CRISIS ASPECTS
When the addict enters a treatment program it may
either be at a time of crisis,"
or, if his entry is a step toward growth or individua-tion, a family crisis may soon ensure (Chapters 1, 4, and 6). In addition, the very fact that the family is asked
to participate in therapy can produce
a crisis.
Principle 8: Viewing the family
recruitment effort al crisis-inducing can
help the therapist in his engagement efforts. With these families, the very mention
of their involvement can lead to a crisis. The message given is not one usually received in
conventional drug-treatment programs, which
tend to view the IP and the problem more
individually. Nor is it a message that the family expects. The whole recruitment process, then, is an intervention
that shifts re-sponsibility for the
problem to the total system of intimate others. These people are told that they are important—if not in generating the problem, then in helping to alleviate it.
There is an implicit statement to the
parents that "you have not resolved something with your son." Carl Whitaker has noted that just
getting the family to consider who is
to come—who belongs—is itself a major interven-tion. Furthermore, the act of coming to treatment may be the first time the family has organized itself to do
something together as a family.* If
the therapist recognizes this, it will help him make appropriate joining and supportive moves. Also, if
he conveys a sense of calm and
confidence, he may help reduce the inevitable tension that the family will feel in the face of this
crisis.
