Blog

The Science of Woo: Laughter

kermit the frog on a couch laughing to reinforce the idea that laughter is a powerful recovery tool in substance abuse recovery

The Science of Woo: Laughter Before I went to sleep last night, I laughed so hard tears were rolling down my cheeks. When I woke up this morning, my sides hurt. The same thing happened yesterday. This is a special and delightful weekend for the Recovery Therapist. My daughter graduated from college yesterday. That is, of course, one of my...[ read more ]

The Science of Woo: Forgiveness

coffee mugs and an encouraging sign to reinforce the idea that you need to change the brain to recover from substance abuse

The Science of Woo: Forgiveness Today – Easter – is a perfect day to feature Forgiveness in my series on the topic of “The Science of Woo.” There are ideas that transcend one religion and are found in all religions, and the idea of Forgiveness is one of those ideas. I am never surprised when those ideas are found by...[ read more ]

One Small Happiness: The Power to Change the Things You Can

a picture of a seasonally decorated part of my house to support celebrating small joys

One Small Happiness: The Power to Change the Things You Can It’s the end of Spring Break. I’ve spent the day refreshing my home. And reflecting – mostly reflecting that my Spring Break wasn’t as productive as I had planned. Many of you reading know that I have a job role as an Administrator/School Counselor at a small private school...[ read more ]

Triggers – The Science Behind the Metaphor

a gun with "bang" coming out of the barrel to symbolize the power of a trigger of substance abuse

Triggers: The Science Did you know?: The Recovery Therapist is in long term recovery For me that means that I have been clean and sober for 27 years. (33 as of the re-write) I want to share a scenario from 27 years ago. I had long since left the pattern of drinking in bars. I gave up recreational drugs and...[ read more ]

Winning the Tug-Of-War Against Substance Abuse Disorder

an image of a tug of war to depict the disease of addiction and how it functions in high functioning alcoholics and high functioning addicts

Motivating Recovery in a High Functioning Person with a Substance Use Disorder As a professional who specializes in treating high functioning persons with a substance use disorder (SUD)**, I spend a lot of time assessing what motivates people to seek treatment, and what motivates people to stay engaged with habits and activities that support the bio/medical/psych/social/neural changes necessary for contented...[ read more ]

Defense Mechanism (series) – Manipulation, Accusing, Judging, Projecting

a projector used to reinforce the function of the defense mechanism of projecting onto a family member when a person abusing substances doesn't want to be confronted

Defense Mechanisms (Denial Series) Manipulation, Accusing, Judging, and Projecting We have been introducing and delving into various defense mechanisms that persons with a substance use disorder (SUD)** use with family members, friends, and even themselves. The introduction to the series is here featuring denial, lying, silence. The post discussing the use of humor, compliance, and minimizing is found here. Our...[ read more ]

Defense Mechanism Series – Humor, Compliance, and Minimizing

a sign with here, there, everywhere to reinforce the lack of direction involved in compliance for a person in substance abuse recovery

Defense Mechanisms (Denial Series) Humor, Compliance, Minimizing In a series of blog posts, we are highlighting and discussing in detail defense mechanisms of persons with a substance use disorder.** To help concerned family members and loved ones understand the forms that "denial" takes, we are looking at the various ways an addicted brain finds to protect the addict’s use of...[ read more ]

Defense Mechanisms (Denial Series)

a picture of a dictionary open to the word lying to reinforce that persons with a substance use issue lie to cover their behavior

What Is Addiction, Anyway? First, a brief science summary: A brain that is hijacked by substance use disorder (SUD) seeks to protect the use of substances (or the behavior – process addiction). A person who suffers with this disorder will develop defense mechanisms – what most people call “denial” – in order to keep people away from identifying the truth...[ read more ]



24618 Kingsland Blvd 2nd Floor, Room 8
Katy, TX 77494
On the left hand side of the CLS building

recoverytherapist@joanneketch.com
(281) 740-7563


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