Real Review of Interventionist

The family had this to say about their experience:

"Our intervention began at 7 am this morning. There were 11 members of our team plus Jim walking into the home of my son.

He was still asleep and when his wife woke him and he discovered all of us assembled in his living room, he reacted with rage and retreated to his bathroom and locked the door. Luckily, Jim prepared us for every eventuality during our family meeting the day before so we weren’t shocked by this. He stayed locked in the bathroom for possibly an hour and a half yelling and cursing to anyone who knocked or tried to talk with him.

With Jim’s guidance we came up with different strategies of who he might listen to and what we might say.
His two daughters were in the playroom throughout this portion of the intervention but eventually even though he was still furious, he agreed to give Jim 5 minutes. He set the timer on his watch. Jim directed the first two letters to be read and even though they were beautifully written and heartfelt, he wasn’t moved and went back into the bathroom/closet area. A lot of door slamming occurred which scared the girls.

Jim reassured us throughout that this was expected behavior and that we were listening to the disease, not our son.
Eventually after many individual attempts by his friends and cajoling from his daughters, one friend he spoke with out in the garage was able to convince him to agree to sit down and listen to our letters. His eyes filled at times and he actually grinned a few times at some of the humorous memories. He finally said that he would go but not today. Over and over he stated this. Jim told Ryan that ‘tomorrow’ would never come. At this point the girls were crying uncontrollably and begging their father to accept help.

All throughout the process our interventionist made sure their mother knew that she could include the girls or excuse them but I believe Azia knew they were our best chance of convincing him and they had already experienced so much heartache they may as well take part in this very serious event in their dad’s road to recovery.

Jim directed his wife to read her “bottom line” letter and afterwards explained very calmly but clearly how his life was going to change. After leaving his home he wouldn’t be able to see or communicate with his wife, daughters or any of the rest of us in the room. He erupted from his seat, threw down his water container and agreed to go to treatment.

 He wasn’t finished with his pigheadedness though and in an attempt to to exert some control over his situation, he refused to fly to Florida with Jim. He made his own flight arrangements but there were several hours to wait and far too much time in which he might change his mind. Jim made sure someone was with my son or nearby at all times and he eventually parked himself in the area keeping in touch with the whole team throughout the afternoon. He cancelled his flight an arranged to stay another night in order to see this through. He was in the airport ticketing area when my son arrived and covertly took photos of him as he was checking in. He will arrive tonight after midnight and we will hope for the best.

As heart wrenching and painful as this experience was, I can’t imagine having gotten through it without Jim’s expert direction and support. He connected with everyone (not so much with my son) but he made all the difference in getting him to treatment.
I’d just like to mention one more important ability Jim displayed during our family meeting. We had at least 4 members of our team who felt that my son wasn’t afforded the opportunity of having his friends speak to him on a one to one before we went to this extreme approach. It took quite some time but through his skilled interaction with he slowly but surely brought them around. It was truly fascinating to observe.

Thank you for assigning just the right expert to work with our family and friends.

Terri M.