When you have tried everything

If you have been searching for a way to get someone you love into treatment, and nothing you have tried has worked, an intervention may be the right next step. Linda Kagey, LCDC, is a Love First Interventionist, and this post walks through how she approaches that work.

This is the second piece in a short series on interventions. The first, on choosing the right intervention specialist, covers the credentials and training questions to ask before you hire anyone. Read that first if you are still shopping.

Terms you will hear

A few words that come up often in an intervention:

  • Recovery Team. The people who will be part of the intervention. Family, close friends, sometimes coworkers. Linda will help you decide who belongs in the room.
  • Loved One. The person the intervention is for.
  • Treatment. The care recommendation that comes out of the clinical assessment. That can include detox, residential treatment, a Partial Hospitalization Program, an Intensive Outpatient Program, outpatient therapy, or some combination.

Building a pathway to yes

An intervention should not feel like a courtroom. Linda's approach is not one meeting and a handoff. She works with the Recovery Team before, during, and after the actual conversation with the Loved One.

The plan is built with the whole family. You arrive at an approach everyone believes will land well with the person you love. No two families land on the same plan, because no two families are the same. The work runs on love and concern, not punishment, and that is what breaks through denial most consistently.

The whole Recovery Team, not just the Loved One

One of the quieter goals of an intervention is reshaping the patterns that have grown up around the addiction. Families unknowingly develop routines that keep the system running, and those routines have to shift for the recovery to stick.

Linda talks about this with a dance metaphor. If you and your Loved One have been dancing the waltz for years, the steps are automatic. Both of you know the rhythm. Now imagine that halfway through the song, you switch to the two-step. Your Loved One cannot keep dancing the waltz with you. They have to adjust, because you changed your part.

That is the work. When the people around a Loved One change how they show up, the Loved One has to respond differently. There is no guarantee it moves them toward recovery. There is a much better chance of it than if nothing changes.

Six months of follow-up

Sometimes the Loved One says no to treatment on the day of the intervention. Either way, Linda continues supporting the Recovery Team for six months after. That is where the real behavior change gets worked out, and that extended support often makes the difference between an intervention that holds and one that fades.

Is this the right fit for you?

If that style of intervention sounds like what your family needs, call 832-928-0211 for a free fifteen minute consultation, or fill out our contact form. We will talk through your situation and answer the questions you have before you commit to anything.