VCU professor’s research on recovery and relapse makes an impact in court

By Sian Wilkerson

As an assistant federal public defender in Washington state, Lindsay McCaslin has seen it time and again with clients who struggle with addiction and substance abuse: When they get lonely, they’re more likely to relapse.

Now, with help from Virginia Commonwealth University’s Daniel Gutierrez and his team, McCaslin is using the science of recovery to impact their lives.

In 2024, public defenders in her office, which covers the Western District of Washington, discovered the work of Gutierrez, Ph.D. The VCU education professor is also a licensed professional counselor, and his research focuses on the role of hope, meaning and spirituality in the process of healing and transformation.

After using his research to successfully advocate for a client in court, McCaslin’s office reached out to thank him – and ask for more.

Gutierrez, a professor in the Department of Counseling and Special Education in VCU’s School of Education, delivered, developing a partnership that has made an impact in the courtroom.

“Dr. Gutierrez’s research focuses on why it is so important to keep a thriving person within the community that is bolstering them,” McCaslin said. “For clients who are truly thriving in recovery, I’ve found that judges have been receptive to Dr. Gutierrez’s research” – including one judge who even quoted Gutierrez’s work during a sentencing hearing to explain the court’s decision to not impose prison time.

Years ago, Gutierrez and his team set out to determine what it takes to sustain long-term recovery.

“There’s a lot about ‘people, places and things’” – referring to the common triggers, or problematic cues, that lead to potential relapse – in early recovery, Gutierrez said. But for those later in recovery, “there were much stronger predictors that mattered” – including subjective well-being, loneliness and efficacy.

In 2022, he and his research colleagues published a study in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. Among the findings were that factors of thriving are stronger predictors of relapse than time spent in recovery: Anything from the context of a person’s life, their sense of having a path forward and their feeling a sense of belonging all play a huge role in long-term recovery.

In her work as a public defender – which includes five years as a state public defender in Suffolk, and seven years as a federal public defender in Norfolk – McCaslin has seen the same patterns.

“A client gets sober and removes themselves from negative influences, which is really important, but when they don’t replace it with anything, they eventually reunite with old friends and relapse,” she said. “Even though the criminal system deals with addiction on a daily basis, there is a lot we don’t understand about recovery, which is where Dr. Gutierrez’s work comes in. His research explains the data and science behind recovery, and critically, he distinguishes between being sober and ‘thriving’ in recovery.”

For Gutierrez, his ongoing partnership with the public defender office is a welcome sign that scientific inquiry and research are making a difference in people’s lives. He joined VCU in 2022 and is a leading voice in community mental health and existential positive psychology. At VCU, he directs the STAR Labs – focusing on Socially Transformative Applied Research – in the School of Education.

In addition to sharing his studies and manuscripts, Gutierrez has made presentations to McCaslin’s office, and he plans to conduct similar webinars in the future. He hopes to continue the partnership and eventually expand it, bringing it both closer to home in Richmond and extending it beyond.

“Much of the time, you put stuff out there and you just don’t know who’s reading it, or if anybody’s reading it, and you’re wondering, ‘What does it matter?’” Gutierrez said. “I’ve never done the work for any kind of accolades or awards – I just have questions and someone needs to answer them, so I might as well answer them. But … there’s at least one individual who will live a more flourishing life now because some students and I got together and wrote these articles.”