Transformation and Recovery: A Guide for the Design and Development of Acupuncture-Based Chemical Dependency Treatment Programs

Transformation and Recovery is the only definitive book on acupuncture and addiction recovery.

More than a manual or "how-to" book, Transformation and Recovery offers a bold and insightful philosophical and historical interpretation of addiction and recovery.

Transformation and Recovery: A Guide for the Design and Development of Acupuncture-Based Chemical Dependency Treatment Programs has become a standard reference for acupuncturists and for addiction treatment programs who have added or wish to add acupuncture as an integrated treatment component.

This groundbreaking book has been used as a textbook in Colleges of Oriental Medicine, and is a recommended resource for Certification by the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association.

Transformation and Recovery Includes:

• Over 300 footnotes and a comprehensive bibliography
• The classic and comprehensive Literature Review, “Auricular Acupuncture for Chemical Dependency,” by Dr. Ruth Ackerman
• “So You Want to Start an Acupuncture Treatment Program for Detoxification, Relapse Prevention, and Preparation for Counseling” – A Case History of the Development of an Acupuncture Demonstration Program, by Dr. Ruth Ackerman.
• Full text of the article “Acupuncture: New Perspectives in Chemical Dependency Treatment,” published by Alex Brumbaugh by the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment in 1993 – the first non-research article supporting acupuncture to appear in a major journal.
• “A Counselor’s Guide to Acupuncture in the Treatment of Addiction,” by Cally Haber and Charles Singer, Santa Cruz, California.

Alex Brumbaugh worked in the addiction recovery field beginning in 1983. For ten years he was the Director of Project Recovery, the largest provider of drug and alcohol treatment services in Santa Barbara County. He was subsequently appointed Director of Project Development for the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in Santa Barbara, and more recently the Project Director of a Recovering Communities Support Grant from the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT).

His undergraduate education was in history and English, and his post-graduate studies included history, psychology, education, and addiction. He was formerly a teacher of American History and English in Monterey, California, and an Education Instructor for the University of California Extension in Santa Cruz. He was also an Associate Faculty Member in Human Services, Social Science, and Alcohol and other Drug Studies at Alan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California, and taught numerous workshops on addiction and recovery issues.

He worked as a private consultant to treatment programs, conducted more than 30 Certification trainings for the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association, and served on CSAT’s Consensus Panel on acupuncture and addiction. His publications include "Acupuncture: New Perspectives in Chemical Dependency Treatment" (Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, V10 No1, pp 35-43), "Acupuncture as a Foundation for Treatment Services" (Addiction and Recovery, November/ December, 1993, pp 26-28), Transformation and Recovery: A Guide for the Design and Development of Acupuncture-Based Chemical Dependency Treatment Programs, and The Praxis of Recovery: A New Vision for Success in Addiction Treatment (2014) and "Conceptualizing Successful Long-Term Recovery from Substance Use and Addictive Disorders." (2012)

He also engaged with hundreds of private and public treatment programs throughout the United States as an education and treatment consultant for the Texas-based Recovery-Direct (FMS Productions), a producer and distributor of educational and treatment materials on substance abuse, mental health, and criminal behavior. In the final years of his life he was named Executive Director of Santa Barbara New House, the oldest and largest group of clean and sober living homes in Santa Barbara, California.