08/11/2026
This post is copied from the Thrive! Family Addiction Support informed by CRAFT and Invitation to Change group, written by Pam Lanhart. This is a good read and worth the time.
If you want to talk about family recovery coaching, interventions, or anything related to these topics, feel free to reach out to me (Jill Wallace) any time. I am certified in addiction recovery coaching, family recovery coaching, and Invitation to Change, and trained in CRAFT (Community Reinforcement and Family Training). I’m a person with lived experience. I’m here for you.
From Pam Lanhart at Thrive:
The question about intervention comes up a lot here. Is it worth the money? Who do you contact? What could you expect? So this post will be long but with some good information.
If you have ever watched the show Intervention, what you have watched is a process called Johnson Interventions. It is “old school” and is essentially what you see. The interventionist meets with the family several times before the intervention and then the person of concern is essentially ambushed. The process uses letters, leverage and “bottom line boundaries” that can be very harsh and cruel. It also doesn’t allow the individual to have any agency in whether they go to treatment or where they go. It is not invitatioinal. It backs the person up against the wall.
Does it work? About 25% of the time. Could it be traumatic for the individual, absolutely yes. Who would it work for? This intervention would be best for someone that is using m**h, very very ill (aka dying on the streets) and it is a Hail Mary. The costs of these averages about 4-6K plus travel expenses.
The issue I have with this type of intervention is that once ther person is in treatment, there is no support for the family, which leaves the family in the dark and often the family doesn’t get well themselves.
The second type of intervention is called The Arise Method and it aligns with our work here. It is an invitational process that is very gentle and involves taking the focus off of the individual with the substance use and puts it on the entire family system. The intervention is essentiallly a family workshop that uses genograms to diagram the entire family, show the historical trauma, substance use, mental illness and physical illness, and exposes patterns in the family.
There are a few distinct things about this type of intervention that make it one I can support. First, the entire family is included and the interventionist doesn’t work for just one family member. They are supporting the entire family system. Two, everyone is invited ahead of time including the person of concern. That may lead you to believe they wouldn’t come but they do in 99% of cases because the family meets whether they are there or not and they don’t want anyone meeting about them without them. However, with this intervention it’s not “we are going to pluck you out and get you better.” It is “we are going to work with the whole family system to change the patterns and dynamics of both the individual and the family system so that everyone can begin to create a healthy and recovery-focused family system. Third, the interventionist not only does case management for the person in treatment but acts as a liaison between the treatment center and the family. And fourth, they work with the family for a minimum of 6 months.
This type of intervention is much more expenses but far less expenses than a funeral or 20 treatment programs. Generally a 6 month contract is between 10K and 20K but worth every penny in my opinion.
For those of you who don’t understand CRAFT it IS an intervention. A very subtle, invisible intervention. But the success of using the CRAFT approach with fidelity, leads to about 65% of individuals choosing treatment within the first year. I say with fidelity, because most people choose CRAFT because it’s loving and compassionate but then fail to set boundaries or allow for natural consequences so it “doesn’t work” for them. Totally an individual choice but if someone chooses to use only part of the program, and not the whole program, the expectation needs to be different.
Finally I want to address this notion that someone has to “want” treatment. No one wants treatment. I mean virtually no one. Rarely is someone “ready’ to give up drugs. But as a friend of mine once said, “you can lead a horse to water, and you can’t make them drink, but you can make them darn thirsty.” We can create an environment that makes substance use VERY VERY uncomfortable. And as my son used to say “all it takes is one foot in the door.” I have seen people seemingly VERY willing, saying all the right things, that go into treatment for 30 days, get out and use the same day and I have seen people on civil commitments and “forced” diversion programs like treatment court get well forever and ever. One of my dear therapists friends said “you just never know when they walk in, who is going to make it and who isn’t.” But I can assure you that any time that can be spent getting the cobwebs out of their brain, is time worth spending.
I know some of you are going to ask “who can afford these type of interventions?” Well, I coudn’t. And I know many of you can’t. But not everyone and if you can afford it, I always support an Arise Interventionist or Family Recovery Coach working with the entire family system. But beware, many “coaches” are deeply rooted in tough love, shaming the parents and the 12 steps (which often perpetuates the dehumanization of a loved one). So please vet them well. I do have trusted resources in both types of interventions.
For the majority of us, we can’t do that, which is why CRAFT is so amazing. Because it takes zero dollars (well maybe the cost of a couple of books or workbooks) to learn and use the process. It is taught in all of our groups. And also laid out beautifully in the book Get Your Loved One sober. We The Village also does trainings on CRAFT quarterly, I believe.
I absolutely hate the term “they have to want it.” Ambivilance is real and again, no one is super excited to give up the one thing they love the most. But part of the process is allowing uncomfortability in their lives, which assists in moving the dial on change.
Hope this helps with some of you that have these questions.
Much love,
Pam
