Alcoholism and the Family:  A Website for   Parents in Recovery
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Thank you very much for visiting my website about children of alcoholics and parents in recovery.  I hope you will take a few minutes to read excerpts from my two books, which discuss strategies for helping children to manage and overcome the impact of parental addiction on their lives.  The excerpts can be accessed by simply clicking on the titles of the two books,  which are described below.  You are also welcome to download the first chapter of Raising Healthy Children in an Alcoholic Home.

There are TWO NEW FEATURES of this site.  One is an article on RELAPSE, which I wrote for the Washington Post Health Section.  There is also a new page, entitled RECOMMENDED READINGS, with links to help you order other books that may be of interest to you.

I would like to adapt the content on these pages to your needs.  It will help me to do this if you  respond to today's poll, and if you scroll down to the bottom of the page and sign my guestbook so that I can email  you when the page is updated and ask for your comments and  suggestions.  

Finally, please feel free to start or join a discussion on parents in recovery, or children of alcoholic parents by visitng the message board on this site.  Current threads explore marital problems during recovery and the dilemma faced by a mother who wonders whether she can best help her child by staying with  her husband who is actively alcoholic, or by initiating a separation.  Those who have voted in the poll seem to feel that talking to children about their addiction, and discussing mistakes they made while using alcohol and/or other drugs are particularly difficult subjects to tackle.  I thought it  might be particularly helpful to start threads on these topics. so  I've posted some of my thoughts.  I hope you will share your  experiences or any questions that you have about talking to your children about these matters.  I'll try to respond in a timely way.  Again, if you join the list (below), I can let you know when the site is updated or when there are interesting new posts on the discussion board.


Thank you,

Barbara L. Wood, Ph.D. ,  
Licensed Psychologist,
APA-CPP Substance Abuse Disorders

Raising Healthy Children in an Alcoholic Home is a book written for parents in recovery from alcoholism, co-dependence, and other addictive problems. It helps recovering parents to understand the impact of parental alcoholism and codependency on family structure, and on the developing child. It also helps them to become"therapeutic " parents--active and compassionate listeners and   sensitive guides to children in crisis.  For excerpts from this book, as well as critical reviews and ordering information, click here.

Children of Alcoholism:  The Struggle for Self and Intimacy in Adult Life was  an alternate selection of the Psychotherapy and Social Sciences Review in 1987, and is identified in the current New York Review of Books Reader's Catalog as one of the best books in print. In this sensitive and richly rewarding book, Barbara Wood, a clinician with many years experience working with adult children of the chemically dependent, gives clinicians informed and practical advice on how to treat the damaged self of these individuals. She uses object relations theory and Heinz Kohut's Self Psychology to explore the underlying reasons for patient's dangerously low self-esteem.   You can find excerpts, ordering information, and critical reviews of this book, by clicking here.