your own innate creative abilities in service of your recovery and at each stage of the recovery process. Topics include: the biological and developmental risks unique to creative people; the special personality traits that can inform the recovery process; ways to approach your recovery much like your art; and exercises that promote your creativity and art that aid the recovery process. This book gives a clear picture of the relationship between creativity and addiction and lays out a complete program so that you can live a fully creative and addiction-free life.

For writers, artists, musicians, and creators in every field, this book offers a complete addiction recovery program specifically designed for the creative person. Full of explanations and exercises, this book presents ways to use your own innate creative abilities in service of your recovery and at each stage of the recovery process. Topics include: the biological and developmental risks unique to creative people; the special personality traits that can inform the recovery process; ways to approach your recovery much like your art; and exercises that promote your creativity and art that aid the recovery process. This book gives a clear picture of the relationship between creativity and addiction and lays out a complete program so that you can live a fully creative and addiction-free life.

Melody Ballard - Library Journal

Therapist and creativity coach Maisel (Fearless Creating; The Creativity Book) and clinical psychologist Raeburn illustrate how creativity both contributes to addiction and is a tool for recovery. In the first of three sections, entitled "Preparing," the authors begin by expanding upon the biological and other risks for addiction and explore the abuse continuum. The next section, "Working," is devoted to the foundation of recovery, awareness, which can be enhanced through creative talents, and addiction challenges, including an acceptance of the need to change. Finally, in "Living," the authors emphasize that recovery is an ongoing, lifelong process, and they expand upon and reinforce the role played by creativity, which provides an artistic outlet to express the hope, strength, and wholeness of continued recovery. Including an extensive list of resources, this informative, insightful, and valuable book is recommended for large public and academic library collections focusing on addiction and addiction recovery. A related text, Tobi Zausner's When Walls Become Doorways: Creativity and the Transforming Illness, explores the link between creativity, illness, and identity.

Eric Maisel is a licensed marriage and family therapist and creativity coach with degrees in philosophy, creative writing, and counseling psychology. He has written over thirty books including Fearless Creating, The Van Gogh Blues, and Coaching the Artist Within.