SMART Recovery Family & Friends
ON THIS PAGE:
- Find a Family & Friends Meeting
- Family & Friends Program
- Recommended Reading
- Parent CRAFT
- Family & Friends Podcasts
- Family & Friends Blogs
CONTACT US: To learn more about our Family & Friends program, please contact us:
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Help For You and Your Loved Ones
Are you looking for resources to help you support someone struggling with addiction? Is someone else’s addiction negatively affecting you? Perhaps you’re seeking an alternative to tough love? We provide effective, easy-to-learn tools to help both you and your loved one. Our methods are based on the tools of SMART Recovery and CRAFT Therapy (Community Reinforcement & Family Training). Our meetings — available both in-person and online — provide concerned significant others the tools they need to effectively support their loved one, without supporting the addictive behavior. These tools also help Family & Friends better cope with their loved one’s situation and regain their peace of mind.
Find a SMART Family & Friends Meeting
Local meetings
Our Family & Friends program is growing! We have new Family & Friends groups starting regularly throughout the U.S. and around the globe. Use our Meeting Finder to search for a meeting near you.
Online meetings
We offer Family & Friends video meetings in our SMART Recovery online community. There is no fee to participate, but registration is required. Registration and a schedule of online meetings is available on our community website.
A Family & Friends message board forum and live chat room for additional support are also available in our online community website.
Interested in starting a meeting in your area? We would love to speak with you about training and support.
How It Works
SMART Recovery’s Family & Friends resources (print materials and meetings) offer a two-pronged approach:
Tools and support for the wellbeing of Family & Friends
Our self-empowering program uses tools based on cognitive therapy to help you level out your emotional roller coaster and learn better ways of dealing with your unique situation.
Tools and support for providing effective, non-confrontational support for a loved one
Our skills training for Family & Friends includes tools for positive communication skills and other strategies to help you change the dynamics of your relationship with your loved one. This method has been proven to be more successful than harsh interventions or complete detachment.
Our mutual desire is that your loved one will take on the choice to pursue their own recovery and that you will learn ways of improving your life at the same time.
Recommended Reading
Family & Friends Handbook
Designed for people affected by the addictive behavior of a loved one, this 138-page Handbook can be used in conjunction with attendance at SMART Family & Friends online or local community meetings, or on its own.
Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading, and Threatening
Get Your Loved One Sober offers a revolutionary program for those who are seeking recovery for a loved one. CRAFT has been found to be twice as effective as Johnson Interventions in getting a loved one into treatment.
Beyond Addiction: How Science & Kindness Help People Change
Based on CRAFT, this book from the Center for Motivation and Change offers a groundbreaking, science-based guide to helping loved ones overcome addiction problems and compulsive behaviors.
Parent CRAFT
Parent CRAFT is a research-supported online course that teaches parents how to effectively interact with their children in order to change drug and alcohol behavior. Parents CAN make a difference! Visit www.CadenceOnline.com SMART Family & Friends or visitors to our site are invited to receive a 20% discount off the program. Use code SRPCT when ordering.
Parent CRAFT is endorsed by the American Psychological Association.
Family & Friends Kindle Resources
We have compiled a list of useful and printable PDF resources to use along with your Kindle version of the Family & Friends Handbook.
Click here to be directed to the page.
Family & Friends Podcasts
How Science & Kindness Can
Help People Change
Family &
Friends Special Event
CRAFT for
Families & Friends
Latest Blogs
[Ed. Note: big thanks to SMART Volunteer Anne Devenport for writing this guest blog] The DISARM tool is used in SMART Recovery to deal with urges – participants in recovery… The effect on family members of Veterans and First Responders (VFRs) who are suffering from substance use or mental health disorders can be severe. Military households face the anxiety and… Guest blog by AnnabelleW, SMART Recovery Online Facilitator The word “gaslighting” frequently creeps into Family & Friends meetings. A participant might share that their Loved One says “I didn’t say…SMART’s DISARM Tool–for Family and Friends
NEW Family & Friends of Veterans & First Responders Meeting
Help! My Loved One is Gaslighting Me!