International Facilitator Spotlight August 2024

Jan Frederiksen Psychotherapist-SMART Recovery Denmark

Thank you, Jan, for taking the time to teach us about yourself!

Introducing Jan Frederiksen! Denmark’s SMART Recovery One-Man Army.

·      When and how did you hear about SMART? 

I first learned about SMART Recovery in 2010 from my collegue, Psychologist Bendt Skjold Hansen who I worked together with in a Recovery house under the municipal treatmentcenter in Copenhagen. Bendt had been considering reaching out to SMART Recovery US and bringing the SMART program to Denmark. He was very passionate about it and was looking for a facilitator team to help him in the process of starting SMART meetings in Denmark.

·      What made you decide to start facilitating a SMART meeting? 

I was a very impressed with the 4-point program and loved how it focused on solutions and nurtured self-management while creating a healthy way of thinking leading to a balanced life. I was impressed with the whole package Joe Gerstein; Tom Horvath and the whole SMART organization had put together in this beautiful self-empowering program. I was fond of CBT and as a psychotherapist I was especially fascinated to learn that REBT by Albert Ellis was a part of the program.

I agreed with Bendt that SMART was what we needed in Denmark as a way of offering a scientific based alternative to the other self-management programs in Denmark. I also wanted to learn how to facilitate meetings with the focus on the individuals’ process rather than the usual counseling and psychoeducation in a more authoritarian role. The combination of CBT, REBT, MI and the toolbox combined with the Stages of changes and SMART’s very laid-back approach was very interesting to me, and I wanted to be able to deliver this to people who wanted to change their lives in a positive balanced way. Bendt, a couple of others and I signed up for the facilitator training and met at 4:00 AM in an office for the duration of the facilitator course and soon after we opened the first SMART meeting in Denmark and began an exciting journey of expanding SMART Recovery to the north.

·      Why do you think there's a need for SMART in your area of the world? 

The Danish culture has its roots in the Vikings and unfortunately that attitude has lasted. at least in the sense of intoxication as a traditional practice. I think many a Dane has this identity in some extension or has confronted with this behavior at least in some form throughout their life. We have a very unfortunate alcohol culture in Denmark and not seldom do children learn how to drink from their parents in their own home. It’s not rare to hear the phrase” They might as well learn about alcohol and how to drink, in their home in a safe environment and surrounded by their family” which is such an unfortunate attitude with serious negative implications. In Denmark, the youth has record high abuse of alcohol and unfortunately also rank very high on cannabis, cocaine and other party drugs.

·      What is the biggest challenge for people wanting to recover from addictions in your nation? 

As mentioned earlier we have an extensive cultural history of intoxication and the whole “Viking” identity doesn’t exactly help. Furthermore, and this I think is a global problem of vital importance, stress, uncertainty, anxiety, loneliness and isolation are major contributors in poor wellbeing and distress which again coupled with poor management skills easily leads to self-medication and escapism of all sorts.