Clinical Interventionist Training Curriculum

As a foundation for the clinical intervention training and all subsequent advanced trainings, students will explore the complexities of intervention in holistic terms. We will differentiate between intervention as an event and intervention as a process. Intervention as a process occurs before treatment, during treatment, and after treatment. Participants will become skilled in training intervention teams to think differently about intervention, preparing them to take an active role in ongoing recovery. Participants will write intervention team commitment letters.

The primary objective is proficiency in assessing appropriateness of intervention as the next step for a family. Proceeding with intervention should occur once the clinical interventionist assesses the situation and is reasonably assured that the subject of the intervention is suffering from an addiction or other disorder appropriate for intervention. The interventionist must determine the following: Is there is an intermediate step the family should take before intervening? Will facilitating an intervention create a worse situation for the family? Does the family have the resources for treatment or can they access services appropriate for the addicted person’s needs? Is the interventionist certain he or she has the skill-set required to handle the issues the case presents? We discuss differences between a private practice model and a business model, and choosing a model that always puts the welfare of the client first. Participants learn ethical practices and proper professional appearance and decorum.

Participants become skilled in negotiation techniques, using spiritual negotiation based upon empathetic family relationships and a pledge to act with virtue and dignity. We discuss how addiction erodes the integrity of families, friends and colleagues. We examine how intervention restores a family’s integrity. Integrity is defined as taking action according to our principles and commitments. Participants learn to help families self-identify the ways their integrity diminished as enabling progressed. We look at the ways families and friends become dishonest with alcoholics: breaking promises and teaching alcoholics not to trust them. We explore using exercises of self-discovery to help family members identify enabling behaviors and how enabling is used for self-protection. We discuss how these exercises help reduce anger, increase empathy, and solidify the intervention team’s commitment.

Participants problem solve the reasons alcoholics and addicts refuse treatment and how to effectively negotiate when faced with the adversarial negotiation style of alcoholics. We explore the types of negotiation styles families typically use and why they almost never work. Participants role play the identified negotiation styles and are trained to transform intervention team members into powerful, effective negotiators called ambassadors.

Advances in science provide compelling evidence on how addicted brains are changed. Participants learn how the anatomy and function of the addicted brain differs from non-addicted brains. We study the latest research and how to use this information to educate family members: help them overcome myths and misinformation, facilitate a greater understanding of why alcoholics and addicts behave the way they do, and explore why intervention and appropriate levels of support are crucial for successful recovery.

Participants learn how relationships with alcoholics change the non-addicted person’s brain. We examine learned helplessness, free-floating anxiety, and anger. We discuss how these traits sabotage the intervention process. We take a special look at the brains of children of alcoholics. We teach how to present this information to families in a supportive manner, which will help motivate them to participate in their own recovery process (12-step programs for families and friends). Students learn to negotiate with potential team members who resist involvement or are hostile to the process.

Common myths and misinformation are often stated as fact by some professionals and members of the general public. Participants are asked to challenge their own belief systems. We focus on dismantling action-stopping myths. Participants learn to engage members of intervention teams in the same process. Participants closely examine their communication styles and the unintended messages they send. Participants practice critical thinking skills and identify new ways of communicating.

The interventionist must be skilled in building intervention teams. Guidance is required on several levels: knowing how to create the right mix of relationships; identifying people by the leverage or influence they bring to the intervention; knowing when someone should not be part of the team; what to do when someone who is not ideal as a team member has a key relationship with the alcoholic; bringing reluctant participants onboard; when and how to involve children; how to include people who cannot be present; including people who cannot speak for themselves; overcoming team disharmony; building team commitment; and intervening when there is no team.

Intervention is probably the only time a professional therapist will meet with most – or all – of the significant people in an alcoholic’s life. Family, friends, coworkers candidly sharing their firsthand experiences. This information can be used in multiple ways. First, it provides the interventionist with a clear picture of the problem. Second, students learn how an interventionist can open-up team members who are reluctant to share. Team assessment gives families an opportunity to see the whole picture, perhaps for the first time. This helps solidifies the resolve of team members, especially those questioning the value of intervention. Finally, by documenting the information in a usable form, we can present the treatment team with an intervention team assessment – information gathered from lengthy discussions with as many as 10 or 12 people in the alcoholic’s life. This is information the treatment team would probably not access in any other way. Field materials, developed by Love First Institute, will provide a format for delivering information to treatment centers.

Success is in the details. Thorough planning is essential. Last minute snafus give alcoholics reason to refuse treatment. Students brainstorm the practical details that must be completed before facilitating an intervention. We discuss choosing a member of the intervention team to serve as planner – the person who records all the details. An interventionist field manual, developed by Love First Institute, helps organize the interventionist by providing checklists and other guidance.

Participants learn to educate families about the disease of addiction and the process of recovery. Students practice active listening, communication skills, and refine their ability to promote fertile discussions that promote learning. Students test their own knowledge and ability to answer the myriad questions a family asks.

Participants will learn the 7-point format for writing intervention letters, as presented in the book Love First. Discussions will include what is and isn’t appropriate to include in letters; how to spot hidden anger, blame or resentment; editing letters in a respectful manner; how to write the problem section of a letter when you don’t have first hand experience with the addiction; how to write the love part of the letter if the relationship is badly eroded; coaching families on ways to read letters during the intervention, determining the order team members will read letters, and collecting letters and delivering them to the treatment center.

All participants will be required to write an intervention letter as a homework assignment, preferably to someone they have known personally. Participants will work with one another to help them review and edit their letters. All participants will share their letters with their breakout group, talk about the process of writing it and ask for feedback. Participants will make changes to their letters based on group suggestions. Each breakout group will select one letter to share with the entire group. As a group, we will discuss the experience of writing letters, whether it matched their prior expectations and how the process affected them. We also share letters from actual interventions.

Participants are taught to think of objections as escape routes created by the addiction. Breaking into groups, participants are given case studies and asked to brainstorm all possible objections. They will determine the best ways to address each objection. Participants develop strategies to prevent the alcoholic from forcing the team into a defensive position.

Participants problem solve how to negotiate with alcoholics who refuse treatment, but do not vocalize objections. We discuss silent objections – objections the alcoholic is thinking but not saying. Participants are required to identify negotiation strategies to use when alcoholics use stall tactics or aren’t interested in reasonable problem solving. Additionally, we address objections too big to overcome and when to postpone an intervention. Finally, participants explore the art of knowing when it’s time to end a negotiation and use the bottom lines. Participants will be asked to defend their decisions orally.

Bottom lines require answering 2 questions: How have I enabled the addiction in the past and am I ready to stop that behavior? How am I going to begin taking care of myself? Each participants writes a bottom line for someone they know, and then write a second bottom line using a sample case. Participants learn that bottom lines are not punishments, but an effective and loving way families communicate their decisions should the alcoholic refuse treatment.. Participants explore bottom lines as promises the family members are making to themselves as well as to the alcoholic.

Each participants is asked to test his or her bottom line by discussing willingness to follow through. If it’s determine he or she might not follow through, they rewrite their bottom line, selecting a bottom line they can honor. Participants learn to define bottom lines as sacred promises.

We explore writing bottom lines when someone doesn’t have leverage or first hand knowledge of the addiction. Each bottom line is a call to action designed to help the alcoholic clearly understand decisions made by each member of the team.

In breakout groups, participants read bottom lines and ask for feedback. They make changes based on group suggestions. We ask participants to share their experience of writing their bottom lines. What did they learn about themselves? We share bottom lines from actual interventions.

Participants learn to prepare all details required for a successful intervention rehearsal. Using letters, objection preparation and bottom lines, the breakout groups role-play the rehearsal. The planner goes over all details to be sure planning is complete. Participants learn the 4 segments of a rehearsal. Seating arrangements and letter order are determined, and students orally explain their rationale. Participants learn breathing exercises for reducing anxiety, bi-lateral calming techniques, and what to do if a letter reader is overwhelmed with emotion. We examine how to prepare intervention teams for unexpected events. After the rehearsal, students determine if any changes are necessary and discuss, as a group, the rehearsal experience.

This is a role-play experience. Each participants gets an opportunity to act as family member and as interventionist. Participants are given scripts as a guides. Scripts are written to mimic actual interventions, providing a sense of uncertainty and the unexpected. After role-playing, participants evaluate themselves and go through a peer review within their breakout groups. Each participants completes a self-evaluation form. Instructors offer feedback.