Rebuilding Relationships in Recovery: How to Connect with Family and Close Friends After Active Alcoholism and Addiction--With science-based assessment tools and practices

by Janice V. Johnson Dowd LMSW, Emily Dickinson MEd, LPC (Foreword by)

Overview

How to heal relationships, mend rifts with loved ones, and balance the demands of sobriety with the need for family connection

An empowering guide for recovering addicts and alcoholics from an author with lived experience and professional expertise

In Rebuilding Relationships in Recovery, Janice V. Johnson Dowd shows readers how to repair and enhance their relationships after active addiction. With personal insights and professional wisdom, Dowd—a licensed social worker in recovery—explores her own personal journey through alcoholism, offering a realistic and transformative guide.

Centered on nurturing the critical balance between the self-healing of your own sobriety journey and building bridges and connections with loved ones, Dowd’s narrative combines empathetic insights with practical tools. The book covers:

• Understanding Addiction's Impact: Exploring how addiction affects family dynamics and the individual’s role within them.
• Effective Communication: Strategies for opening dialogue and maintaining honest, supportive conversations.
• Setting Realistic Expectations: Dispelling common misconceptions and establishing attainable goals in recovery and relationship rebuilding.
• Making Amends: A step-by-step guide to acknowledging past harms and initiating the healing process.
• Support Networks: Developing and maintaining a support system that encourages sobriety and personal growth.

Rebuilding Relationships in Recovery is a roadmap to healing and thriving in sobriety, offering hope and actionable strategies for those seeking to rebuild trust and deepen their family bonds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798889841852
Publisher:	North Atlantic Books
Publication date:	03/04/2025
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Janice V. Johnson Dowd holds a BA from the University of Michigan and a MSSW from the University of Texas at Austin, where she worked as a teaching assistant and research assistant. Her master’s thesis was titled “Alcoholism, PTSD, and the Vietnam Veteran.” She has worked in employee assistance programs and inpatient and outpatient treatment settings. Dowd has been involved in community outreach, public speaking, and providing clinical services to patients. She has been active in the twelve-step community in Texas, Alabama, and the Gulf Coast region. She is regularly asked to speak at workshops, conferences, and AA meetings on relapse, family recovery, and making amends. Dowd's work has recently been published in AA Grapevine, and is a regular on podcasts that address addiction and recovery.

Editorial Reviews

"Rebuilding Relationships in Recovery is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to mend and strengthen their relationships post addiction. It offers a balanced mix of personal anecdotes, practical advice, and emotional support, making it a must-read for individuals committed to personal growth and recovery. Janice's emphasis on patience, self-awareness, and resilience provides a hopeful and encouraging roadmap for navigating the complexities of relationship repair and personal development throughout the recovery journey."
—RYAN OSCAR, CCRC, CCAC, host of the From Darkness to Life podcast and director of operations and education at Our Collective Journey

"This book is a must-read for anyone struggling to repair and rebuild their relationships in recovery. It is a beautiful and sensitively written guide to help readers navigate the broken bonds often left in the wake of addiction. Janice's voice is free of judgment but full of grace and honesty. She offers actionable and realistic steps and tactics for healing and reconciling, supported by her candid account of her own experience. She is as encouraging as she is relatable and offers hope to those intimidated by the challenges to come. This book is a gift to the sobriety community, providing both education and inspiration on an often-overlooked topic."
—HADLEY SORENSEN, author of The Dirty Truth on Social Drinking

"Rebuilding Relationships in Recovery is the most important book I have ever read about addiction issues and how to repair connections during sobriety. Dowd offers an enormous number of strategies and ways to move forward as people battling with this disease fight to reclaim their lives. Dowd beautifully describes the steps and emotions that survivors and family members experience throughout the healing process. I will be recommending this book to clients and colleagues, especially those who have been stuck in unaddressed grief and are looking for a resource that helps them understand how to acknowledge their pain and reconnect with loved ones, in sobriety."
—SHARI BOTWIN, LCSW, therapist, trauma expert witness, law and crime network guest expert, media contributor, and author of Stolen Childhoods

"Janice Dowd has written a masterpiece of a book. This is a manual for all recovering people, which I believe should be placed in the hands of graduates of treatment programs everywhere as a guidepost, and available wherever possible to the public at large. Covering disease concept formation, the inception of Alcoholics Anonymous, and addressing the overarching and personalized aspects of a recovery program, Ms. Dowd bares her truth on the pages of this manuscript in the hopes of sharing her journey plainly to help the entire addictive system.... Personally, I cannot wait to share this book with my clients to aid them with their own path because I believe its effectiveness will be exponential."
—MAGGIE W. BANGER, LPC-S, therapist

From the Publisher