There’s this moment in time while moving into a new home where there can be a narrow window of peace….the same sort of peace found in the space between breaths. You’ve just spent a huge amount of energy moving in and know you have so far to go before it actually feels like a home. But you’ve just brought the last box in, you’ve figured out where the forks were packed, and you’ve got the coffee maker plugged in for breakfast in the morning.

That’s where we are.

My name is Cordelia and I’ve had the incredible opportunity to take over the Sober Families website. I don’t want to take up too much space in talking about my background (you can check that out here,) but over the last few months, I’ve been working hard to get the contents of the old Sober Families website transferred to its new home.

As with moving into any new home, there are surprises that have come up along the way…with more likely to come. But we've hung the curtains, moved in the big furniture, and are trying to choose paint colors for the living room accent wall.

The prior owners did an amazing job of creating a home from which to talk about CRAFT, work that we are very excited to continue with—and build upon.

Here’s what we have in mind:

• We’ll be adding more resources soon… some amazing options have become available since Sober Families was last actively worked on four years ago, and we’ll update the site to include those.  

• We’ll be inviting more contributors to the site—both guests and longer-term roommates. We want this site to not only offer skills and resources but also be a place for support and kindness.

• We’ll create a more step-by-step method for families to find groups or clinicians who offer this approach in your area. Or, if you are located in a place where there are none to be found, we’ll list some options for you for online communities or resources.

• We’ll put in a section for clinicians themselves, specifically with more links to research articles and suggestions for reading material to support your practice. We’ll post information about related trainings as soon as we become aware of them. Additionally, we dream about creating a space for clinicians to support each other in some way, as it can be brutal to work within an addictions treatment system that is often uncompassionate and has a poor record of using evidence-based practices (at least in the USA). As clinicians, we need support too and it would be amazing if the Sober Families clinicians site could become a place for that. But, right now, this is like planning to install a swimming pool in the back yard. We really really really want it. And we’ll have to see how it goes.

• More immediate, we'll be discussing another perspective. This newer approach, an evolution of CRAFT, offers a more comprehensive and flexible model that moves beyond having a list of skills to do and into a way of thinking and relating that can significantly change the way that family members interact in the long run. Curious yet? Cool. This will be the subject of my next blog.

That’s a lot of stuff to do.

Like most remodels, this will take some time, and we’ll keep you updated with a newsletter every month or two to invite you in for tea, check out the new additions, and see what you think.

But for the moment, please wander around and see what we have so far. If you see anything that isn’t working, we want to hear about it.  Do you have any suggestions? Tell us that too. Like what you see? Tell others, they are more than welcome. And if you have any color suggestions for that accent wall in the living room….let us know.

We want to hear from you.