As certified professional interventionists, the team at Whitman Recovery Service has helped plan and stage more than 1,000 interventions in all 50 U.S. states. They have developed techniques with a proven success rate of more than 98 percent. By using the following four approaches to intervention and customizing them for each client, the Whitman Recovery Service team has found a winning formula to helping convince people to seek much-needed addiction recovery care.

The Johnson Method

The primary purpose of the Johnson Method is to motivate and encourage addicts to change their lifestyle to benefit themselves and the people who care about them. Episcopal priest, Dr. Vernon Johnson, known as the “father of intervention,” developed this approach after studying more than 200 recovering alcoholics to determine the factors that made them want to seek sobriety. He detailed his approach to intervention in a 1973 book titled I’ll Quit Tomorrow.

Johnson was a pioneer who saw the value of family and friends getting involved in the intervention process, which was a somewhat unconventional idea in the 1970s. However, instead of loved ones “ambushing” the addict or making them feel ashamed of the pain they have caused, Johnson encouraged caring as the priority of this model. This approach breaks down an addict’s defenses and makes them more receptive to hearing what their loved ones need to tell them.

ARISE Method

ARISE, which is an acronym for “A Relational Intervention Sequence for Engagement,” is an evidence-based method of intervention in which the entire family comes together to approach the addicted person. ARISE is a three-level method designed to work with families and friends to get a resistant substance-abusing loved one started in treatment.

Unlike older intervention techniques, the ARISE Method does not entail surprising the addict. Instead, an ARISE intervention treats the addicted individual with love and respect by inviting them to join the process from the beginning. Since addiction has consequences that affect the entire family, the aim of the ARISE Method is to create long-term family recovery and healing, with an emphasis on reinforcing healthy behaviors and lifestyles.

Invitational Method

The Invitational Method of intervention is another approach that involves the addict’s entire family in the process. Because families may unwittingly enable an addict’s behavior, this method of intervention seeks to educate and address the problem of addiction in relation to the family instead of focusing solely on the person with the substance misuse disorder.

This style of intervention gives families a deeper appreciation of the role they play in their loved one’s addiction so they can prevent future destructive actions. There is no secret planning involved with this type of intervention; instead, the addict’s family members invite them to get involved in the process and meet with the intervention specialist from the very beginning.

Love First Method

Addiction and intervention specialists Jeff and Debra Jay developed Love First, which they detailed in their 2008 book of the same name. This approach harnesses the power of love and concern in a specific and organized way to break through denial and help family members get their loved ones the help they need.

This type of intervention, which is free of negative or accusatory statements, is becoming the new mode of intervention for many families. In the Love First model, each participant reads aloud a personal letter they have written to the addict. The letter is a tool to reinforce the message that loved ones care about the addict and only want the best for them. It also helps keep any strong emotions that may surface under strict control.