The Mindful Path to Addiction Recovery - by Lawrence Peltz (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Mindfulness, the quality of attention that combines full awareness with acceptance of each moment, just as it is, is gaining broad acceptance among mental health professionals as an adjunct to treatment. Because at the heart of addiction is the fear of painful emotional states, addicts compulsively seek drugs and alcohol to avoid or escape emotional pain. Mindfulness, on the other hand, helps us develop greater acceptance and ease with life's challenges, as well as greater self-compassion.

Here, Dr. Lawrence Peltz, who has worked as an addiction psychiatrist for nearly three decades, draws from his clinical experience and on the techniques of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) to explain the fundamental dynamics of addiction and the stages of the recovery process, and also gives us specific mindfulness exercises to support recovery.

Review Quotes

"A mindful and compassionate attention is the very ground of recovery from addiction. In this book, Lawrence Peltz offers a penetrating understanding of the nature of addiction, and the meditation practices that can help us find freedom from this suffering. Drawing on his rich clinical experience, Dr. Peltz shares the struggles of people who have found great healing on this path of recovery and transformation."--Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

"Addictions are rooted in distress and suffering. Dr. Peltz shows us how practicing thoughtfulness, awareness, and acceptance can bring solace, relief, and happiness without resorting to addictive solutions."--Edward J. Khantzian, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Associate Chief Emeritus of Psychiatry, Tewksbury Hospital

"This is a book that deserves its place among the very best of addiction recovery guides--both for practitioners who want to expand their treatment options and for those seeking change."--Howard J. Shaffer, PhD, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, and Director, Division on Addiction, Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate

"A very gentle, compassionate, sensible, believable, readable, encouraging, and incredibly helpful book about overcoming a very powerful affliction. It is, in its broad thoroughness, a wise support for facing any major challenge."--Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job

"Larry Peltz gives a unique and enlightening view of addiction and provides a very clear way to change one's destructive habits. I highly recommend it."--Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness

About the Author

Lawrence Peltz, MD, has worked as an addiction psychiatrist for more than two decades. He is the medical director of the Bournewood Caulfield Center, a drug and alcohol treatment facility in Woburn, Mass, and has been on the clinical faculty at both Harvard and Boston University Schools of Medicine. He is also a trained teacher of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), and he speaks regularly to mental health professionals about mindfulness and recovery.