The Recovery Equation: Motivational Enhancement/Choice Awareness/Use Prevention

The Recovery Equation, or the Motivational Enhancement, Choice Awareness, and Use Prevention Therapy (ME/CA/UP), is a secular application of the Change Equation Model to the problem of substance abuse. The Recovery Equation is specifically designed to augment the treatment of substance abuse in the context of an intensive inpatient or intensive outpatient (daily partial hospitalization) drug and alcohol treatment program. In its conceptual orientation and its technical eclecticism, the Change Equation Model, and its substance use specific application, the Recovery Equation Method, draw support from the following schools of clinical thought, theoretical and research domains (in alphabetical order): Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Hayes et al., 1999) Cognitive Behavioral Relapse Prevention Therapy (Marlatt & Gordon, 1985) Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger, 1957) Crystallization of Discontent (Baumeister, 1996) Exposure/Response Prevention Therapy for addictive behavior (Drummond et al., 1995) Feedback-loop Theory in application to Self-Regulation (described in Baumeister, 1994) The Philosophy of Gurdjieff (Speeth, 1989; Ouspensky, 1949) Inoculation Hypothesis (McGuire, 1964) and Stress Inoculation Training (Meichenbaum, 1993) Logotherapy (Frankl, 1969) Motivational Interviewing Therapy (Miller & Rollnick, 1991; Saunders et al., 1991) Relational Frame Theory (Hayes, 1987) Self-Change Research (Klingemann et al, 2001) Self-Efficacy Theory (Bandura, 1982)