Brown and Lewis Developmental Stages of Recovery

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The Brown & Lewis Developmental Stages of Recovery is the work of Stephanie Brown, PhD, and Virginia Lewis, PhD, co-director of the Family Recovery Project. To outline the Brown & Lewis developmental stages of recovery, these two clinicians apply their knowledge and describe in detail how an alcoholic family member affects the family as a whole.

What are the Brown and Lewis Developmental Stages of Recovery?

The Brown and Lewis developmental stages of recovery are outlined in The Alcoholic Family in Recovery: A Developmental Model (2002). Hence, the Brown and Lewis developmental stages of recovery provide one of the first models of addiction recovery for a family. Specifically, the Brown and Lewis developmental stages of recovery demonstrates how to help an alcoholic family member in denial and then repair the family during the recovery process.

In examining the family problems caused by an alcoholic family member, the Brown & Lewis developmental stages of recovery acknowledge that the first years of sobriety do not immediately erase marital stress or difficult parent-child relationships. However, the Brown & Lewis Developmental Model is a methodology for understanding and treating families navigating this challenge. Therefore, this analysis of addiction recovery stages uncovers the impact on the family environment, the parental couple, and individual family members.

As a result, the Brown & Lewis Developmental Model demonstrates how families can be helped during the ongoing recovery process. Ultimately, the goal is to weather periods of emotional upheaval in order to establish a stable yet flexible family system that incorporates the family member in recovery.

Sources: Guilford Press, US National Library of Medicine (National Institutes of Health), Oxford Academic