If you've got an addicted loved one you've probably been told to go to alanon before
and you may have given serious thought and consideration to having an intervention yeah
like one of those interventions like on the TV show intervention but you may not have heard of
the craft method yes craft C R A F T that stands for Community Reinforcement and Family Training
the craft method is actually three times more effective than an intervention for
getting an addicted loved one into treatment which is why I want to explain to you why
it's so much more effective how it works and how you can get access to the craft
method training for those of you who are new here welcome to Put the shovel down
I'm Amber Holl and this YouTube channel is all about helping you understand the science
and psychology of addiction so you can get your family and your life back on track get back out
there and live the life that you want to live I want you to know you are not powerless you do
not have to hit rock bottom and there are many things you can do to help an addicted loved one
if you want to be back in control of your life subscribe to this channel and I'll
make sure you are always five steps ahead of addiction so let's take a look at the
most strategic most effective model at getting an addicted loved one to get help
unfortunately you just don't have that many options when you have an addicted loved one
yeah you've got AlAnon which is actually pretty helpful at teaching you how to take
care of yourself and get yourself off what I call the rollercoaster it's all
about helping you get your sanity back which is super important I'm a big fan
however it's not really that effective for getting your loved one to get better or to
go to treatment and your other option is to hire a really expensive interventionist
to come out to your house and train you and the rest of your family on how to confront
your addicted loved one and pretty much give them the ultimatum go to treatment or else
now one of the biggest problems with this type of intervention known as a Johnson
Model intervention that's like the kind you see the TV show is not only is it expensive
but after the entire family goes through this very expensive training only about
30% of families actually go through with the intervention process because it's so
confrontational so I feel like the Alanon approach is a little bit too passive and
the Johnson model approach is maybe a little bit too confrontive although
I do think there's a time and place for both of those for example if you have a
loved one who's in imminent danger of killing themselves or someone
else because of their substance use then I say go for the Johnson Model
Intervention because time just isn't on your side and you need to do what you can
but if you're really looking to get results not only for your loved one but for yourself then I
think craft model is the way to the reason that the craft model is three times more effective
is because it systematically trains you to do several different things first the craft
model wants to help you understand why your addicted loved one is doing what they're doing
the craft model also teaches you how to take care of yourself get back on track with your own life
and maintain healthy boundaries with your loved one and while all that's happening you're going to
learn how to systematically positively reinforce any small change in the direction even if it's
not a hundred percent if it's just a 2% change we want to positively reinforce that and we want
to withdraw that positive reinforcement when we see behaviors that are not in the right direction
I like to say it's an alternation between positive and neutral positive and neutral
it teaches you how to more clearly communicate with your loved one about all kinds of things
not just the addiction and it trains you how to step back from some of the enabling behaviors that
you may have been falling into that could be inadvertently slowing down the process
so basically you're taking care of yourself you're positively reinforcing their positive change and
you're not fixing the consequences that they're creating this is what's going to get your loved
one in a state of mind where they're ready to accept help and you're going to learn how to
identify when they're actually ready and how to have that conversation with them about
getting help or going to treatment without starting a lot of arguments
just to help you see the real sort of difference in the numbers here a Johnson model intervention
has a 30 something percent chance at getting a loved one into treatment and the craft method
has between 67 and 75% chance of getting your addicted loved one to accept help in
treatment that's a pretty big difference and on top of that is that when people go into
treatment and their family's been practicing the craft method They are way more likely to
engage in that treatment stay longer in that treatment and have a much better outcome
so not only is it the best method for getting your loved one to get help it's your best method
for getting that help to be effective so that your loved one has the best chances possible of
getting long-term recovery now I try really hard to make sure I always tell you the truth about a
so I am going to acknowledge that there are a couple of pitfalls to the craft method
the first pitfall is that it's not going to get you an overnight change
it's not like you're going to have one conversation with your loved one and
they're going to say oh my gosh while I've been doing this so long I really
need help will you drive me to treatment that's not the way this program works
it's a systematic change in the way you relate to your loved one which is
going to change how they relate to you and how they relate to their addiction
and by the time one year rolls around almost all of those families have an addicted loved
one who's gotten some kind of help and the other pitfall to the craft method is that
you are going to have to back up and let the consequences fall into place for the person
so for example if you're used to making sure they get out and get out of bed and
get to work you're going to have to stop doing that which might mean they might
lose their job they might drop a class they might get a legal charge and it's going to
be your job not to fix those things which is going to be a little painful to witness
and your loved one may it a little resentful towards you when those kind of things happen
but overall because you're nurturing their relationship and you're stepping back out of
the way your loved one will eventually figure out Hey this is on me I created
this mess the craft method is definitely your long-term game plan even if your loved one's
already in treatment if you get trained in the craft method your loved one is more likely to
maintain their recovery stay engaged in treatment and again have a better outcome
now some of you are thinking okay how do I get trained in the craft method
I'm actually going to give you a few ways I actually teach this method in
an online course that I created called The Invisible Intervention yeah because
it's like an intervention that happens behind the scenes that nobody even knows is happening
that's why it's the invisible intervention so I teach all the steps of the craft method
inside that program in addition to that I also teach you the counseling methodology
for helping a person come to terms with their addiction get out of denial and
ultimately get sober and that method is called motivational interviewing
it goes hand in hand with the craft method the philosophies
are the same not only are you going to be getting all the best family training
but you're actually going to be getting the counselor training which is really
going to help you navigate those difficult conversations and learn exactly what to say
when they say things like I don't want to change or this is just the way I am
or It's not really even hurting anybody all those things you've
heard before motivational interviewing shows you how to find your loved one's
core motivations and pull them forward versus trying to tell them why they need to change
because as you could imagine it's a lot better if it comes from them and inside the invisible
intervention we teach you how to understand all the different kinds of treatment including all
the different kinds of medications that are used in addiction recovery so that you can be making
decisions behind the scenes about what types of options might be best for your loved one
because if you do this right your loved one is going to say to you that they're
ready to change and they need to get some help and you need to be
prepared with some options for when that happens in fact I just got an email this
morning from somebody we've been working with I don't know maybe six weeks or so
now the subject line of this email said good news lots of change talk and change talk is
what we call when someone starts to verbalize to you that they're ready to make a change
so open up this email and inside the email the husband says Hey we had a rough night last night
but this morning my wife woke up and she looked at me right in the eyes and said You know what
I've got to make a change you're right this is a problem I really want to be a
better wife to you and I'm ready to make some changes now how many of you have been waiting
to hear that a lot of you I'm sure and some of you may have heard that before but you're
thinking yeah I've heard that before but then they don't take action on what they say which
is another reason why I want you to know exactly what to do when you get that moment