Association for
Harm Reduction Therapy
Harm Reduction Therapy in the Real World

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• About HRT

The Association for Harm Reduction Therapy (AHRT) is a not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to furthering the ethical practice, study and dissemination of harm reduction therapy (HRT). HRT is a humane, client-centered, and respectful approach to working with clients who are experiencing substance-related problems, mental health problems or both. HRT's basic tenets are to meet the client where s/he is in a fully collaborative process between therapist and client who each bring diverse sets of skills, knowledge and experience to the therapy setting.

As its name implies, AHRT focuses on helping clients reduce the harm associated with substance use rather than on limiting or stopping substance use itself. Although some clients ultimately may choose abstinence from substances as a goal, the decision as to which goals to pursue rests with the client, in collaboration with the therapist. All substance use and all therapy is viewed as occurring within a social context which will vary from client to client and which may be given more or less prominence in therapy depending on the client's particular needs and wishes. Respect for client diversity is a key aspect of HRT.

HRT is strongly facilitative and supportive of client autonomy and decision-making. It avoids unilateral imposition of either therapist goals or treatment modalities. HRT uses a variety of treatment modalities and approaches, and is not linked to a particular therapeutic theory or approach. Rather, the focus is on discovering "what works" for a particular client, in his/her particular life circumstances and context. Thus, HRT may involve assisting clients in accessing and using public health harm reduction approaches (eg. syringe exchange services), support groups (such as Moderation Management [MM] for problem drinkers), and/or more traditional psychotherapeutic and psychiatric services.

AHRT accomplishes its mission through sponsoring conferences, publishing articles, books, videos and facilitating other communications among professionals and others interested in learning about and practicing HRT. AHRT aims to provide these services at a reasonable cost to practitioners who may not have significant financial resources, but who are interested in learning about current practices in HRT.

Are you a Harm Reduction Therapist?

Take our short on-line quiz and find out.

Join the Association for Harm Reduction Therapy

Network with colleagues using Harm Reduction Therapy. The Association accomplishes its mission through sponsoring conferences, publishing articles, books, videos and facilitating other communications among professionals and others interested in learning about and practicing HRT. AHRT aims to provide these services at a reasonable cost to practitioners who may not have significant financial resources, but who are interested in learning about current practices in HRT.

• Twice yearly newsletter of events and news about Harm Reduction Therapy
• Discounted Registration at National Harm Reduction Therapy Conferences (next one in San Francisco, CA in 2009)
• Discounts on CDs and DVDs of Conference Presentations from Harm Reduction Therapy Conferences
• Discounts on Training and other events sponsored by AHRT
• Being a part of a growing movement to bring compassionate, pragmatic and client-centered treatment to people with co-occurring mental health and substance use problems

Fill out our short membership application.

Join us at our Second Harm Reduction Therapy Conference

The Association for Harm Reduction Therapy is pleased to present the 2nd National Harm Reduction Therapy Conference. At this conference you will have the opportunity to interact with and learn from pioneers in the field of Harm Reduction Therapy (HRT). The thrust of the conference is practical, hands on training in how to do HRT in real world settings with real world populations. In all, we anticipate this will be an exciting two and 1/2 days of learning, networking and fellowship for clinicians interested in learning more about how to do HRT "in the real world!

Presented by: The Harm Reduction Therapy Center, The Addictive Behaviors Research Center, Harm Reduction Psychotherapy and Training Associates, The Harm Reduction Journal, Cascadia Addiction Research and Education Privacy        Terms of Use        About Us   Web site design by The WhiteRock Alternative, Bert H. Hoff © 2007 Bert H. Hoff, Association for Harm Reduction Therapy