Start your loved one on the road to recovery now.
Family Interventionist Experts To Help Your Loved One Overcome Addiction
For Families And Individuals Fighting The Battle Against Addiction
You’ve done so much for your loved one. Now it’s our turn.
Loving someone with an addiction is the most taxing, heartbreaking experience you can go through. Most families who have a loved one with addiction find themselves trapped on an emotional rollercoaster that hits far more valleys than peaks. There’s nothing like living a life riddled with fear and anxiety, trying your best to take care of everyone else while throwing your own well-being onto the backburner.
You feel emotionally and mentally depleted – and you’re at your wits end trying to save your loved one, not only from their addiction, but also from themselves. Meanwhile, your loved one is a shell of the person you remember. Their life revolves only around using, while they’ve let their hopes, dreams, relationships, and goals shatter like glass around them.
Hope is always available.
We want you to know that even in the most seemingly hopeless situations, hope is always available. Your loved one is struggling to see a way out and is silently begging for an effective solution.
By holding a professional intervention, we help them surrender their fight for addiction and step into treatment. We believe your loved one deserves to be approached with compassion, acceptance, and love.
Alberto & Maria T.
“Somehow without warning, things for my young, adult daughter changed a few months ago and she began using drugs. As a result of her choices, we were recently faced with one of the hardest decisions as a family. Her mother and I, long ago divorced, along with my wife, made the decision to have an intervention for our daughter. Not knowing how to respond, act or maneuver through this difficult matter in the best interest of my daughter, we hired Intervention Specialist, Dana Golden. We were stricken with fear, grief, angst, and frustration. I found myself beyond grateful to have Dana on our team.
Dana helped us keep the intervention goal oriented and focus-driven with a loving and humane approach. When we were at our wit's end, together we devised a different approach and, in the end, my daughter agreed to receive help and Dana flew her out of the state to a highly recommended treatment facility.
I can honestly state that without Dana, we would not have had such a positive result. Dana has gone above and beyond her responsibilities as an Intervention Specialist in making herself readily available and continues to help us navigate this unknown path without hesitation."
Overcome addiction with a family interventionist
Help your loved one release their defenses, step into treatment, and get started on the road to recovery.
A professional intervention with a family interventionist has the power to help your loved one release their defenses, step into treatment, and get started on the road to recovery. It has the ability to help your loved one see that they are unconditionally loved and accepted – feelings they no longer thought they could experience due to the damage their addiction has caused. Most importantly, a professional intervention has the power to help your loved one see a way out.
We’ve held interventions for over 30 years and have witnessed countless individuals start treatment right after their intervention. With a 95% success rate of getting people to agree to go to treatment, we know interventions work.
Unfortunately, a lot of professional interventionists miss the mark by focusing on the addiction rather than the person, and focusing on the substance use instead of the entire family system. That’s why we at Life Recovery Interventions take a different approach by focusing on supporting the entire family, before and well after the intervention takes place.
By providing coaching and guidance for the family, we help you experience the healing you all deserve. We’ll be there for you post-intervention whenever you need us. Once you work with our family interventionists, you’ll always have us.
It’s time to get your life back.
It’s time to release the weight you’ve been carrying. You can get your life back while your loved one enters treatment and begins their road to recovery. The family you envision - the one you dream of – is not a faraway fantasy. Healing is possible for all of you, and we’re here to hold your hand every step of the way.
Our Unique Approach to Professional Interventions for Addiction
A 360° approach to tackling addiction
At Life Recovery Interventions, we use a comprehensive, 360° approach to tackle addiction, meaning we don’t just focus on the individual struggling with substance use. In fact, we don't just focus on their substance use, either. That’s merely a maladaptive coping skill they’ve picked up to manage their pain.
We dig deep into the core of who your loved one is, getting to the root of their pain and the underlying issues that have contributed to their use. We find solutions for any mental health struggles they may be facing, rather than just focusing on treatment for addiction alone.
Additionally, we utilize the Johnson Method of interventions. We’ve found this to be the most effective method for getting individuals into treatment when you feel out of time and nothing else has seemed to work. Other methods can take months, and when you’re in a life or death situation, the Johnson Method can get the job done in a day.
Start healing your entire family system.
Most importantly, we focus on healing the entire family system. We know it’s tough to acknowledge, but it's not just your loved one that picked up maladaptive coping skills. Everyone has their part in the situation, and it will take everyone’s effort to fix it. Family involvement is essential, which is why working with the entire family is the cornerstone of our approach.
By focusing on the pain and the healing of your loved one and all family members, we can help you finally begin the journey of getting your loved one back from the depths of their addiction.
Why Choose Life Recovery Interventions?
1. We focus on your loved one, not their use
When it comes to professional interventions for addiction, many interventionists make the mistake of focusing on the loved one’s substance use. This can prompt the loved one to feel like they’re being attacked, or that they are inherently wrong for their struggles. It can bring up feelings of shame within them, and immediately cause their defenses to go up.
Addiction is a byproduct of repressed emotions.
Our family interventionists focus on who your loved one is at their core. This core reveals to us what the actual problem is, what pain they’re in, and even where this pain is stemming from. We know that addiction is a byproduct of repressed emotions, and for many, serves as a maladaptive coping mechanism for trauma. When we focus on your loved one and their pain, rather than condemning them for their substance use, we can get to the real root of the problem.
Our family interventionists prioritize making your loved one feel safe and accepted. We condemn any shaming, blaming, ganging up on, or guilt tripping of your loved one. We focus solely on making sure they feel loved, supported, and understood. When your loved one feels this, and genuinely feels this from everyone in the room, it helps them drop their defenses and opens them up to seeking treatment.
2. We approach addiction as a family disease
As you know by now, addiction is truly a family disease. Addiction within your loved one creates ripple effects that permeate through your entire family, affecting each family member in a different way. Perhaps some of your family members shut down, while others constantly try to cover for your loved one. Maybe some of your family members continue taking care of your loved one, while others want nothing to do with them.
Not only does addiction affect each family member’s relationship with your loved one, but it also affects their relationship with themselves, with other people, and with the rest of the family. When you love someone with an addiction, you may engage in behaviors and actions that don’t feel fully authentic to you. You may find yourself lying or keeping secrets in an effort to protect your loved one. You may find your mental and emotional health deteriorating as you put all of your energy into trying to “fix” your loved one. The list goes on, as addiction can truly bend, manipulate, and alter relationships in countless ways.
Conversely, your family’s behaviors and responses to your loved one can actually contribute to your loved one’s ongoing use, even though this is unintentional on your family’s end. As we mentioned earlier, your loved one cannot experience recovery from addiction on their own. Each family member will need to work on their own individual healing in order to best support your loved one. This is why we provide initial coaching and support to the family when we hold interventions. Interventions aren’t just a one day event for us – they’re an entire, 360 process where your loved one and your family receives the support and guidance they need for the wellbeing of all.
3. We’ve faced addiction firsthand
At Life Recovery Interventions, we know how to best support your loved one and your family because we’ve been there ourselves.
Our team consists of David Marion and Dana Golden. David Marion is a leader in professional interventions for addiction, a Nationally Certified Recovery Coach, a motivational speaker on addiction, the co-author of Addiction Rescue: The NO-BS Guide to Recovery, and most importantly, has been in recovery from his own addictions for over 30 years. When David was in his 20’s, his closest family and friends had an intervention for him that changed the course of his life.
David understands where your loved one is, on a level that no one can truly grasp unless they’ve been there themselves. His personal experience and wisdom, paired with his decades of professional experience in running successful interventions, lends to David building a deeper connection with your loved one, allowing them to feel truly seen, heard, accepted, and understood. This is the catalyst for getting them to agree to go to treatment.
Dana Golden is a Nationally Certified Family Recovery Coach, Nationally Certified Recovery Coach, writer for Psychology Today, and co-author of Addiction Rescue: The NO-BS Guide to Recovery. For decades, Dana experienced her closest loved ones struggling with addiction, and has since dedicated her life to helping individuals and families battling this disease. Dana has been right where you are – she knows the pain you’re in. She knows the unique challenges you’re facing, the conflicting emotions you’re constantly battling, and the toll your loved ones addition is taking on you and your family.
Dana’s empathy, care, and commitment comes through in every single intervention she holds, as she has a truly unique perspective to all sides of the problem. Dana can help you get your loved one into treatment, while helping you experience the healing you deserve, too.
Our unique team approach allows us to tackle all sides of addiction. We truly understand what you and your loved are experiencing, and we know how to best support and guide each of you.
What To Expect When You Work With Our Family Interventionists
David Marion & Dana Golden’s 5-Step Process
Step 1: The Call
To get started, we’ll have an in-depth call with you to gain as much information as we can about your loved one. We’ll go over everything from what they’re using and how long they’ve been using for, to how many treatment attempts they’ve had (if any). We’ll dig into their history, life experiences, and traumas to gain a deep understanding of your loved one’s past and present. The more we know about your loved one and your family dynamics, the better we’ll be able to serve you.
This call also includes an in-depth look at each step of the intervention process. We go over everything including who will attend the intervention to have the most impact, what the process of writing the impact letters will look like, discussing how you and your family members will hold your loved one accountable, how we plan to handle it if your loved one has objections to entering treatment, and so much more.
During this call, you’ll also have the opportunity to ask any questions that come up and get all of your questions answered. Our intent is to not only build an in-depth understanding of your loved one’s circumstances, but to also help you feel prepared, secure, and on-board with what to expect during every step of the intervention process.
Step 1 Recap:
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Examination of histories and traumas
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Our family interventionists will learn more about your loved one and your family dynamics
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We will provide you with an overview each step of intervention process
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We will discuss family accountability
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You’ll get all of your questions answered
Step 2: The Impact Letters
During our call, we’ll decide who will be attending the intervention. Afterwards, it’s time for everyone involved to write their own impact letter. An impact letter provides you with the opportunity to express to your loved one how their addiction has impacted your well-being. Language used in the impact letter should not condemn, blame, or insult your loved one.
The purpose of the impact letter is to increase your loved one’s awareness of how their addiction is impacting those around them, as well as allowing them to see that you and your family still love them and still harbor hope for them.
For so long, your loved one has been shunned, yelled at, berated, and put down; they’ve carried the heavy burdens of shame, guilt, and self judgment. When impact letters are read from the people they love the most, your loved one is impacted by the love, concern, and care they hear. It can cause their walls to come down and can help them view treatment as the solution they’ve been longing for.
If you’re worried about writing your impact letter, we’ve got you covered. We work with each individual and help them revise and edit their letter. Not only does this help make the letters as powerful as they can be, but it also ensures the context and tone is appropriate and beneficial to our goal of getting your loved one into treatment.
Step 2 Recap:
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An in-depth discussion on impact letters, how to write them, and what purpose they’ll serve
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You and your loved ones will write your individual impact letters
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Our family interventionists will help review and edit your impact letters to make sure they are powerful, effective, appropriate, and goal-oriented
Step 3: Pre-Intervention Planning
After the first two steps, we’ll enter the pre-intervention planning phase. We’ll educate you and your family about your loved one’s addiction, as well as help you find empathy for your loved one if this is something you’re struggling with. We work to help you let go of the anger, resentment, and frustration you may have built up towards your loved one, so that you can enter the intervention with a fully open and loving heart.
Additionally, we determine the time and place for the intervention, as well as the logistics in getting your loved one there. We review the pace and outline of the intervention, expectations for family members, and potential outcomes.
On our end, we begin working to make arrangements at a decided-upon treatment facility, taking insurance and finances into consideration. We’ll find treatment options suitable for your loved one’s needs as well as your current financial state. We will also make arrangements to escort your loved one to the treatment facility. We want to make sure they feel safe and supported every step of the way.
Step 3 Recap:
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Our family interventionists will educate you and your family about your loved one’s addiction
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We’ll help you let go of difficult emotions tied to your loved one’s addiction
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We’ll discuss intervention logistics, such as time and place
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On our end, we’ll make arrangements at the decided-upon treatment facility
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We’ll make arrangements to escort your loved one to the treatment facility
Step 4: The Intervention
On the day before the intervention, we meet with you and your family to answer any last-minute questions, review how intervention day will go, decide upon the order of letters to be read, agree on seating arrangements, and discuss everything else that goes into intervention day.
Then, after all of the planning and preparation, it’s finally time for intervention day. Once your loved one arrives at the intervention, the family interventionists take charge and inform them of who we are and why we are there. We then follow the prepared intervention outline. Everyone involved will read their impact letters in the planned order, and we talk about the recommended goal of treatment. After this, the family interventionists start the real work.
If we’re met with initial resistance, it’s our job to help your loved one understand what their addiction is doing to themselves and their loved ones. Because we appeal to your loved one in a loving, supportive way, we dispel the anger and resentment, and can get to what’s really going on beneath the surface. We always come from a loving, caring, and supportive place, and there is absolutely zero shaming, blaming, ganging up on, or threatening.
During the intervention, we address the pain that your loved one is in. We show them empathy and genuine concern for their well-being. We help them understand that the path they're on will not end well, and that there is another path. We help them to feel comfortable in making a decision for change and we help them truly understand that healing is possible for them, no matter how impossible it may feel at the time.
Additionally, we aid them in understanding that using is a maladaptive coping mechanism they have picked up to help them deal with the pain of uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, and is causing harm to their physical and mental well-being. We help normalize their struggle instead of making them feel even worse for what they’re experiencing.
During the intervention, we also help them understand that addiction is a family disease, that their family has been a part of the problem, and that they’re willing to be part of the solution by working on themselves. This helps them feel that they’re not in this alone.
Oftentimes, this experience is the first time the individual struggling with addiction is addressed in a way that makes them feel understood. Showing respect for the difficulties they are going through allows them to drop their defenses and open up to entering treatment.
We find that those struggling with addiction are internally begging for help. Most often, by the time our family interventionists are involved, the loved one doesn’t find any joy or pleasure in using. They continue to use because they have a dependency on it, and they believe they have no way of stopping.
Our family interventionists help them surrender and give up the fight for their addiction. When they are offered a solution in a loving and caring environment, it is often a relief and something they have silently been begging for.
At the end of a successful intervention, we transport your loved one to the previously agreed-upon treatment facility, and their road to recovery begins.
Step 4 Recap:
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On the day before the intervention, we’ll review how the intervention will go
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On intervention day, we’ll follow the intervention outline
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Our family interventionists will offer your loved one the solution of entering treatment
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We’ll address the pain that your loved one is in
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We’ll help them understand their maladaptive coping mechanisms
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Our family interventionists will transport your loved one to the agreed-upon treatment facility
Step 5: Post Intervention Support
After the intervention, our work doesn’t end. Entering treatment is your loved one’s first step to recovery. To help give your loved one their best chance at long term success, they’ll need a post-intervention treatment continuum plan. This aftercare plan will be designed for them by their treatment team at their treatment facility, and may include continued outpatient treatment, sober housing, meetings, or individual counseling.
Additionally, your loved one entering treatment is just the beginning of the road for you and your family as well. This is why we also provide family support for you after your loved one enters treatment. We’ll continue to work with you, providing ongoing help with your own recovery while helping you uncover how to best support your loved one when they return from treatment.
Finally, we’ll also continue to work with you if your loved one doesn’t go to treatment. Regardless of how your loved one chooses to move forward, now is the time for you and your family to work on understanding your maladaptive roles in the family system, and how they affect the whole family unit. The family interventionists help you to develop awareness of unhealthy behaviors, and then step out of those unhealthy behaviors. We help you learn new, healthy boundaries that will only benefit you and the people you care about. We help you learn how to cultivate joy and peace in your life again, no matter what is happening around you. Whether your loved one goes to treatment or not, we continue to work with the family after the intervention because your need for support continues either way.
Step 5 Recap:
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Our family interventionists wil help you develop a post-intervention treatment continuum plan
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We’ll provide you with support after your loved one enters treatment
You don’t have to hold your breath waiting for a solution anymore.
This is what relief from addiction sounds like:
Doreen S.
“It was a pleasure meeting with David Marion. l was hesitant to work with a crisis interventionist, but he proved to be the person that God wanted us to work with. David is very passionate in helping his clients and goes the extra mile to alleviate the family anxiety and replaces it with a strong feeling of trust in his process. Thank you David for showing my son the path to being healed and giving him the hope he was looking for. May the lord continue to shower you with the passion and empathy you have that helps you change so many people's lives for the better.”
Nat W.
“David Marion is a brilliant empathic interventionist and recovery coach. Our family was very fortunate to have won his support and expert, caring touch. Under the pressure of an extremely short schedule, David managed to quickly suss-out our family dynamics and needs. Over the course of a single weekend, he helped us strategize an approach and outcome that beautifully served our challenging family circumstances. Once the formal intervention was completed, David remained, above and beyond, available and responsive during the following weeks when we hit some tough roadblocks. We can’t recommend David and his life coaching skills highly enough. We hope your family is as lucky as ours and find yourselves in David’s capable and loving hands.”
Ann R.
“David Marion is a first-rate addiction interventionist and the service he provided our daughter and our family proved to be invaluable. David relies first on his personal experience to connect to his client and their loved ones. A deep understanding of addiction and mental illness, as well as nationwide facilities that best treat patients with these diagnoses, guided us. Trust, commitment, and dedication to providing a path to healing from addiction were ever-present.
From the first phone conversation, David clearly set forth goals and communicated the intervention process. He was realistic and all the while hopeful. Accessible and readily available to answer questions, David created a comfort level and supported us. We were understandably struggling to grasp how to best help our loved one and David forged a doable path. David is action-oriented, realistic, and tenacious. His impact, without a doubt, was tremendous.”
Leslie M.
“Our family decided to hold an intervention for our loved one with an alcohol and substance use disorder whose life and living conditions were deteriorating at an alarming pace. We were all scared. When Dana Golden arrived to be our family interventionist, we immediately knew we were in good hands. She truly believes in the process and is extremely competent. She is grounded, compassionate, and strong. She is unpretentious and savvy. She led our family through the preparation day efficiently but thoroughly, so that we all felt as ready as possible to offer a new path to our loved one.
On the day of the intervention, Dana knew how to make a connection with our loved one. She was approachable, relaxed, and empathetic. She managed to give our loved one space to make her own decisions while still ensuring that the process stayed on track and moved forward.
Once our loved one agreed to enter treatment, Dana made all the arrangements quickly and traveled with our loved one to the center. Even though Dana's job with us was successfully completed, she has reached out to provide us with more help and to ask for updates. Dana really cares about every family that she helps. You will not regret having Dana on your side while you navigate this difficult and emotional journey.”