Amber Hollingsworth (YouTube creator of Put the Shovel Down) explains that the CRAFT method (Community Reinforcement and Family Training) is a more effective alternative to traditional Johnson-model interventions and Al-Anon for engaging addicted loved ones in treatment. She states CRAFT is roughly three times more effective at getting a loved one into treatment (citing ~67–75% versus ~30% for Johnson-model interventions), and also improves engagement, retention, and outcomes once in treatment. Hollingsworth outlines core CRAFT elements: helping family understand addiction, practicing self-care and healthy boundaries, positively reinforcing even small improvements while withdrawing reinforcement for harmful behaviors, improving communication, and stopping enabling/fixing. She notes pitfalls: change is gradual and families must allow natural consequences (job loss, legal trouble, etc.) rather than fixing them. She also promotes her online course "Invisible Intervention," which teaches CRAFT plus motivational interviewing and practical guidance on treatment options.
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If you've got an addicted loved one, you've probably been told to go to Al Anon 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 and. And to 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 Hollingsworth, 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 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 Alamine, which is actually pretty helpful at teaching you how to take care of yourself and get yourself off what I call the roller coaster. It's all about helping you get your Santa 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. 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 on the TV show, is not only is it expensive, but after the entire family goes through this very exp. Intensive training, only about 30% of families actually go through with the intervention process because it's so confrontational. So I kind of feel like the Al Anon 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 go. 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 right direction. Even if it's not 100%, if it's just a 2% change, we want to positively reinforce it, 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 sort of 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. And 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 Kraft 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 add 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 addiction. So I am going to acknowledge that there are a couple of pitfalls to the craft method. The first pitfall is, 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, well, I've been doing this so long, I really need help. Will you draw 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 addict. 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 sort of back up and let the consequences fall into place for the person. So, for example, if you're used to making sure they get up 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 get a little resentful towards you when those kind of things happen. But overall, because you're nurturing the 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, staying 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 kind of 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, well, I don't want to change, or this is just the way I am, or it's not really even hurting anybody. You know, 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 happen. In fact, I just got an email this morning from somebody we've been working with, I don't know, maybe like, six weeks or so now. The subject line of this email said, good news, Lots of change talk. And change talks, 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.
