Applying interventions designed to reduce and manage the symptoms of substance use disorders.
Treatment
SRNT-O Inaugural Conference
The inaugural SRNT-Oceania Chapter conference will be held in Sydney, Australia.
The aim of the conference is to share and celebrate the highest quality research and practice targeting tobacco use reduction and smoking cessation in Australia, New Zealand and Pacific nations throughout Oceania and the region.
The conference will be held on the 24th and 25th of October at Doltone House, Jones Bay Wharf in Sydney.

Motivational Interviewing for Substance Use
Harmful use of alcohol kills more than 3 million people each year. 35 million people are estimated to be suffering from drug use disorders. Tobacco contributes to the death of more than 8 million people a year around the world. It is...

Journal for Advancing Justice Volume II
Opioid-related morbidity and mortality in the U.S. has been steadily increasing over the last two decades. In 2017 alone, 2.1 million Americans suffered from opioid use disorder (OUD), and 47,600 died from opioid overdose. Predictably, the...

Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal communication is the act of conveying a thought, feeling, or idea through physical gestures, posture, and facial expressions. A study conducted at UCLA found a majority of communication to be nonverbal, although the study’s exact...
Motivational Interviewing. Change: Desire, Ability, Reason, Need, and Commitment
This blog includes videos, podcasts and other resources to learn more about motivational interviewing and other counselling approaches.
The Readiness Ruler as a Measure of Readiness to Change Poly-Drug Use in Drug Abusers
Abstract Readiness to change is a crucial issue in the treatment of substance use disorders. Experiences with methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) has shown that continuous drug and alcohol use with all its consequences characterize most...
Transference vs. Countertransference: What’s the big deal?
You may be feeling overwhelmed by the number of new terms, theories, and practices you are learning. With all of the clinical information, you are consuming it can be easy to gloss over the concepts of transference and countertransference...
The Forest and the Trees: Relational and Specific Factors in Addiction Treatment
Abstract Aims Increased expectations for the use of evidence‐based methods in addiction treatment have fueled a debate regarding the relative importance of ‘specific’ versus ‘common’ factors in treatment outcome. This review explores the...
The Role of the Early Therapeutic Alliance in Predicting Drug Treatment Dropout
Abstract Background To investigate the role of the therapeutic alliance in predicting length of retention in residential drug treatment. Methods The study recruited 187 clients starting residential rehabilitation treatment for drug misuse...
The Role of the Therapeutic Alliance in the Treatment of Substance Misuse: A Critical Review of the Literature
ABSTRACT Background: In the past two decades, a number of studies investigating the role of the therapeutic alliance in drug treatment have been published and it is timely that their findings are brought together in a comprehensive review...