Practical Recovery to Celebrate 40th Anniversary January, 2025

By Tom Horvath, PhD

If you are a behavioral health professional and would like an invitation to this event in late January, please email Susie.Lee@practicalrecovery.com.

Practical Recovery Turning 40

In gratitude, we are preparing an event that will be both party and networking event. Over the years we have established many relationships in the behavioral healthcare community, but some of our connections may not have met each other. You can also meet our current staff.

I am deeply indebted to the many talented and dedicated professionals who have contributed over these 40 years to the development and success of Practical Recovery and SMART Recovery and more broadly to the dissemination of the self-empowering (science-informed, progress-oriented, and holistic) approach. We appreciate also the small informal network of providers and mutual help groups around the US who are advancing this work.

Although Practical Recovery’s work has been well recognized in professional psychology, the importance of the self-empowering approach has had slower recognition in the addiction treatment and recovery communities. It remains our goal to have the self-empowering approach available as an option to everyone seeking help for addictive problems.

Some highpoints and related events in Practical Recovery’s history:

1. 1985, January. After completing a CBT oriented training on treating addictive problems, Horvath opens New Horizons (later Pyrysys Psychology Group, finally Practical Recovery Psychology Group).
2. 1990 Horvath elected president of the San Diego Psychological Association.
3. 1991 Practical Recovery moves to offices in La Jolla (and continues in the same building).
4. 1994 SMART Recovery is established (after a gestation period of 5 years). Horvath is a co-founder.
5. 1995 Horvath elected president of SMART Recovery. He continues in that volunteer role for 20 of the next 21 years.
6. 1998 Sex, Drugs, Gambling, & Chocolate: A Workbook for Overcoming Addictions, by Horvath, published by Impact Publications. Later listed by the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) on their list of Self-Help Book Recommendations. A second edition is published 2004. The book remains available on Kindle.
7. 1999 Horvath elected president of the American Psychological Association’s Division on Addictions (Division 50), the world’s largest organization of addiction psychologists.
8. 2004 Practical Recovery’s signature service, the IIOP (Individualized Intensive Outpatient Program) is in full operation (and it continues currently). In some weeks there were 10 or more clients from out of town, participating in an intensive alternative to residential treatment.
9. 2005 Practical Recovery opens a sober living home.
10. 2011 Practical Recovery opens residential treatment (Reunion San Diego), and ultimately has two six-bed residential facilities and two six-bed sober homes. Total staff reaches 45.
11. 2014 SMART Recovery San Diego (SRSD) leases its own community center. SRSD has grown to having the greatest concentration of SMART meetings in the world (and this status continues currently).
12. 2016 Practical Recovery substantially downsizes and returns to providing outpatient treatment only.
13. 2016 Horvath elected a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.
14. 2018 SMART Recovery International (SRI) is formed. The US organization becomes a part of SRI.
15. 2018 Zemore, Lui, Mericle, Hemberg, & Kaskutas find that Women for Sobriety, LifeRing, SMART Recovery and 12-step groups are equally effective for individuals with alcohol use disorder. This large study (over 600 subjects) is consistent with earlier, smaller studies. Two additional large studies are currently in process, from this group (the Alcohol Research Group in California), and from Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital (John Kelly).
16. 2021 The chapter on “Addictions” in the two volume Handbook of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, published by the American Psychological Association is written by Horvath.
17. 2024 SRI holds its first international conference, in Lisbon, Portugal. SMART has meetings in over 30 countries and written materials in 16 languages.

Want to celebrate Practical Recovery turning 40 with us? If you’re a mental health professional and would like to join us for the celebrations, please reach out to Susie.Lee@practicalrecovery.com to request an invitation.