Choice Awareness Training: Logotherapy & Mindfulness for Treatment of Addictions

The book introduces a tri-partite change equation consisting of the following three change variables: freedom-to-change, reason-to-change, and method-to-change. The freedom-to-change construct is conceptually differentiated from the construct of self-efficacy, and is operationalized through Choice Awareness Training. Choice Awareness Training, which involves a combination of Logotherapy and modified Mindfulness training, is introduced as an element of the overall clinical curriculum for substance use and compulsive spectrum clinical presentations. The book reviews a curriculum of discussions and exercises designed to challenge cognitive-behavioral automaticity and freedom-restricting belief schemata that constitute phenomenological barriers to one’s perceived freedom-to-change. Choice Awareness Training, as an existential-experiential approach to substance use and compulsive spectrum presentations, is offered from the operating platform of Positive psychology, namely, from the position of capitalizing on free will as a fundamental treatment asset, and in contrast with the view of addiction as a disease. The author proposes a view of addiction as a process in which the initially conscious choice to engage in an appetitive behavior becomes a habit. The author posits that in order to reverse the process of addiction, clients should be assisted with a) modifying freedom-restricting cognitive schemata (e.g. disease model of addiction) and b) re-infusing choice awareness into their otherwise automated, mindless, stimulus-bound, compulsive, reflexive, reactive, unconscious, choice-unaware, habitual behavior. Pavel Somov, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and the author of several self-help books, including "Smoke-Free Smoke Break: Quit Smoking Now With Mindfulness & Acceptance" (co-authored with Marla Somova, Ph.D.); "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time," "Preset Perfect: a Mindfulness Approach to Letting Go of Perfectionism and the Need to Control," and "The Lotus Effect." Pavel Somov is also an author of peer-reviewed articles on the use of logotherapy and psychodrama in the context of substance use treatment.