"Before you is the book you have been waiting for concerning opioid addiction. It is a "cut-to-the-chase," concise guide for counselors, psychologists, and other mental health professionals. For brevity, we will refer to all mental health professionals in this book as counselors. We believe it is important to note from the onset that the gold standard in helping individuals with opioid use disorders is medication-assisted treatments (MATs), which is the subject of Chapter 6. This does not mean that every client will need to start taking a MAT, but because opioids are the most addictive class of drugs that exist, many if not most opioid-addicted individuals will find that MAT is needed, at least early on in their recovery. Given that counselors are unqualified to administer medications, it will likely be necessary for counselors to work in consort with physicians and other medical personnel to provide appropriate care to individuals with OUDs. Interdisciplinary care is the norm for working with opioid-addicted individuals and not the exception. This book is intended for all counselors, regardless of specialization. Addictions and mental health issues often co-exist, so to work with one issue requires that you work with the other as well. All of us need to be aware of the devastating and global impact caused by opioids. This concise guide will also be a good read for those struggling with opioid use or addiction right now, and others who care about them. Although the crisis is huge, this book is small. Our hope is that it can be read in one or two evenings. We know that expectations on today's counselor is growing, and that the job is stressful. Silva's (2020) dissertation found that in her purposive sample of 331 experienced counselors (272 women, 56 men; 2 to 30 years of experience), many reported (a) having poor work-life balance, (b) paying insufficient attention to their personal lives, (c) experiencing diminished quality of relationships, (d) working in negative environments, and (f) feeling low levels of self-compassion"--
