Five Addiction Interventionists Worth Hiring

Posted by Joan Borsten on May 09, 2011

We are asked from time to time to recommend interventionists who are not only effective professionals but seem to genuinely care about the people they intervene on and their families.  We chose to begin with five.  Of course there are many other very talented interventionists all over the country who we also like to work with, or would be happy to work with, and we will report on them from time to time.  

Today’s list includes people from different locations in the Western U.S.  We like their style.   They have set prices, but will negotiate. They do not ask treatment centers to also pay them (a growing practice which many in this industry consider unethical).  They keep tabs on their clients and, when possible, with the families during and after treatment.  They all have very different styles and personalities.  Visiting their websites would be very helpful.   We would not hesitate to recommend any of them.

In alphabetical order:

Candy Finnigancfinnigan_head-shots- new.jpg  Pat interviewed Candy last December, writing about her work with the popular A&E reality show “Intervention.”   I would add that she is tough but committed, knowledgeable, open to new ideas and always offering good solutions.  She intervenes on actors and rock stars and regular folk. Recently when I tried to reach her she was intervening on someone who only had a few hundred dollars because the story broke her heart.   Last Thanksgiving she spent the afternoon talking into treatment a beautiful and talented actress she had known for years.   It took so long Candy’s family began calling on the other line to inquire as to the whereabouts of the roasted turkey.   Candy delivered dinner only after she knew the actress was safely on her way to treatment.  She is intensely interested in the outcome of those she helps.  Once she collected (fabulous) clothes from women at an AA meeting for a client who arrived at Malibu Beach Recovery Center without money or what to wear.

 

pat_moomey.jpgPat Moomey.  Two years ago Pat Moomey was living just north of Malibu in Ventura County.  Concerned parents hired her to intervene on their very bright young daughter Ashley (not her real name).  Then a freshmen at UC Santa Barbara. Ashley had become so addicted to pot she was flunking out.  Pat convinced her to get treatment, and diplomatically ignored Ashley’s insistence that she could only stay a few weeks because she had a New Year’s Eve rave to attend.   Pat stayed in regular contact with us  and Ashley’s family throughout treatment and beyond.  Happy to report that Ashley did not go to the rave, now has 2 years of sobriety and is back at UCSB completing her degree.  Pat has since moved to Prescott, Arizona and does interventions in that state and in Las Vegas.  Her price includes the assessment, evaluation, education, intervention and 1 month follow up coaching with the family.

 

Joyce Sundin.  Joyce lives in Seattle.  She brought us a very talented and difficult computer programmer,  He never forgave his family for arranging the intervention so Joyce did not get to do the family follow up she loves. The client had been brought up by an alcoholic  father and was not interested in AA.  Luckily he learned to love the yoga and uses the yoga to stay sober.  He regularly sends yoga instructor Oleg photographic prooJoyceSundin color.jpgf.

For local families, Joyce generally meets with the family for a 2.5 - 4 hour session in her office.  She calls this the "assessment" but in fact it's a training session as well so the family can learn more about what's required for an intervention to be successful.  If they decide to proceed there is a rehearsal and the formal intervention.  Joyce then writes a report to the treatment facility and stays engaged while the person is in treatment.  When they complete treatment the family has a "re-entry" meeting which Joyce believes is every bit as important as the actual intervention,  to welcome the client back, bring closure to the intervention, and share mutual expectations regarding ongoing recovery.  She then remains available, unlimited, for a year to coach the family to maintain their recovery and to troubleshoot any recovery issues that may arise.

For out of town interventions she uses conference calling for the re-entry and any ongoing issues as she believes in decisions by consensus and try to maintain a united, cohesive unit.

 

Alice Tanner Tanner brought us one of our most delightful clients, Lucy, a 65 year old alcoholic from the Bay Area who stayed for 90 days.  The family situation was complex.  Lucy suffered from short term memory loss which Dr. Ari Kalechstein determined was probably a condition known as “wet brain” and not dementia as the family thought.  We agreed with his diagnosis when we started to see memory improvement toward the end of her treatment, but knew she needed to be in a totally sober environment for many more months in order to recover full brain function.  Unfortunately this did not happen and it is a continuing struggle for her to remember not to drink.   alice tanner.jpg

Before deciding to work with Alice, read carefully what she has written smack in the middle of her home page.  She is oh, so right.

Knowledge is power. Know these truths about addiction:

 ~ Addiction is a brain disease.

 ~ Without proper treatment the disease will advance...guaranteed.

 ~ Most people, even professionals, do not recognize addiction when they see it.

 ~ Most people, even professionals, when they do recognize addiction do not know how to effectively treat it.   

 

ed wigg.jpgEd Wigg, Director of the Curran Seeley Foundation in Jackson, Wyoming wears many hats.  He called one morning out of the blue about Lynda -- not her real name – a young woman who had just tried to commit suicide for the third time using a kitchen knife, pills and alcohol.  She had just returned, overmedicated,  from another treatment program which put her into a very anxiety and depression track, and did not deal with her drinking and drug use.  The father, a recovering alcoholic, was desperate.  Ed found us after doing some in-depth research and deciding our program sounded different enough to make a difference . He was right.  Lynda just celebrated a year of continued sobriety.  She is still here in California and her dad came to give her a cake (an AA tradition).  We honor Ed for taking time out to find his clients the right facility, which in this case, came with the right therapist.  Dr. Miriam Hamideh worked miracles with Lynda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meet Candy Finnigan, Interventionist

Posted by Pat Olsen on December 06, 2010

It’s hard to know how to start when introducing Candy because she's so accomplished.  Say that she’s part of the cast of the Emmy-winning A&E show “Intervention,” televised Mondays since 2005? Or that she’s written a self-help book, When Enough is Enough: A Comprehensive Guide to Successful Intervention? That she’s in recovery herself, celebrating 25 years of sobriety?cfinnigan_head-shots- new.jpg 


Joan introduced Candy to me by saying she’s privately helped many people get into treatment, including singers, actors, and politicians, but she has also educated millions about addiction and recovery through her regular appearances on “Intervention,”  inspiring them to seek treatment for themselves or their loved ones.

 

Her credentials are listed on Amazon:  “She received her certification in chemical dependency from UCLA and completed her internship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She trained with the man who developed the intervention process, Vernon Johnson, and she has been affiliated as an interventionist with the Betty Ford Center, The Meadows, Hazelden, and many other treatment centers.”

 

Malibu Beach Recovery Center is not listed there, but Candy told me, when I interviewed her, that the Malibu Beach Recovery Center holds a special place in her heart because it treats the whole person. “[The Malibu Beach Recovery System] reprograms the brain not to have the drug be your reward,” she said. 


Candy has sent two clients from the TV show “Intervention” to Malibu Beach Recovery Center, both by chance from New Jersey.  

The most recent is Rachel whose segment will launch Intervention’s 10th season on December 13, 2010Thumbnail image for RACHEL_screengrabs51.jpg.  When Candy intervened on her she was homeless, sleeping on the steps of a Fifth Avenue Manhattan church.  Neither Joan nor Candy would give away the ending but both describe Rachel’s story as reality TV at its best, filled with fireworks and drama.

 

The first was Angelina, who arrived in September 2009 and never looked back. angelina for blog.jpgFollowers of “Intervention”’s Facebook page recently voted Angelia’s episode one of their three favorite shows of all time.   Both A&E and Malibu Beach Recovery Center have done video follow ups on Angelina’s remarkable

transformation from a down-and-out New Jersey heroin addict to a vibrant young woman who now lives in West Los Angeles, holds down a steady job, has reconnected with her family, is involved in a committed long term relationship, and participates fully in the 12 step community.

 

Here’s more of my interview with Candy:

Pat: How did you get your start?

 

Candy: I actually started helping people in 12-step programs and then I went for training. Vernon Johnson, a minister who introduced interventions in the 1960’s, had a big influence on me. He also wrote I’ll Quit Tomorrow. Johnson got the idea for intervention at funerals. People would get up and talk about the deceased, and he wondered why they didn’t do that when the person was alive.

 

Pat: Briefly—I know you wrote a whole book about intervention—but how can you make someone go to treatment who doesn’t want to go?

 

Candy: The primary symptom is denial. Addicts think everyone around them is making things up. But when the family gets together and talks to their loved one, each one holds a mirror up to his or her actions. They talk about how they see addiction affecting the addict, and what it has meant to them. If the addict chooses not to go, you can talk about consequences, but you can’t really give someone consequences when it’s a disease, any more than you would give a heart disease patient consequences. As I say in my book, intervention is successful about 80% of the time.

 

Pat: Please tell us what made you join the cast of “Intervention.”

 

Candy: (Laughs.) I actually signed on because I didn’t think it would fly. But Sam Mettler, the series creator, knew exactly what he wanted to do. I’ve asked people why they let the film crew film the experience, and they say “Because I never want anyone else to have to go through this.” The families have such generosity.

 

Pat:. How’s the program going?

 

Candy: We’re approaching our 175th show and over 90,000 people have applied to appear on it.   It’s more important than ever to get people into treatment. More people die today from accidental prescription pill overdose than from gunshot wounds.

 

NOTE from Joan Borsten:  The Intervention TV website is an excellent resource for locating treatment centers, sober living houses, and finding information about the disease of addiction.