Central Recovery Press LLC

An insightful guide to understanding the mysteries of the mind and how we can change for the better.

How can it be that perfectly intelligent people do such obviously counterproductive things so much of the time? Why do we do the things we know we shouldn't do, and why do we fail to do the things we know we should do? The simple answer to these questions is that the unconscious mind greatly influences all that we do.

Written by an experienced clinical psychologist with a knack for describing complex ideas in a lively and easy to comprehend way, Wisdom from the Couch will change the way you think about your internal and external life.

In this beautifully written, insightful book, author Tony Greco brings together the helpful lessons learned during his own recovery when he used the established techniques of chronic pain recovery explored in the books. A Day without Pain and Pain Recovery: How to Find Balance and Reduce Suffering from Chronic Pain, both published by Central Recovery Press.

Meditations for Pain Recovery is a key resource to help your recovery from chronic pain when you have co-occurring or underlying addiction. The book makes use of the twelve-step principles and the Four Points of Balance in a holistic, contemplative manner, based on proven recovery principles. 

Dr. Sylvester "Skip" Sviokla lived life as a successful, driven, athletic, and brilliant graduate of Harvard Medical School, reveling in wealth and glamour as a "celebrity doctor" until addiction brought his life crashing down. This real-life "Dr. House" had it all (he thought) until addiction took everything. Miraculously, recovery gave him back his family, his self-respect, and much more.

The media is filled with celebrity addiction stories, so people will be drawn to the author’s experience as a “doctor to the stars.” Having attended the most famous university and medical school in the world, Dr. Sviokla’s story will also be relevant to a larger audience, including medical professionals and those seeking answers about addiction.

Sylvester "Skip" Sviokla III, MD, is a 1967 graduate of Harvard College (where he was a two-year starter on the football team, culminating in his receiving one vote for the 1966 Heisman Trophy and an offer to try out for the Chicago Bears) and a 1972 graduate of Harvard Medical School. He was owner and medical director of Skip Sviokla Entertainment Medicine, Inc. and of Medical Weight Management, Inc., in Massachusetts.

Kerry Zukus is an alumnus of Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied composition and arranging while appearing as an actor in theaters all over New England.

A vivid and enlightening oral account of homelessness in the Las Vegas storm drains and the hard work of re-entering mainstream society.

Are you aware that hundreds of people live underground in the flood channels of Las Vegas? Few people were until Matthew O'Brien grabbed a flashlight, tape recorder, and expandable baton for protection and explored the storm-drain system in depth. This research resulted in his landmark book Beneath the Neon. Now the drains have been covered by CNN, Fox News, NPR, Dr. Phil, the New York Times, the BBC, Al Jazeera, and many other media outlets. They have even found their way on to popular TV shows, including CSI, Criminal Minds, and into mainstream movies.

But the fact that several of these drug- and gambling-addicted tunnel dwellers have clawed their way out of the drains and turned around their lives has received far less attention. Dark Days, Bright Nights shares their harrowing stories and provides a unique perspective on one of America's most fascinating cities. It also paints a larger picture of homelessness and recovery in America. These stories are the happy (though not Hollywood) ending to the infamous tunnel tale.

The narrative is complemented by bios and stark, black-and-white images of the survivors, putting a scarred, knowing face to the unblinkingly honest accounts.

Arnie Wexler's compulsive gambling spiraled out of control....after forty-plus years in recovery, he's become a nationally known expert on gambling addiction.

Wexler's life as a gambler began on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, flipping cards, shooting marbles, and playing pinball machines. At age fourteen he found the racetrack, a bookie, and started playing the stock market. His obsession with gambling accelerated until a fateful day in 1968 when it all came crashing down.

Wexler's gripping narrative leads us through the dungeon of a compulsive gambler's world—chasing the big win and coming up with empty pockets—and how his addiction drove him and his wife, Sheila, to the edge of life. With help, they managed to escape, and together they have devoted themselves to helping others with the problem they know so well.

All Bets Are Off provides a revealing picture of how the often hidden addiction of compulsive gambling ravages the lives of both the addict and those around him or her. It is a brutal cautionary tale, and also an inspiring story of hope and healing for anyone affected by problem gambling.

A vital guide to overcome the barriers to achieving intimacy and meaningful connection

People in resilient relationships are co-owners, experience reciprocity, and are better prepared to meet challenges authentically and effectively. In this sequel to the best-selling Irrelationship, the authors use examples from their clinical practice to review the concept of irrelationship and expand the DREAM Sequence, a tool used by affected couples to address perennial relationship issues.

By mutually and mindfully viewing the relationship as a third entity, separate from each individual, couples will learn how to live in and with the ambiguity of empathy, intimacy, vulnerability, and emotional investment and view relationship sanity as a deliberate and joyful undertaking to maintain and deepen connection.

Drawn from over twenty-five years of experience, this comprehensive manual sets forth how to evaluate priorities, understand options, and face bedrock issues so caregivers can make informed decisions for their loved ones, while balancing their own needs and gaining peace of mind.

Author and family caregiving expert David Levy provides a model for effective planning and decision-making, focusing on the nonclinical aspects of caregiving (legal, financial, emotional, and social), which are often neglected by medical professionals:

David Levy, JD is a gerontologist and a recognized family caregiver expert. Levy holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence and is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator in family caregiving and a certified Family Conflict Dynamics Profiler. He facilitates weekly family caregiver support groups and counsels family caregivers, both pro bono and privately.

The only parenting book based on a school-tested method

As co-founder of Outreach Concern, Inc., one of the largest school-based counseling services in the country, Dr. Rick Capaldi developed a guide to raise kids into confident, independent adults. His "three Rs"—Read your child's environment, Regulate their emotional temperature, and Redirect their behavior—will help parents and teachers steer children toward emotional stability and success. This model has been effectively utilized in counseling over a half-million children and parents in over 900 schools, resulting in the development of cooperative, successful, and highly productive family relationships.

A poignantly funny account of renowned writer and humorist Neal Pollack's years as a marijuana addict.

Beginning innocently enough in his 20s, Neal Pollack discovers that pot makes everything—food, music, sex—better. Getting married, having a kid, and enjoying professional success do nothing to dampen Pollack's enthusiasm for getting high. As cannabis grows stronger and more widely available, the expansion and acceptance of marijuana Big Business shadows Pollack's dependence.

By 2014, Neal is a correspondent for a national marijuana newspaper, mostly because it means free pot. Diving into the wild, wicked world of weed with both lungs, Pollack proceeds to smoke, vape, and eat his way to oblivion, leading to public meltdowns and other embarrassing behavior. After his mother dies in 2017, he spirals out of control, finally hitting bottom during a reckless two-day gambling and drug-filled binge, culminating in a public crack-up at the World Series in Dodger Stadium. Three weeks later, he quits.

After joining a twelve-step program, Neal outs himself as a marijuana addict in a 2018 New York Times op-ed piece, leading to his decision to document his experience as a cautionary tale for the millions of recreational users in the hazy age of legalized weed.

A lifestyle plan that integrates nutrition, exercise, and spiritual practices into the proven method of twelve-step recovery

Personal trainer and sports nutritionist Tom Shanahan outlines a program of action to energize, reboot, and strengthen one’s recovery, especially those who feel they may have hit a wall in their program. Spiritual Adrenaline imparts the importance of a holistic approach to fitness, good eating habits, and connection to a personal higher power. Shanahan delivers engaging, instructive, and thoughtful meditations that provide positive coping mechanisms to help readers optimize the guiding principles of the Twelve Steps and reinforce relapse prevention.

An innovative guide for professionals that establishes an extraordinary approach to understanding the dynamics of addiction and the recovery process. RecoveryMind Training (RMT) includes state-of-the-art information on neuroscience and behavioral techniques and challenges readers to see addiction from a different perspective. 

Paul H. Earley, MD, FASAM has been an addiction medicine physician for thirty years. He treats all types of addictive disorders and specializes in the assessment and treatment of healthcare professionals. As a therapist, he works with patients already in recovery, providing long-term therapy for those who suffer from this disease. His professional expertise extends to advocacy for professionals before agencies and licensing boards. Dr. Earley has been on the board of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) for over fourteen years in several capacities and is currently a director-at-large. He has been the Medical Director of two nationally acclaimed addiction programs specializing in the care of addicted healthcare professionals. Currently, he is the Medical Director of the Georgia Professionals Health Program, Inc. and a principal with Earley Consultancy, LLC, a training and consulting firm. He also trains therapists about the neurobiological basis of addiction and psychotherapy. In his travels, he has provided training in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Switzerland.

An empathetic look at the grieving process providing a path to acceptance and peace for those who must continue their life journey after a loved one dies.

Tackling one of life’s greatest mysteries, Rabbi Ben Kamin examines the diverse ways we mourn the death of a loved one. Drawn from his forty-plus years of counseling the bereaved, Kamin shares stories filled with people from all walks of life to provide thoughtful insights on how we encounter and endure grief. Using his own experience of the heartbreaking loss of his father, he stresses the importance of not deferring the process of grieving at the risk of harming one’s physical, emotional, and spiritual health. An empathetic and simple spiritual guide that offers a path to acceptance and peace for those who must continue their life journey after a loved one dies.

Find lasting relief from worry and stress with powerful techniques grounded in clinical experience and neuroscience. 

If you feel frazzled, you dwell in good company. Racing between the demands of work, health, family, and friends, many people report feelings of worry, irritability, and increasing stress. While we often cannot control stressful life events, we can learn to control our brain's response to those circumstances and reduce our suffering.

Drawing from the latest research and more than 25 years of clinical experience, Dr. Gina Simmons Schneider explains the link between anxiety, anger, and stress and shares groundbreaking remedies from neuropsychology. These tools will strengthen your resilience and expand your capacity for happiness.

In Frazzlebrain, you'll discover how to:

Each chapter offers exercises, case examples, and self-improvement skills to help you achieve a calmer, happier, healthier lifestyle.

Living mindfully, people in recovery can learn skills that allow them to recognize and know their own worthiness and value, empowering them to fully engage with life on life's terms in ways that are productive and meaningful to them. Former Buddhist monk John Bruna outlines the seven skills of living mindfully in recovery: values, attention, wisdom, equanimity, compassion, loving-kindness, and action.

The Essential Guidebook to Mindfulness in Recovery is a self-paced curriculum that can be integrated into any recovery program. Whether people are new to recovery or in long-term recovery, they will be able to use the mindfulness practices in this guidebook to consciously create healthy habits that support their recovery and the lives they want to live.

An active and personalized way for people in recovery to extend and strengthen their yogic investigation of the Twelve Steps.

Designed for use as a companion to Yogic Tools for Recovery, this workbook allows a person from any fellowship to document his or her progress through the Twelve Steps. In the introduction of each step, yogini Kyczy Hawk focuses on a recovery concept and breaks down its healing message, utilizing the wisdom of the yoga sutras. Then, she leads readers through a self-exploration of the yogic principles aligned with the step, providing introspective questions along with activities such as poses, visualizations, breath practices, and meditations.

By working the steps in this manner, both men and women, regardless of age and physical ability, will learn how to synthesize the artifacts and memories of addiction in a new, holistic way, leading to contentment as they find their true path.

Sam Louie grew up torn between cultures as part of a first-generation Chinese immigrant family from Hong Kong living in a predominantly African American neighborhood in the United States. He experienced the duality of existence with the tension of two vastly different worldviews, his identity intertwined with the country he lives in and his ancestral ties. What traditions and cultural beliefs get preserved, what gets discarded, and what gets lost in translation? Beneath it all was the presence of three generations of addiction, trauma, and shame.

In this bold, insightful book, he documents the challenges of immigrant experiences and how maladaptive coping mechanisms in the form of compulsive behaviors were a means to gain a sense of adequacy due to the cultural tide of shame and ostracism within his own ethnic heritage and the external world.

Louie's journey of resiliency in navigating multiple cultural forces in the face of adversity and racism can give readers a new understanding of hope, perseverance, and the resources necessary to heal.

Recover. Rinse. Repeat.

Dana Bowman can’t escape the lure of perfectionism, trying to be a flawless wife, mother, and person in recovery. When Dana experiences a short-lived relapse during the Christmas holiday, she has the startling realization that recovery is more than just giving up alcohol.

In this funny and revealing follow-up to her best-selling book Bottled, Dana reflects on how we live in a society of excess, always pushing ourselves to do and be better. However, it doesn’t take her long to realize that self-care and getting over herself is the key to happiness.

An easy-to-follow guide that will help parents understand screen dependence at home.

Recreational screen media use is quickly replacing family time, by no fault of parents. They are doing the best they can based on the information available to them, which claims nothing can be done to stop their children's screen dependence.

Parents seeking change need a new framework for action. Breaking the Trance does not blame parents or vilify technology, but it does give parents clear and effective strategies to implement immediately. The results will restore a sense of care and connection within the family.

George T. Lynn, MA, LMHC, is a psychotherapist from Bellevue, Washington, who has pioneered the use of psychotherapy for adults and children with neuropsychological issues. George is author of the Survival Strategies for Parenting series, Genius! Nurturing the Spirit of the Wild Oppositional Child and The Asperger Plus Child.

Cynthia C Johnson, MA, utilizes in-home individualized therapeutic tutoring to help unique K–12 learners reach their full potential. She is the founding director of the Venture Program at Bellevue College in Washington, the first degree program in the nation designed for students challenged with learning and intellectual disabilities.

From the best-selling author of The Mindful Addict comes an eloquent and motivating introductory guide to meditation.

For anyone interested in greater physical and mental health, increased mental clarity, and reduced stress, follow Tom Catton as he takes you step-by-step through mindfulness techniques that yield endless benefits by improving mind-body-spirit consciousness.

He shares his insights, developed over four decades, in an inviting and accessible narrative. Now you, like generations of people around the world, can find a more balanced life with greater peace, harmony, and enjoyment through these meditative practices.

Tom Catton has been in recovery since 1971. His story appears in a twelve-step fellowship recovery book with more than seven million copies in circulation around the world, and he has been taking twelve-step meetings into Hawaii's prison system since 1984. He is also a retired marathon runner. Tom is trained in Tibetan singing bowl therapy and healing. He is on the advisory board of the Buddhist Recovery Network and teaches a meditation group in Hawaii.

Ending compulsive sexual behavior is just the beginning.

Drawing on personal and professional experience, psychotherapist Andrew Susskind examines issues such as shame, grief, narcissism, and codependency to demonstrate how people use out-of-control sexual behavior to cope with brokenheartedness and trauma. He offers strategies to cultivate sustainable sexual sobriety, sharing his own healing narrative, as well as those of others who’ve chosen to bare their truths. No one is ever too hurt or isolated to achieve reliable relationships and emotional intimacy. This is a guidebook for every person seeking long-term healing from sex addiction.

A revealing, hopeful account of a young woman's ascent out of the bleak despair of addiction and how recovery helped her confront the traumas and secrets that kept her living in the dark for so long.

In her first memoir, Blackout Girl, Jennifer Storm enthralled readers with the haunting account of her descent into addiction, which began when she was raped at twelve years old. But against all odds, she survived, and ultimately thrived.

In this courageous and insightful sequel, Jennifer continues her story through recovery and the self-discovery that followed. With fearless honesty, she chronicles her journey as she embarked upon a new life without alcohol or other drugs, finally facing her traumatic past, confronting her buried emotions, and revealing the long-hidden truth about her sexuality. This book conveys a beaming message of hope for those facing similar adversities.

People today are struggling with an unprecedented rise in mental health concerns such as depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, behavioral addictions, suicide, and more. The greatest barriers to getting help are their shame, their self-loathing, and the belief that their situation is hopeless. Undaunted Hope destigmatizes these disorders and invites readers to take the first step to help: asking for it. 

Through the narratives of twenty-one alumni from Meadows Behavioral Healthcare, world-renowned treatment facilities, readers may see themselves in parts of the stories—and ultimately find the courage to ask for help. Each storyteller reveals the origins of their struggles, the chaotic course of events leading up to treatment, what help entailed, and how their lives became richer, fuller, and more hopeful once they were willing to take the first step toward healing. 

This urgent and timely book presents the stories of the therapeutic work that occurs in Meadows' facilities, recognizing that trauma is most often the underlying issue to people’s struggles. The groundbreaking work at The Meadows has been validated by the landmark Adverse Childhood Experience Study (ACEs) carried out by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the past twenty-five years. These studies repetitively demonstrate the relationship of various traumas to mental health, substance abuse, and behavioral healthcare problems. 

The New York Times bestselling author of My Grandmother's Hands surveys America's deteriorating democracy and offers embodied practices to help us protect ourselves and our country. 

"All of us need to read this book—and then act on it.”—Angela Rye, NPR political analyst and former CNN commentator

". . . a volume our country, our bodies, and our humanity desperately need."—Michael Eric Dyson, author of Entertaining Race and Long Time Coming

Through the coordinated repetition of lies, anti-democratic elements in American society are working to incite mass radicalization, widespread chaos, and a collective trauma response in tens of millions of American bodies. 

Currently, most of us are utterly unprepared for this potential mayhem. This book can help prepare us—and possibly prevent further destruction. This preparation focuses not on strategy or politics, but on practices that can help us

The Quaking of America is a unique and perfectly timed guide to help us navigate our widespread upheaval and build an antiracist culture.

A trailblazing physician and health researcher shares her journey of perseverance and discovery.

Anne McTiernan's second memoir begins in 1982, soon after she completed her doctoral training in public health research at the University of Washington at the age of twenty-nine. She and her husband are now parents to four-year-old and three-month-old girls. Realizing that jobs in her field are scarce, especially for women, Anne decides the only option for their financial security is to become a medical doctor. Overcoming her fear and life-long struggle with inadequacy, she moves the family 3,000 miles to New York to begin medical school.

Within a few months of starting this new life, Anne is in deep trouble. She is overwhelmed by the competing demands of motherhood and medical training and feels isolated. The stress builds, until Anne suffers a series of paralyzing panic attacks that threaten her ability to function. She begins psychotherapy and starts on a journey of self-discovery, realizing she has to change to survive.

Claudia Black's updated bestselling primer for women whose partners are acting out sexually.

Multiple affairs, compulsive pornography, prostitutes, and voyeurism—no matter their “drug” of choice, men who act out sexually leave their partners reeling in fear, rage, shame, and isolation. But there is hope. Bestselling author Claudia Black’s revised edition of her classic work Deceived offers women in relationships plagued by sexual betrayal the validation and guidance to create a new path of clarity, direction, and confidence.

Dr. Black uses stories of women who have been through a wide variety of experiences to help readers develop the understanding and skills to confront the trauma of the betrayal. She offers them the opportunity to shift from their overwhelming emotions to action derived from self-esteem and integrity. Deceived encourages women to proactively emerge from traumatic stress and emotional isolation and discover their power to facilitate their own healing, allowing them to move forward in their lives.

A revised edition of the best-selling solution-oriented guide to identifying and healing over-involvement or "entanglement" in relationships. 

Anyone who has struggled with balancing his or her own needs and desires with those of another person will benefit from Nancy Johnston's sensible, easy-to-follow method for changing the course of relationships. Disentangle combines psychoeducation, personal anecdotes, clinical case vignettes, and skills-building exercises.

Johnston describes how to turn this cycle around with self-assessments and experiential exercises designed to address essential aspects of self-awareness, distortions in thinking, communication style and tools, and spirituality. 

Disentangling is the process of creating enough emotional space between oneself and the other person in order to better see the reality of the relationship and make healthier conscious decisions about it.

A new and revised edition of Claudia Black's groundbreaking workbook for adult children from dysfunctional families

This updated edition of Dr. Black's revolutionary self-help workbook provides readers with a step-by-step framework and a guide that takes them through a process to recognize how present challenges are influenced by growing up in a troubled family system, release the parts of the past they wish to leave behind, and take greater responsibility for how they live today.

Adult children tend to repeat the life scripts of their challenged, troubled families as a result of internalized beliefs and behaviors that were either modeled for them or were a part of their survival strategy. Claudia Black, world-renowned expert on dysfunctional families, articulates a seven-step process for readers to heal the wounds of their past.

This is also an excellent resource to aid therapists, counselors, and other helping professionals in their work with clients to help them become aware of how their family system affected them and grow beyond it.

So many couples are guilty of the same dream: we are supposed to walk into love knowing how to do it—how to build and maintain a relationship. 

Creating and maintaining a great marriage, relationship, or partnership is hard work. A second truth is that nobody teaches you how to do it.

Conflict Resolution breaks down a five-step model for readers in any type of romantic partnership to help couples find a new understanding of what a successful relationship can look like.

A friendly, candid, and comforting guide for isolating times when we have no one to count on.

Despite the inclusive promise of social media, loneliness is a growing epidemic in the United States. Social isolation can shatter our confidence. In isolating times, we’re not only lonely, we’re also ashamed because our society stigmatizes people who appear to be without support.

As a single, fifty-eight-year-old woman, Val Walker found herself stranded and alone after major surgery when her friends didn’t show up. As a professional rehabilitation counselor, she was too embarrassed to reveal how utterly isolated she was by asking for someone to help, and it felt agonizingly awkward calling colleagues out of the blue. As she recovered, Val found her voice and developed a plan of action for people who lack social support, not only to heal from the pain of isolation, but to create a solid strategy for rebuilding a sense of community.

400 Friends and No One to Call spells out the how-tos for befriending our wider community, building a social safety net, and fostering our sense of belonging. On a deeper level, we are invited to befriend our loneliness, rather than feel ashamed of it, and open our hearts and minds to others trapped in isolation.

Eva Mozes Kor forges a path of reconciliation and healing as a Holocaust survivor, sharing her life-changing message that forgiveness frees us from the pain of the past.

Eva Mozes Kor was just ten years old when she was sent to Auschwitz. While her parents and two older sisters were murdered there, she and her twin sister Miriam were subjected to medical experiments at the hands of Dr. Joseph Mengele. Later on, when Miriam fell ill due to the long-term effects of the experiments, Eva embarked on a search for their torturers. But what she discovered was the remedy for her troubled soul; she was able to forgive them.

Told through anecdotes and in response to letters and questions at her public appearances, she imparts a powerful lesson for all survivors. Forgiveness of our tormentors and ourselves is a pathway to a deeper healing. This kind of forgiveness is not an act of self-denial. It actively releases people from trauma, allowing them to escape from the grip of persecution, cast off the role of victim, and begin the struggle against forgetting in earnest.