By billstaufferpa on August 13, 2025
The Frontiers of Recovery Research Interview Series – William Stauffer
What is this series of interviews?
In April of 2024, I had the distinct honor of being asked by William White author and thought leader of the new recovery advocacy movement to present his words as the keynote to open up the first annual NIDA Consortium on Addiction Recovery Science (CoARS) conference. The paper was titled Frontiers of Recovery Research. It is one of his most important writings. It should serve as a blueprint for the future of recovery research in America. One of the challenges we have suffered for at least the last six decades is a deficit focus in respect to addiction treatment and recovery research instead of a recovery orientation. His paper properly orients future research efforts on long term recovery and resiliency. To that end, I have decided to do interviews with key thought leaders on recovery research across the 12 domains that Bill White delineated in his 2024 paper. One of the first people I thought to interview was Mark Sanders. He has taught me a great deal about recovery, particularly in respect to recovery in African American communities.
Who is Mark Sanders?
The first time I had heard about Mark Sanders was when, as the executive director of PRO-A, the statewide RCO of PA, I was preparing for Black History month in 2013. I wanted to highlight the history of recovery within African American communities in our quarterly recovery newsletter. I quickly found his Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery. It is easily the most comprehensive history of African American recovery and the contributions of African Americans to recovery efforts ever compiled. It is an invaluable resource for scholars and practitioners and without Mark Sanders, much of this history would be lost forever. He has contributed so very much to what we know in ways that will benefit us for generations to come.
Mark Sanders is a licensed clinical social worker and a person in long term recovery for the last 43 years. He lives in Chicago and as an international speaker, trainer, and consultant he has reach thousands of people across the United States, Europe, Canada, Caribbean, and British Islands. He co-founded the Serenity Academy of Chicago, the first recovery high school in Illinois and was the past president of the board of the Illinois Chapter of NAADAC. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Illinois State University, Illinois School of Professional Psychology, and Loyola University of Chicago, School of Social Work.
As a writer, he has authored several books including Slipping through the Cracks: Intervention Strategies for Clients Multiple Addictions and Disorders (2011) and Substance Use Disorders in African American Communities: Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery (2013) and has had stories published in the New York Times bestselling book series Chicken Soup for the Soul. He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Illinois Addiction Counselor Certification Board and the Barbara Bacon Award for outstanding contributions to the Social Work profession as a Loyola University of Chicago Alumni. In 2021 he was honored by the Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois, Frank Anselmo Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mark, what are your thoughts on the opportunities to expand recovery research in respect to pathways and styles of recovery across diverse communities?
Let’s start with some basics. It matters a great deal what questions we ask, and also how those questions are developed. When doing research in diverse communities, if we ask the wrong questions the findings may be irrelevant. To assure relevance it might be helpful whenever possible to include researchers or research assistants indigenous to the community involved in formulating research questions, interviewing participants, interpreting research results and recommending clinical approaches based in the findings.
There is a basic assumption that clinical models not developed within communities of color are automatically ineffective with members of diverse communities. At a seminar on culturally responsive therapy, Dr. Carl Bell, the prodigious author and American professor of psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was asked if the work of Sigmond Freud on psychoanalysis was culturally relevant to African American communities. Dr Bell reflected on the question and responded by saying, “In the hands of a culturally responsive therapist, any model has the potential to be culturally responsive. Especially when integrated with the needs of the cultural group in mind. I am also reminded of when a young Gladys Knight first performed in Las Vegas, and she met with the legendary Sammy Davis Jr and asked him how she should sing the songs she was set to perform. He told her she would be magnificent, and to make every song she sang her own, to sing those songs in her own way.
This is a vital concept in consideration of how we apply or consider any interventional or evidence-based treatment in African American communities, in Latino / Hispanic Communities or in First Nation or Native American Communities. It gets to the heart of that paper and keynote speech that he asked you to present at the opening of the NIDA Consortium on Addiction Recovery Science conference last year, Frontiers of Recovery Research which emphasizes coproduction and authentic collaboration with the community. If heeded by our field, it would positively shape research on addiction recovery over the course of the next generation and beyond it to successive generations to come. We should do so. Bill White calls for coproduction of research and interventional strategies with the recovery community across those 12 domains of the Definition & Measurement of Recovery, the Neurobiology of Long-Term Recovery, Incidents and Prevalence of Recovery, Resolution and Recovery Across the Severity Spectrum, Pathways and Styles of Recovery Across Diverse Geographical / Cultural / Religious Contexts and Clinical Subpopulations, Recovery Across the Lifecycle, Stages of Recovery, Social Transmission of Recovery, Family Recovery, Recovery Management & Recovery Oriented Systems of Care, New Recovery Support Institutions, Service Roles and Recovery Cultural Production and Flourishing / Thriving in Recovery. This paper is a blueprint for how we should proceed moving forward. The coproduction facet is vital, and just as Dr Bell noted about Dr Freud’s work and what Sammy Davis Jr said to Gladys Knight years ago in Las Vegas, to be effective efforts require us to expand the coproduction and representation of our communities in a myriad of ways across all of our diverse communities.
There are several evidence-based practices which can be utilized in culturally responsive manners. One such approach is Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT) pioneered by Scott Miller. Miller and his colleagues. They created a session rating scale, a tool used to receive immediate feedback from clients at the end of each session. These studies reveal that incorporating client feedback increases retention and outcomes. It can be adapted to include questions centered around cultural feedback from clients, such as:
Does your family or culture have a perspective on heavy substance use or addiction?
From your cultural perspective, how is addiction defined?
From your cultural perspective how are individuals with addiction viewed?
From your family or cultural perspective what causes addiction?
From your cultural perspective, how is addiction addressed?
Does your family or members of your cultural group have a perspective on counseling?
In our session today, what worked?
What didn’t work?
If we continued to work together what are some things you would like to occur in future sessions in order to feel the meetings are worthwhile?
What would make you feel more comfortable when discussing difficult subjects?
Who do members of your family or cultural group turn to during difficult times?
Should these individuals be included in future sessions?
From your cultural perspective, are drug related problems considered individual, family or community problems?
Based upon your perspective of family, who should be invited to future sessions?
Is there a role for religion or cultural practices in addressing drug use challenges?
Is there anything else about your culture that is important for me to know in order to be most helpful?
I have asked you many questions, do you have any questions to ask me?
The above questions illustrate that it is possible to incorporate cultural feedback from clients in SUD counseling. I am reminded of a psychiatrist working with an African American client who was experiencing schizophrenia and alcoholism. He asked some of the questions above and learned that in the client’s faith-based community, there was a belief that the causation of addiction and mental illness was demon spirits, and the resolution involved prayer with the laying on of hands. Empathy was established and rapport created as the psychiatrist and client listened to and received feedback from each other. Ultimately the treatment plan included medication, counseling, case management and participation in Alcoholics Anonymous along with client church attendance where he received prayer and the laying on of hands. The lesson here is that if we want evidence-based approaches to work, it can be helpful to receive and incorporate culturally responsive feedback into the approach.
Another evidence-based practice that lends itself to cultural responsiveness is Motivational Interviewing. It can be utilized in ways that are effective in working with African American communities, Latino / Hispanic Communities, First Nation or Native American Communities and beyond. Motivational interview calls for counselors to stay with clients where they are at. The approach allows the client to lead as the counselor walks along side of the client in the change process and when resistance occurs the client is likely to be told by the clinician, “it’s up to you.” This client centered approach can be empowering for clients of color who have often experienced generational systemic oppression and racism where their voice and will were taken away. Heavy handed strategies and strategies which make the counselor the expert on the clients life will often be met with much resistance. One must stay inquisitive and open to possibilities and to explore doors of healing collaboratively and from the client’s perspective. There is a book, Motivational Interviewing for African Americans A Culturally Responsive Guide for Practitioners that can be really helpful in considering how to use motivational interviewing in the spirit of what Sammy Davis Jr told Gladys Knight years ago. The key is to utilize the practice in a way that it is relevant and resonates with members of these communities. When clinicians are culturally responsive, they make the approach their own in order to meet the needs of clients. Future research should focus on the outcomes of integrating culturally responsive evidence-based practices. Click here to continue reading.