If SMART is not listed in your local telephone book, contact the
national office (information above). For Silicon Valley, you can find local meeting
details on the Meetings page of this web site or
you can contact Luis at 1-408-739-7230, 1-510-770-9274, or LuisSmart@aol.com
between the hours of 7AM and 10PM PST. He can tell you what you want to know
and/or fax or mail information to you.
The national website is at http://www.smartrecovery.org.
This web site is at http://www.smartrec-sv.org.
Send the message on the next line to listserve@maelstrom.stjohns.edu
subscribe smartrec yourfirstname yourlastname
Contact the SMART national office for SMART publications.
Other publications on the reading list are available in local bookstores. Your local
meeting coordinator may also carry some publications for sale.
Compared to Alcoholics Anonymous, SMART is very small. AA
offers about 90,000 meetings worldwide each week. SMART offers about 250 weekly groups,
almost entirely in the United States.
From a scientific perspective, the effectiveness of all
support groups for addictive behavior is unproven. Yes, that's right even though AA is the
dominant force in U.S. addiction treatment, its effectiveness is essentially unknown. The
crucial question for each individual is which group would be more effective for me? The
only way to answer that question is to attend meetings from all available groups, and
reach a personal conclusion about the best approach to recovery.
Women for Sobriety (WFS) (215) 536-8026.
Secular Organizations for Sobriety (S.O.S.) (310) 821-8430.
Moderation Management (MM) (313) 930-6446.
Men for Sobriety (MFS) (215) 536-8026.
Rational Recovery (RR) (916) 621-4374.
There are literally hundreds of scientific references
that might be used to provide a foundation for the SMART Program. A good place to begin
reviewing them is with the works listed in "Is SMART as Effective as AA?", in
the July, 1996 newsletter (Vol 2, #3). In particular Hester & Miller, 1995 (Handbook
of Alcoholism Treatment Approaches Effective Alternatives, Boston Allyn & Bacon)
provides a good current overview.
SMART is a non-profit corporation. RR is a for-profit
corporation. The ultimate organizational authority in SMART is the Board of Directors. The
ultimate program authority is scientific knowledge and rational thought, as interpreted by
the Program Committee and Board of Directors. In RR the ultimate authority for all issues
is the owners. SMART has a broad program that includes attention to motivation, urges,
problem-solving and lifestyle balance. From the perspective of the SMART Program, RR (as
of 1997) appears to have a narrower focus, primarily on urge coping. Earlier RR (as
expressed in The Small Book, which is on the SMART Recommended Reading List) has a broader
focus. SMART offers groups, publications, and an Internet listserve discussion group. RR
offers educational workshops, groups and publications.
Jack Trimpey founded Rational Recovery Systems in the
late 1980s. In 1991 he invited an informal group of Professional Advisors for a meeting in
Dallas, Texas. A second meeting occurred in Sacramento, CA, in August, 1992. There the
group agreed that incorporation of a nonprofit organization, which would have primary
responsibility for managing Rational Recovery support groups, was desirable. This
incorporation, under the name Rational Recovery Self Help Network, occurred at the end of
1992. The nonprofit corporation was granted a license in perpetuity by Trimpey to use the
name Rational Recovery.
In 1993, the informal group of Advisors, now transformed into the Board of Directors of
the nonprofit corporation, met in Boston, Massachusetts, and elected officers Joe
Gerstein, President; Tom Horvath, Vice President; Dave Trippel, Secretary; and Peter
Bishop, Treasurer. Trimpey was elected interim Executive Director, and he announced his
intention to phase out of that position as soon as a suitable replacement could be
selected.
In 1993 and continuing into 1994 there was increasing disagreement between Trimpey and
the nonprofit corporation about how the corporation should be managed, and the nature of
the recovery program that it was offering. In particular, the transformation that was
occurring in Trimpey's approach to recovery was perceived by many as a significant and
undesired departure from the approach presented in Trimpey's first book, The Small Book.
These disagreements culminated in August, 1994, with a mutual agreement between
Trimpey and the nonprofit corporation to separate. This separation was accomplished by
changing the nonprofit corporation's name, originally to the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Self
Help Network, and later to S.M.A.R.T. Recovery. A telephone conference call meeting in
August 1994 voted on the question of the name change. There was a unanimous vote
(including both Jack and Lois Trimpey, who were members of the Board) to change the name
of the organization from RRSN to the ADASHN.
By this action the nonprofit corporation also withdrew from its licensing agreement
with Rational Recovery Systems, the for-profit corporation owned by Jack and Lois Trimpey.
From that point forward, individual support groups were free to make their own decisions
about which corporation, if any, to remain affiliated with. The S.M.A.R.T. Recovery
Purposes and Methods statement, adopted after the name change as the fundamental document
of the organization, indicates that the SMART Program is based on scientific knowledge,
and will evolve as scientific knowledge evolves. Since August, 1994, SMART views Rational
Recovery (as presented in Trimpey's most recent work) as it views itself and any other
approach to recovery each may be helpful for selected individuals. The Small Book, written
by Trimpey and originally published in 1989, is on the S.M.A.R.T. Recovery Recommended
Reading List (Core Reading List).
Can SMART be used successfully with
"bottomed-out" individuals? Isn't SMART primarily for those whose problems are
not severe? SMART is not for everyone, but rationality does have a broad appeal! The
expression "street smart" in part refers to this. Rational does not have to be
complicated. Simple is best. Even children can grasp the basics of rational thinking. If
someone is truly beyond any rational thinking, he or she may also be beyond any help (but
this seems unlikely).
SMART can reach out to all levels of society. SMART meetings currently occur in
homeless shelters, inpatient mental health units, prisons, and other places frequented by
individuals with substantial addictive behavior (and other) problems. The Coordinators who
lead these meetings report significant success in teaching SMART concepts, and significant
gratitude from those who learn them.
For the moment, individual counseling is one option for the significant others
of individuals recovering from addictive behavior. They could also attend
SMART meetings aiming to abstain from specific behaviors ("codependency") that
they may have developed in (maladaptive) response to the addictive behavior. SMART is
intended for all addictive behavior (substances and activities), and enabling behavior can
be considered as a form of addictive behavior by the enabler. If your locality has several
individuals with these issues, you may wish to experiment with a specialized group for
them. Then write a newsletter article telling us how it turned out.
Primary funding thus far has come from individual
contributors. Additionally, a $50,000 grant to run training workshops for Coordinators was
received in 1996. This money was not available for ongoing operational expenses. Starting
in mid-1996, each local group was asked to donate $10 per month (or more). If we have 300
groups donating per month, we can be an entirely self funding organization. Currently we
operate on an annual budget of about $30,000. Our primary expenses are basic office
expenses (mailing, e-mail, phone, copying), and staff time Shari Allwood, Manager of
Network and Member Services, 8 hours per week, and Randy Cicen, Executive Director, as
needed.
Most of our effort is devoted to internal communications
(newsletters, responding to inquiries) and getting new groups started and maintained (and
there are always more inquiries than groups that ultimately start). We are still too
dependent on (expensive) snail mail and copying, and are trying to move to more e-mail,
but not everyone has it yet. Local groups manage their own expenses, but have the option
of keeping their surplus funds at central office. In future years it is hoped that there
will be sufficient income at the national level to reimburse travel expenses for Board
members to attend meetings, to offer more training workshops, to develop more
publications, and to develop additional boards and councils within the organization (such
as one composed of Coordinators, and an International Advisory Board).
In August, 1994, when the Board of Directors decided to
end its affiliation with Rational Recovery Systems (RR), it was necessary to change our
name, which had been Rational Recovery Self-Help Network. Because there had been
insufficient time to identify a suitable name, Joe Gerstein, M.D., President at that time,
suggested ADASHN as a name that would not bring us into conflict with the name of any
other organization. It was understood by all that in time a better name would be
established. Rob Sarmiento, Ph.D., a Board Member, suggested SMART several weeks later,
and this name was adopted in October, 1996. However, because a number of documents and
accounts had already been established under the name ADASHN, we became ADASHN dba (doing
business as) S.M.A.R.T. Recovery. In time changing all of our documents and accounts over
to SMART may become a priority, but for now all of our efforts have been directed toward
building our network.
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