Empowering Your Sober Self -- the Class

As I noted here earlier, Prof. Arthur McCullough in Belfast announced a class on Empowering People Against Addictions at Queens University's Open Learning Centre. Now Prof. McCullough kindly sent me an email with a short report on how the session went:

Dear Martin,

The course Empowering People Against Addictions - 5 weekly two-hour sessions at Queen’s University Belfast Open Learning Centre – was completed last night. Its main inspiration is its recommended text Empowering Your Sober Self.  ...

As described in the Open Learning Programme, for Spring  2010: OLE1097 -  “This course is about how and why people get into addictions, and about how to get out of them. It covers major areas of addiction such as alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex; and related ones, such as isolation, suicide, physical and mental illness. Discussions involve perspectives in science, culture and society, and will focus on the recovery model.

There were 16 students mostly community, care and social work professionals or semi-professionals. About a quarter had had addictions. It’s been an exciting and interesting course, with LifeRing a point of departure all along. Two of the students say they are interested in a LifeRing in Belfast, and are in touch with Dennis Stefan (Dublin), who is interested and very willing to help. I think it could be very valuable here.  Every member of the course thinks so. ...

I thank Prof. McCullough, who appends this short bio:

Arthur McCullough was a Researcher in Organizational Studies at the University of Bradford, and Bradford Management Centre. He was Senior Lecturer at the University of Ulster, and later Head of its Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology. He is currently an Open Learning Tutor at Queen’s University Belfast providing courses on World Cinema, Tribal Art, Irish Art, Sacred Places Objects and Art in the Province of Ulster, and Empowering People against Addictions.

Needless perhaps to add, I hope that other educators find a place for Empowering Your Sober Self in their addiction-related classes.