A mental Health counselor is in a staff meeting where an addiction counselor is presenting the case of a client. The addiction counselor asks for feedback on possible interventions because of a recent relapse to alcohol/drugs by the client. The counselor views the the addiction counselor becoming increasingly defensive as the other mental health counselors make suggestions. The mental health counselor believes that the counselor is too wedded to the disease model of addiction and unwilling to examine the impact of family-of-origin dynamics on the clients recovery.

1. What can this counselor do to intervene?

2. What suggestions would you make to the counselor on how to approach the addiction counselor?

3. How could this counselor assist the addictions counselor both inside and outside of staff meetings in expanding his or her theoretical framework?

4. Now flip the roles. Have a mental health counselor tell the client story. The addiction counselor perceives that the mental health counselor is missing an aspect of addiction in the clients story. Answer the same three questions from this perspective.