It’s Never Just About The Substance
Book Launching Sept 2
in honor of Recovery Awareness Month.
(We’ll email you as soon as it’s ready.)
For the ones who are living it, loving through it, or holding it in the therapy room.
This book meets you in the messy middle and helps you make sense of what’s really going on.
It’s not just about the substance. It never was.
Addiction isn’t the problem. It's self-preservation.
Behind every relapse, every outburst, every numbing escape is a nervous system trying to survive, and pain that never had a safe place to land.
This book is for the ones living it. For the ones loving someone through it. And for the clinicians trying to show up in the hard moments and still be effective.
With clarity, compassion, and zero pretense, trauma therapist Dr. Amanda Kern lays out what real healing takes, from the inside out. She meets readers in the thick of it: the chaos, the shame, the quiet moments of wondering if change is even possible.
If you’ve ever said, “Why can’t I stop?”
If you’ve ever whispered, “I don’t know how to keep loving them through this.”
If you’ve ever thought, “I’m holding so much, and I don’t know what to do with it.”
This book is for you.
The steps are simple. The process is hard. But there is a way through, and healing does happen.
Dr. Amanda Kern is a trauma and addictions therapist, clinical social worker, and educator. She works in private practice and teaches graduate and post graduate social work with a focus on trauma-responsive care and embodied healing.
Want more support as you read?
A companion course is coming in Spring/Summer 2026, filled with exclusive video lessons, guided worksheets, and real-world tools to go deeper into the work.
(We’ll email you as soon as it’s ready.)