How to Make an Intervention Work

Remember, an intervention only ever has one goal: to encourage an addict to enroll himself in a rehabilitation program. With that in mind, the most successful interventions are those which are conducted in a spirit of love and support; addicts need all the empathy they can get, and a successful intervention is necessarily one suffused with compassion and concern. To make drug recovery real, you’ve got to show an addict that you care about him, and that you want him to get better. Short of that, your intervention efforts won’t be anything but wasted.

Pioneered by intervention specialist Ed Storti, the Storti model emphasizes the paramount importance of love and support in the intervention process. The premise is a simple one: Addicts need inspiration from an intervention, nothing more and nothing less. An intervention succeeds when it instills dignity, trust, and motivation in the intervennee; that addict who benefits most from an intervention is the one who receives compassion and warmth from every individual involved in it.

It should perhaps go without saying, then, that the purpose of an intervention is very definitely not to shame an addict, or hold him accountable for the damage wrought by his drug habit. Yes, if you’re conducting an intervention you’re bound to be able to cite a whole litany of transgressions committed by the addict you care about…but transgressions aren’t the point, not when your only goal is to convince an addict that he needs to get help. If an intervention’s going to work, in other words, you’ve got to be able to put your empathy ahead of your ire.

And, again, it’s not easy. An intervention will test the resolve of everyone involved, and only those intervention processes undertaken by stalwart and steel-willed individuals can be expected to effect lasting recovery. The Storti model calls for fomenting a “positive crisis” in the course of an intervention: an edifying but emotionally-charged event that precipitates real growth for the individuals involved. If you can do that much, you’re well on your way to where you want to go.

This Article was taken from Sunset Malibu Luxury Addiction Treatment Center