Intervention Specialist
What is an Intervention Specialist?
An intervention specialist is typically a licensed professional psychologist or therapist who conductions intervention meetings with addicted individuals and their families, friends, and loved ones in order to have them seek treatment and recovery. We are usually asked some very common questions about this, such as:
- What is an intervention specialist?
- What is the role that intervention specialist plays during an intervention?
- What does having this type of expertise typically entail?
In addition to the above, the intervention specialist must possess the ability to conduct and supervise these meetings in orderly fashion, while at the same time relying on the assistance of family members, friends, and loved ones who are directly involved with the addicted individual.
It is also important to note that some of the best intervention specialists have also dealt with alcohol or drug addictions themselves, enabling the addicted individual to relate better to someone who has “been there and done that.” Additionally, conducting an intervention session is only the beginning to the entire process in that you have to be able to convince the addicted individual that they need to admit to being addicted to their particular substance and then seek treatment and recovery for their addiction.
Aspects of the Intervention Process
Addicted individuals are oftentimes skilled manipulators and are typically entrenched in a variety of control mechanisms such as:
- A ploy for gaining pity and/or sympathy
- As a tool for creating fear and panic in other individuals
- Situations based on a particular crisis in their lives
It is wrong to assume that a single meeting with the addicted individual will have positive results, so the intervention specialist needs to always expect the unexpected. It is foolish to believe this as well as the fact that these various circumstances can be circumvented during the course of the intervention process.
Some precautions to take before hiring an intervention specialist
It’s a sad reality, but intervention specialists are a dime a dozen. Many individuals who claim to be this type of professional are nothing less than “wanna-be’s” have literally glutted the market in recent years and have little or no clue as to the proper way to conduct an intervention meeting. Most of these individuals are skilled at only one thing – selling themselves and not delivering the desired results. So you need to be cautious about this when searching for an intervention specialist.
Three steps that you should consider taking in order to ensure that you are hiring a qualified and skilled intervention specialist are:
- Ask to see their credentials and prove how experienced they are
- Inquire about their areas of expertise and specialization
- Try to find out if they have also been treated for and recovered from a substance addiction