Family Addiction Therapy is a collection of therapeutic approaches that share a belief in the effectiveness of family level assessment and intervention. Addiction treatment professionals of all academic disciplines will benefit from the wide resources available, the scope of theories and treatment techniques, and the varied theoretical concepts and research base studies which enhance and enrich this important area of the family disease concept and that has advanced science in this critical public health problem. Today four predominant family therapy models are used as the basis for treatment and very specific interventions for chemical dependency: the family disease model, the family systems model, the cognitive-behavioral approach, and multidimensional family therapy (MDFT) model.

Family Addiction Therapy has two main purposes: (1) to use the family’s strengths and resources to help find or develop ways to live without use of substances, and (2) to ameliorate the impact of chemical dependency and its family dynamics on both the identified patient and their family members.