Cynthia Moreno Tuohy
NAADAC Executive Director

Conflict is a part of our daily lives. While people often fear or avoid conflict, it can be a dynamic force for positive change and creativity. When mismanaged, it can destroy organizations, relationships and disrupt the treatment goals for clients who have substance use disorders. How can this powerful force be managed to help our clients and achieve the best outcomes in treatment?

Serving as Program Director for Volunteers of America for Western Washington, I had the opportunity to work with homeless populations and clients who were dealing with the co-occurrence of poverty and substance abuse issues. Other clients, ranging from prenatal care to the elderly, came through our treatment center doors. They were dealing with a litany of challenges, from domestic violence to substance use and abuse disorders. The one commonality that all of our clients faced was the need to re-think how they faced the challenges in their lives and re-train their brains in how to deal with conflict .

There are several keys elements that need to be embraced when breaking out of previous, unhealthy relationships and patterns. Successful goals include:

1. Providing treatment and training materials for professionals (counselors, social workers, therapists, psychologists, outreach and faith-based and others) that are easy to use and integrate into existing community residential, intensive outpatient and outpatient substance abuse treatment facilities. These tools can also be useful for school-based counseling, faith counseling and other helping professional and faith-based groups.
2. Reducing relapse and sustaining the recovery of adult and adolescent substance use, abuse and dependent persons by improving their conflict resolution knowledge, attitudes and skills.
3. Using research-based and empirically-tested, psycho-educational curricula to initiate positive change in diverse people who suffer from a substance use disorder.
4. Providing an effective, cost-effective model for improving clients’ conflict resolution capacities. This is accomplished by adapting concepts from other disciplines/environments, making use of today’s technology and enhancing relapse-prevention options.

Donovan Kuehn
NAADAC Director of Operations and Outreach

In early recovery (or in the early stages of relapse and re-entry into recovery), the nature of the brain is toxic; this means that a counselor must attempt to effectively translate healthy conflict resolution and communication skills to clients. A person will not be able to fulfill his or her genuine needs without effective communication.

In my 20 years of therapeutic interventions, I have encountered a number of strategies that can help guide clients through the use and understanding of a conflict mode instrument and relate these modes to their family of origin. Often forgotten is that there are individuals who are tackling numerous issues and unique sets of circumstances. A one-size-fits-all solution just won’t work.

It is also critical to demonstrate a model of daily interactions in conflict situations, focusing on a new behavior, to help participants build a higher impulse control through practice. Going through this process, participants will discover that the wounds they carry from past relationships and experiences currently affect their lives contribute to how they respond to conflict. These core issues need to be addressed and put into the proper context before the individual can make progress in how they deal with conflict.

This course has been in development, change and renewal for the past 20 years. Renewal came from experience with thousands of course participants, new research findings about the brain, our own work and engaging in this style of life in our own lives and families. Much tribute and credit goes to my colleague, Charles “Chuck” DeVore, who first taught me anger management and conflict resolution and allowed me to reflect his concepts as we developed this material. He was the person who helped me see how vital this work is in the recovery of any person, not just the clients who suffered from alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and trauma. Chuck and I were working together—he as an advisor and co-creator of content and material—before he unexpectedly left this planet.

I miss him as we work now to complete these guides, to fulfill the dream of helping others live life in less conflict, with more joy and love. While I miss Chuck, his collaboration was key to my understanding the conflict resolution process, and his lessons can help everyone nurture their skills and talents in conflict resolution. I hope you’ll be able to join us at the Conflict Resolution session at the NAADAC conference, or visit the NAADAC Web site (www.naadac.org) to check out the tools and resources available to frontline professionals.