Forum: Close to Home
Topic: What elements are important in a prevention program?
Topic Posted by: Close To HomeDate Posted: Wed Mar 18 15:22:22 1998
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Posted by: Annette (abessey@yahoo.com )
Organization:Opportunities Unlimited, Inc.
Date posted: Mon Apr 6 21:50:52 1998
Subject: Cognitive Restructuring/"Thinking Change"
Message:
You can read my story in the "real stories" section if you would like to know a little about my own background and drug addiction, etc. But from my experience, I believe that if you do not get at the thinking process (if you change the way you think, you change the way you act), the information many times provided in drug treatment won't work. I was fortunate to have been exposed to a program titled "A Framework for Breaking Barriers," a program produced by Gordon Graham & Company out of the Seattle, Washington area. I am now a master trainer for Gordon Graham & Company, and I am the director of operations of a non-profit organization founded by Gordon Graham which provides an awesome at-risk youth project in communities across the country. The process Gordon's programs provide (and he has a program titled "A Framework for Recovery which is same concepts as Breaking Barriers, but examples are substance abuse related) deals with identifying barriers (habits, skills, preconditioned beliefs, attitudes and expectations) that keep us stuck. It deals with changing the negative self-talk cycle we get in -- changing negative self-talk to positive with positve affirmations, and it deals with setting goals and developing an action plan, and affirming and visioning the achievement of what it is you want. It's a self-discovery process (change is an inside job), presented in a non-threatening way, that reaches people where they're at. It allows you to discover what it is you want, and gives you tools to be successful in getting there. I honestly believe I would not be alive today if I had not been exposed to the information I got in Breaking Barriers. I believe you must get at the thought process in the very beginning of a treatment program. It opens people's awareness to the possibilities, and they are better able to accept what the rest of a typical drug treatment program has to offer.
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