Sharon wegscheider-cruse biography

Before the 1980s, family members interacting with addiction professionals were more likely to be viewed as contributors to addiction or hostile interlopers in the treatment process than people in need of recovery support services.

That began to change when a vanguard of advocates challenged such attitudes and focused attention on the effects of addiction on families and the family recovery process. Those pioneers included people whose interviews have appeared earlier in this Pioneer Interview series, including Dr.

Claudia Black, Dr. Stephanie Brown, Dr. Robert Meyers, Jerry Moe, and Sis Wenger. One of the most important of these pioneers is Sharon Wegscheider-Cruse, MA, whose landmark books in the 1980s exerted a profound influence on the addiction treatment field and the broader arena of recovery support services for families.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Sharon about her life’s work and th