The Clinician's Guide to Substance Use Disorders - by Paul Brasler (Paperback)

About the Book

Written in his signature personable yet straightforward style, Paul Brasler, LCSW, offers a clinically sound, must-have resource for health care professionals who are working with substance use disorders in any capacity. With its strong emphasis on person-centered care, this book offers a refreshing approach for working alongside people with substance use disorders that humanizes the addiction crisis and shifts the focus to the person, not their diagnosis. Each chapter includes reproducible handouts, exercises, and assessment tools that walk readers through the stages of the therapeutic process, from intake and assessment to treatment planning and recovery. Whether you work in mental health, medical, educational, religious, or legal settings, the tools in this book will help you: - Confront stigma and lower barriers to treatment - Determine the correct level of care - Understand the unique intoxication and withdrawal profiles of each substance - Ask the right screening and assessment questions - Address and treat common co-occurring disorders - Work with substance use disorders in the family - Improve client engagement across various stages of change - Consider strategies for special populations, including adolescents, racial and ethnic minorities, military personnel, and more - Navigate common legal and ethical issues

Book Synopsis

Written in his signature personable yet straightforward style, Paul Brasler, LCSW, offers a clinically sound, must-have resource for health care professionals who are working with substance use disorders in any capacity.

With its strong emphasis on person-centered care, this book offers a refreshing approach for working alongside people with substance use disorders that humanizes the addiction crisis and shifts the focus to the person, not their diagnosis. Each chapter includes reproducible handouts, exercises, and assessment tools that walk readers through the stages of the therapeutic process, from intake and assessment to treatment planning and recovery.

Whether you work in mental health, medical, educational, religious, or legal settings, the tools in this book will help you:

• Confront stigma and lower barriers to treatment
• Determine the correct level of care
• Understand the unique intoxication and withdrawal profiles of each substance
• Ask the right screening and assessment questions
• Address and treat common co-occurring disorders
• Work with substance use disorders in the family
• Improve client engagement across various stages of change
• Consider strategies for special populations, including adolescents, racial and ethnic minorities, military personnel, and more
• Navigate common legal and ethical issues

Review Quotes

The Clinician's Guide to Substance Use Disorders is a valuable resource for new and experienced clinicians alike. Paul Brasler provides an overview of the current state of the art when working with clients who struggle with substance misuse issues. The worksheets provide the clinician with tools to assess and treat clients that are clinically useful and represent evidence-based practice. I think this book should be on every clinician's bookshelf."
--Hayden D. Center, Jr., PhD, LPC

"Paul Brasler's The Clinician's Guide to Substance Use Disorders is all that and more. The manual thoroughly covers all aspects of assessment through recovery, but as importantly, it does so with compassion, humility, and a focus of the whole person. Filled with case studies, worksheets, and exercises, this manual provides fresh knowledge, perspectives, and approaches to navigate core issues related to self, family, other systems, special populations, and the ethics of substance use treatment. From the language used in treatment, to the conceptualization of substance use disorders, to how to walk with clients through the process of change and recovery, this manual delivers much that speaks directly and effectively to both clients and the therapists who help them."
--Lane Pederson, PsyD, LP, author of The Expanded Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training Manual, DBT Skills Training for Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment Settings, and the bestselling DBT Deck for Clients and Therapists

About the Author

Paul Brasler, LCSW, CAIP, has extensive experience working with people with substance use disorders and co-occurring conditions across various settings, including private practice, community mental health clinics, hospital emergency departments, juvenile drug courts, and adolescent residential treatment. He trains clinicians around the country on mental health emergencies, high-risk clients, and substance use disorder treatment. His first book, High Risk Clients: Evidence-based Assessment & Clinical Tools to Recognize and Effectively Respond to Mental Health Crises, was published in 2019. He lives in Richmond, VA, with his wife and three sons, their dog, and a rabbit with a serious attitude problem.