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Waters, Michael Thomas

University of British Columbia

Worldwide, three million deaths every year are caused by the harmful use of alcohol, representing 5.3% of all deaths worldwide (World Health Organization, 2022). Developing more effective treatment interventions designed to support individuals affected by alcohol addiction is one important way in which researchers can help address the consequences associated with alcohol addiction in our society. Most of the well-researched, evidence-based interventions that are currently available to practitioners are designed to support individuals who are still using alcohol problematically (commonly referred to as individuals in “active addiction”). Limited research has been conducted to date investigating the effectiveness of interventions designed to support longer term recovery and the maintenance of abstinence or non-problematic alcohol use (Laudet et al., 2002). One promising area that has been identified within the existing literature, which may contribute to the development of new interventions designed to support longer term recovery, highlights the importance of various identity related changes for those in successful recovery from alcohol addiction. In order to map the existing body of literature in this area a systematic scoping review was conducted. This scoping review was informed by the methodological framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) and aimed to identify empirical studies that investigated identity focused group interventions for adult individuals with a history of problematic psychoactive substance use. The results of this review are summarized in the literature review section of the present study. This study draws on Jonathan Cheek’s (1989) theory of identity “orientations” in order to contribute to this body of literature. Cheek’s theory of identity orientations is premised on the theory that there are different “aspects” or “orientations” of an individual’s identity and that individuals vary in the extent to which they are oriented toward or place importance on these different self-aspects (i.e., personal, relational, social and collective). An individual’s identity can then be meaningfully described based on the degree to which an individual is oriented towards these different self-aspects. The objective of this study is to investigate changes in identity orientations for a population of adults in sustained recovery from alcohol addiction following participation in group counselling.

Text

2024-04-19

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/87907

Counselling Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/