Transcending and Redeeming Life

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Illustration by Victoria Borges

Early on Jan. 17, 1991, President George H.W. Bush authorized a massive U.S.-led air offensive against Iraqi forces who had invaded Kuwait, thus beginning Operation Desert Storm. Joseph Newman was 25 and serving as an air controller in the U.S. Navy during that 42-day offensive in the Persian Gulf.

“Desert Storm and Desert Shield … those were stressful times,” says the now 53-year-old Newman. Having served in the military since 1985, he says the 1991 Gulf War fueled his dependency on alcohol as a means to cope with work-related stress.

“I had stress, depression and anxiety. Alcohol was my drug of choice,” Newman recalls, “but it seemed like everyone that was around me — peers and people in leadership positions — leaned on alcohol heavy also.”

After leaving the Navy in 1992, Newman worked as a pipefitter. Though he performed well, he turned to alcohol when he encountered failures or difficulties. “I had been a success at work, but I never knew no other way of life other than to drink,” he says. “It starts out when you drink a couple drinks here and there. Then after years, it progresses. It got so bad I drank around the clock — 24 hours a day.”

Newman battled alcoholism over the next decade and a half, the lone bright spot being the birth of his son, who is now 15. Off and on for the past seven years, Newman has lived on the streets of Richmond. In addition to alcohol costing him employment and housing, Newman also lost the closeness he once enjoyed with his son, and that’s when he contemplated suicide.

“I gave up a lot of stuff in life by using alcohol,” Newman says. “I guess I was at my rock bottom. I could either get help or I was at the end of my rope, so I got help.”

In January 2019, Newman entered Transcending Self Therapy — Integrative Cognitive Behavioral Treatment. The 28-day inpatient program at the McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond is aimed at eliminating substance abuse in veterans.

A Different Kind of Therapy

In traditional cognitive behavioral therapy, the theory is if someone changes thoughts and behaviors, they can change their feelings and then, therefore, get better. While the traditional approach has a track record of success, clinical psychologist Dr. Jarrod Reisweber, a founder of the Transcending program, says he felt like it was missing something — a moral gauge.

Dr. Jarrod Reisweber, Transcending Self Therapy founder (Photo by Mary Beatty courtesy Richmond VA Medical Center)

“Cognitive behavioral therapy is the emphasis on the thinking and behavior patterns to help the patient alter them so that they feel better,” he says. “Transcending Self therapy integrates cognitive behavioral therapy with the idea that people are more likely to recover if they identify their morals and live in line with them. The unique piece is our focus on, ‘Hey, what are your morals? Who is that best version of yourself?’ And then what do you need to do to start living in accordance with those morals to be that best version of yourself?”

It’s the spiritual element and anchoring that to a person’s desired self-image that makes Transcending Self therapy different, and possibly more successful than therapy as usual.

In April 2019, Reisweber, along with Kathryn Polak, a clinical psychology doctoral candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University; Thomas Burroughs, a research fellow at McGuire; and psychiatrist Dr. James Bjork of McGuire and VCU, had the results of their pilot study of Transcending Self therapy published in Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy.

Reisweber notes that, “compared to treatment as usual patients, Transcending Self therapy participants were twice as likely to complete treatment, twice as likely to be abstinent in the final week of treatment and have significant reductions in depression. Further, there was a trend where they were less likely to need additional treatment. This is better for both the patient and for the health care system, because they're not needing to provide additional treatment.”

When patients enter the program, the clinical team focuses on gathering information regarding each patient’s substance abuse problem. “What are you struggling with? And what are your main goals that are in line with your morals? What do you want to do?” The goal is to anchor each patient to meaningful life goals.

“It's not just, 'I want a fancy car and a big house,' ” Reisweber says. “Because then I'll say, ‘Is that in line with your morals?’ Or someone may say, ‘I have a semester left to get my teaching degree.’ and I’ll say, ‘How does that sit with your morals?’ And they'd be like, ‘It does.’ OK, good. Now that's a goal.”

And that’s the heart of the treatment program and what makes it successful. It puts the focus of recovery where it belongs — on the patient. Patients are accountable to themselves rather than to a clinician or to family members. Their recovery is for them. They create the standard in which they strive to live, and the program coordinators guide them toward successfully obtaining it by reminding the patients to maintain the standards they set.

“Our idea is that when they come to us in rehab, we want them to know what their goals are and make sure they are in line with their morals,” Reisweber says. “We're saying to them, ‘What are you going to do when you get out of here?’ and, ‘You want to find something that can positively contribute to the world.’ So doing something that can better humanity is better for the patient.”

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Veteran Joseph Newman, a Transcending Self therapy participant, now works as a clerk in the retail store located on the Richmond VA Medical Center campus. (Photo by Megan Kon courtesy Richmond VA Medical Center)

When You Know Better, You Do Better

The late poet and author Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” For Newman, knowing better meant facing his demons through the therapeutic process. During Transcending Self therapy, Newman had to examine his life, look at his choices, and address his addiction to alcohol, taking responsibility for all of it.

“You've got to be real honest with yourself,” Newman says. “I mean, if you ain't got honesty — if you can't accept the things that you've done, or if you try to hide what you've done — you can't get better. It teaches you that.”

The inward reflection was a change for Newman. He had to understand his triggers, his thoughts, his behaviors and how they correlated with his alcohol abuse.

“It took me from my childhood to the present and made me examine my whole life,” he says. “I learned how to accept the things that I've done in the past.”

“If you ain't got honesty — if you can't accept the things that you've done, or if you try to hide what you've done — you can't get better. [Transcending Self therapy] teaches you that.” —Joseph Newman, Operation Desert Storm veteran

Newman is sober, and through help from Veteran Assistance Safe Housing, he has a place to live. Best of all, he has regained custody of his son.

“I came here with nothing,” he says. “Now I've also got a job here at the hospital for the Veteran Canteen Services. I'm actively participating in acceptance therapy through the hospital, and I've got counselors. I got my son back in my life, and he lives with me now permanently. I believe I'm in good shape to continue to be successful. I owe all the credit to Dr. Reisweber and them.”

For Reisweber, the success at McGuire is the beginning of a wider offensive to combat addiction. The Transcending Self therapy program is being piloted in other VA hospitals, with a goal of it being offered nationwide.

“I would like to see it be used as much as it can to help people recover,” he says. “I know addiction in my family, and friends who suffer from it, and the opioid epidemic is out of control. And I think Transcending Self therapy stands well poised to be an effective talk therapy treatment, as part of our efforts as medical professionals to fight the opioid epidemic, to fight substance abuse, to help people recover.”

He estimates the program has served nearly 200 veterans. The VA has supported the efforts of Reisweber and his team, providing funding to spread the program throughout the VA. Virginia Commonwealth University has also supported the program.

“I couldn't be happier for the two places I'm associated with,” Reisweber says. “They've been very happy. And right now, the plan is to continue to refine it, to continue to research it, and to continue to spread it, so that it gets out there, and it gets better.”