We are officially immersed in the fall season (though, for many of us, it still feels like the sweltering days of summer), and that fills us with a renewed sense of purpose for the coming months. It’s as if our new school year has started, our pencils are sharpened and our shoes are shiny and new, and the possibilities are endless.

At RecoveryView.com, this season of new beginnings comes in the form of a new and improved RecoveryView.com. As many of you have noticed, we did not have summer issues. The reasons are many – including server overhauls and intensive planning sessions for our next phase – but we have several new services that will be unveiled as the months go on.

Part of this revitalization is a comprehensive directory for treatment centers around the country, aptly named treatmentcenters.net. We are also in the process of overhauling drug-treatment.com as well as increasing the services available through RecoveryView.com, including online CEUs, networking opportunities and conference information.

Speaking of conferences, we will be manning the RecoveryView.com booth at the Moment of Change conference next week in Palm Beach, Florida. Please stop by to say hello and to learn more about what lies in store for our company in the coming months – we’d love to see you!

Leading off our issue, as always, Dr. Tian Dayton explores the potentially all-encompassing role of grief in personal development, emotional stability and addiction. She provides useful markers of unresolved grief and how it manifests itself, as well as a practical tool for beginning to face the pain and learning to move forward.

Next, Dr. Mel Pohl, Medical Director at Las Vegas Recovery Center, delves further into the experience of pain and how it has, in many cases, led to debilitating addiction to pain medication. He lends us the wisdom he used to develop a comprehensive pain recovery program at LVRC.

Tom Gagliano reflects on the many messages children can receive from their primary caregivers, and how these messages continue to influence identity and behavior long after those children have become adults – including its impact on addictions.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) frequently shows up in addiction therapists’ toolbox of interventions, but Dr. Steve Davidson posits its principles might just be helpful for the rest of us, even outside the scope of addiction.

It’s probably no secret that addiction reaches people at all ages, but it’s perhaps most disturbing when looking at childhood addiction – and not just teenagers, but kids as young as eight years old. Michael Bonventre shares some real-life cases, along with his perspective on what parents and families can do to change this sad pattern.

Meredith Watkins returns with a look at nutrition and genes: two seemingly disconnected areas that, as it turns out, are inextricably bound together. In explaining the connection, we may realize that we are not destined to any disease – from cancer to alcoholism – thus, shining hope in a completely new area.

RecoveryView.com newcomer Kristina Diener deconstructs addiction and relapse, the factors that make the latter more likely, and a plan to live relapse-free once and for all.

Also new to RecoveryView.com, Danielle Beck-Ellsworth, examines the role fear plays in creating and sustaining addiction, as well as how to compassionately approach it, using techniques borrowed from the highly popular Eastern concept of mindfulness.

Finally, this month we highlight Las Vegas Recovery Center’s CEO, Brad Greenstein, and what he and his staff are doing to fight chronic pain and prescription-medication addiction. Their pioneering efforts in this field are turning traditional addiction treatment on its head, with its patients seeing remarkable recoveries and truly getting their life back – pain-free.

We are also very excited to bring you an exclusive RecoveryView.com Book Club Q&A with Tian Dayton regarding her newest book, The ACoA Trauma Syndrome – The Impact of Childhood Pain on Adult Relationships.

We hope you glean insight and valuable information from this new issue. We also welcome your feedback about anything and everything RecoveryView.com-related. So grab a pumpkin spice latte and get cozy with our October issue.