The Spiritual Self-Schema (3-S+) development program for people with HIV/AIDS who are in treatment for addiction

The purpose of 3-S therapy is to teach clients a set of skills for living a spiritual life that will not only be useful to them in their recovery, but will also help to reduce the spread of HIV. These skills are taught in both didactic and experiential segments. Please keep in mind that the skills training approach used in 3-S is not conducive to an in-depth exploration of past and present psychological issues, and so is not a good match for individuals exclusively seeking psychodynamic psychotherapy. 3-S therapy is intended specifically for clients of all faiths who are motivated to learn new ways of integrating spirituality into a program of recovery. It is not suitable for clients with psychotic or dissociative disorders, or other serious psychiatric illnesses.

The primary goal of the therapy is to help clients elaborate, strengthen, and habitually activate a cognitive schema -- the Spiritual self-schema -- that is compatible with drug abstinence, HIV preventive behavior, and adherence to medical regimens.

Several versions of 3-S therapy will be available. The current version specifically targets people with HIV/AIDS who are in treatment for addiction. Users of heroin and cocaine were the focus in the development of this manual, due to the prevalence of HIV and other infectious diseases in this patient population; however, the manual is readily adapted for use with any addicted population with HIV/AIDS.

The 3-S+ Individual Therapy Counselor's Manual can be downloaded in its entirety as Adobe pdf files (see below). Note: separate pdf files are provided for each individual session in order to reduce file size; however, they may still take several minutes to download when using a modem.