in·ter·vene (¹n”t…r-v¶n“)1. To come, appear, or lie between two things. 2. To occur as an extraneous or unplanned circumstance. 3 a. To come in or between so as to hinder or alter an action. b. To interfere, usually through force or threat of force, in the affairs of another nation. 5. Law. To enter into a suit as a third party for one's own interests. --in”ter·ve“nor or in”ter·ven“er n. --in”ter·ven“tion (-vµn“sh…n) n.

In reading my biography, you learned that one of the hats that I wear is that of a drug, education, training, treatment and aftercare professional and that from 1983 to 1994, I helped to administrate the drug program for the National Basketball Association. I’ve worked with some of the top people in the field. I’ve trained with some of the best health care professionals in the business. I’ve had the pleasure of helping hundreds of people confront their addictions and their families realize that it is a collective problem for which all significant family members need to seek help.

A professionally administered intervention is probably the most powerful tool available to affect change in the life of anyone who is confronting what is effectively the bottom or near bottom of their lives.  It is the one tool that can raise the level of awareness and reality on the part of the significant others who are just as affected as the “using” loved one. It doesn’t matter what that loved one is “using"… drugs, alcohol, pills, work, gambling, sex, shopping, food, etc., it is all obsessive and destructive.

Article-about-my-work-with-.jpgApril 14, 1983 was the day that I decided that if I didn't get some help for a substance abuse problem, that I would probably be dead in a year.  I came to this realization while freebasing cocaine with a very dear friend of mine.  I saw both of our deaths that night.  Fortunately for me, it was a wakeup call… A rare wakeup call.  As I discovered later, those kinds of wakeup calls don't usually happen alone.  It usually takes a force of nature... like love... to deliver the call to wake someone up from such a deep evil slumber.  When I got home from my friend's house, I made a phone call to another friend of mine.  An OB/GYN who was a recovering addict himself.  He had performed over 350 births while under the influence.  He shared that story with me several years previous, and I never forgot it.  I called him with the hope that I could get some help.  I thought that he could put me in the hospital for couple of days and help me detox.  He told me that what I needed was to go into rehab for 30 days or more and really do it right.  Three days was the most that he could justify me being in the hospital without having to have a more definitive diagnosis.  By eight o'clock that night I was on my way to the treatment facility.  The last call that I received, when I was on my Substance-abuse-article.jpgway out the door, to the treatment facility, was from my dear friend whom I had gotten high with earlier that day.  He had gotten a fresh batch of drugs and was inviting me over for another night of indulging.  I told him that I had a drug problem that had to be taken care of and I was going in for treatment.  He acknowledged that we all had a problem and should stop. He was starting his world tour that Friday and he wanted me to wait until Monday when he had a week off, so that we could both go in together.  I told him that I couldn't wait a week.  If I didn't go in now, I would probably never go in.  He said he understood.  I went into rehab and he went on his world tour.  I spoke to him twice over the next year.  On one of the occasions, he told me that he thought that God was trying to speak to him through me.  We never talked about religion, but somehow he got a spiritual message from our conversation.  He was a very spiritual man.  Unfortunately the spirit didn't speak loud enough.  He died almost one year to the day from the last time that we got high together.  I'm sure that he's entertaining his higher power.Let me share some of my story with you, so you’ll have some reality about the source of my knowledge and experience.

With-Isa-Thomas-talking-to-.jpgMy rehab proved to be one of the most important times in my life.  I discovered that cocaine wasn't my problem.  I had some holes in me that needed filling, and I tried to fill it with a substance rather than facing myself and really confronting what my issues were.  I began the very tough process of doing that.  In the meantime, I started helping others and doing service through Alcoholics Anonymous and Cocaine Anonymous.  I started studying with John Bradshaw, best-selling author and considered America's leading personal growth expert and Kip Flock, John Bradshaw's co-training clinical colleague. Kip is the founder of the Apex resource Center: Services for human effectiveness. 

About six months after I got out of rehab, my counselor, Rex Fine, asked me if I would be interested in working with him in conjunction with ASAP, which is an acronym for Adult Substance Abuse Program.  They had just acquired the contract to administrate The National Basketball Association's drug education, training, treatment and aftercare program.  We began working with the NBA in the fall of 1983. There were 27 teams in 26 cities.  Rex and I would visit each team twice a year.  The main thrust of our job was meant to be preventative.  Through education and training, our hope was to prevent the need for treatment and aftercare.  We weren't always successful, but our program was probably the most successful corporate program in America.  Other corporations modeled their programs after the NBA program.  I was a part of the NBA program from 1983 to 1994.  I was involved in educating the players as to the facts of substance abuse, training them how to create a functional extended family system so that they learn how to care for each other, dealing with their treatment if they were diagnosed as having a drug problem and working with their aftercare once they were out of rehab.  I would also do interventions on players and their families.

During the last 20 years, I've done many interventions all over the world. I've never advertised or hung my shingle. It's all been by word of mouth. If I can help someone get through what is ultimately one of the toughest times in their lives, I'm grateful for the opportunity.

If you have a loved one who you think needs to be intervened on, please email me.

Here are some PDFs you can download for more information:

Alcohol/Substance Abuse -- Diagnosing Others

Carefrontation

Common Terms

Intervention

Testimonials


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