Practicing Harm Reduction Psychotherapy. An Alternative Approach to Addictions

Abstract

Practicing Harm Reduction Psychotherapy. An Alternative Approach to Addictions . Patt Denning and Jeannie Little. 2nd Edition. The Guilford Press, 2012. £30.50. ISBN 978-1-4625-0233-2 ![Graphic][1] This is the second edition of Practicing Harm Reduction Psychotherapy, more than 10 years on from the first edition (2000). The authors state that ‘it is practically a different book’. In addition to citing recent advances in research, they have drawn on a decade's worth of their continued experiences in the field through their work at the Harm Reduction Therapy Centre in San Francisco. The book's fundamental principle is to challenge the idea that abstinence is required for effective psychotherapy. The authors advocate an approach combining the public health principles of harm reduction with psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural models of … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif