Attitudes Regarding Alcoholism: The Volunteer Alcoholism Clinic Counsellor

Therapists' conceptualizations of alcoholism: Measurement and implications for treatment decisions.

“…Surprisingly, most studies investigating the effects of therapists’ attitudes on treatment have ignored therapists’ drinking history in spite of the large percentage of recovering therapists who are delivering treatment (McGovern & Armstrong, 1987). Some studies have shown that recovering status is associated with increased acceptance of the disease model (Bennett & Kelley, 1987; Ferneau & Paine, 1972), but the empirical evidence available indicates that recovering therapists are not uniquely effective treatment agents (Aiken, LoSciuto, Ausetts, & Brown, 1984; McLellan, Woody, Luborsky, O’Brien, & Druly, 1988; Rosenberg, Gerrein, Manohar, & Liftik, 1976). At least one study (Manohar, 1973) found that recovering therapists may have more difficulty generating nonpossessive warmth and retaining clients as compared with nonrecovering therapists.…”