This morning in class a topic about the difficulty of measuring success as a counselor came up from a guy with years of experience employed as an intern.  I thought about the whole idea of treatment outcome goals and settled on engaging, informing, and experiencing (the recovery process and community) as perhaps the best goals.  Given that recovery occurs on a continuum individual to each person then perhaps it is better than measurement of abstinence.  Not that time of abstinence is not a good measure.  But rather, that it is just one measure and that even 30 days could be noted as some level of success.

Perhaps the best measure would be to survey ex-clients, even years later to assess the affect of their on their outlook on recovery.  I thought of many stories I have been told of counselors and treatment experiences and how these factored into a person finally finding recovery.  Some were inconsequential, others detrimental, and others significant.  I thought of the times I crossed paths paths with people who had experienced a particular recovery that made a difference for them vs. those that were not significant.   Like the old dealer had been in the SMART program and asked me incisive questions that led to my recovery, and the ex crack smoker who had a plan of action when I tried to get him to drink with me.  While one had active sobriety and the other did not, they both had been engaged in recovery to a significant enough extent that they were well informed and saw it as a positive experience.  This was especially inspiring in the case of the guy who was relapsed as I sensed that he looked back at his time in recovery longingly.