Certified Intervention Professional (CIP)
Masters of Addiction Studies (MHS)
Member, National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP)
Member, Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC)
As one who benefited from a successful intervention, I established Family First Intervention to help families help their loved ones. In earlier attempts at treatment that ended in failure, I was the only one trying to change. My family had nowhere to turn for help in addressing their enabling behaviors and codependency. It wasn’t until my family staged an intervention, set boundaries, and held me accountable that I was able to find recovery. If my family wasn’t going to change their behaviors, neither was I.
I achieved sobriety and started my career in 2005 after completing six months of treatment. With my family holding boundaries and not allowing me to return home, I was offered an opportunity with the intervention company that helped my family. Through the years, I learned the importance of families taking the first step in the recovery process as my own family did. My family was told time and time again that unless I wanted help or hit bottom, nothing could be done—they thought they had to wait until I did. But bottom isn’t something you hit--it’s something you feel.
I realized through working with others what my own family learned about me, that addicts and alcoholics are allowed to be comfortable in their addiction by their loved ones, so bottom is not felt and, as a result, help is not thought to be needed. The first step to recovery is admitting the power of alcohol or drugs over your life which has become unmanageable. Living with an enabling, codependent family, I was able to manage just fine, at their expense.
One of the greatest gifts I received working for other intervention companies was understanding the importance of putting the family first. However, I did not feel comfortable performing interventions referred by treatment centers, knowing many times the client was not the right fit for the treatment facility asking us to help.
Today, Family First Intervention works directly with the family, assesses the situation, and assists in providing the appropriate treatment plan. I understand it takes time for families to make a decision, and I empathize with a family’s fear of change. I try to incorporate a Motivational Interviewing approach as well as solution-based options to better serve those seeking guidance.
Families understand that, despite their best efforts and good intentions, their attempts have failed. It is not productive for them to feel further guilt or shame for those efforts. In my dealings with families, I strive for each person to feel validated and understood while also helping them find hope, perhaps for the first time. Like an addict or an alcoholic, sometimes families have to feel a bottom before intervention is an option. We can’t force families to make a decision; we can only be there for them when they are ready to move forward.
I am currently enrolled in Graduate School, pursuing masters’ degrees in Addiction Studies and Counseling in order to be licensed as a clinical professional counsellor (LCPC). I currently reside in the Chicago suburbs with my wife and twin daughters. I would never ask a family to do something my family did not do for me, or that I wouldn’t do for my own children.
