Alison,

I want to commend you on your willingness to face your own fears and intervene on your husband's addiction. Too often families allow their fear of the addict to hinder their desire for change. I am glad to hear he is doing well and interested in being of service to other addicts. I first would recommend, as you mentioned, that he focus on his own recovery and strive to grow in a 12-step fellowship. Though school and experience are vital, my 12-step recovery really is the foundation of my personal growth, compassion and drive when things get tough. Without that foundation I would not be able to an interventionist. At the same time, 12-step recovery alone does not mean someone is qualified to be an interventionist.

Intervention is a demanding, dangerous and stressful career that requires ongoing self-searching and spiritual balance. Since the exposure our field has received from the television show "Intervention", people everywhere have decided they want to pursue intervention as a career. Some have even started conducting interventions with no formal training. I need to say this is a terrible mistake and has resulted in our field receiving some "black-eyes". I appreciate your husband's desire to seek training and do things the "right way". People need to understand intervention is more than people sitting in a circle with letters and some tissue. In true form intervention is a carrefully conducted process that requires clinical training and awareness.

The Illinois Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Professional Certification Association or IAODAPCA, are the organization which certifies interventionists all over the United States. As a relatively new field, starting in the 1960's, intervention has not been regulated or monitored as a stringently as the rest of the addiction field. However that is changing with the board registration of interventionists. The first step in interventionist certification is for your husband to visit the IAODAPCA web-site and print off the requirements to become a Board Registered Interventionist or BRI-I. This will ensure that he has the proper training and experience needed to perform interventions. If he is uncertain of how committed he is to process, I would encourage him to find an IAODAPCA approved interventionist training near you and get a general feel for the work that goes into performing interventions. IAODAPCA can be contacted through their web-site which I have listed below. It may seem like a long road to becoming board registered however, it is critical that our profession be recognized as a viable and credible part of the addiction treatment field. Feel free to contace me with any more questions. I wish him the best on his journey.

IAODAPCA Web-Site: http://iaodapca.org/index.cfm