CRAFT (Community Reinforcement and Family Training) and the Invitation to Change (ITC) are evidence-based approaches that help families support loved ones struggling with substance use. CRAFT empowers families to communicate effectively and set boundaries, while ITC promotes understanding, awareness, and action, fostering positive change through compassionate and strategic methods.
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Reducing Family Stress: The Benefits of CRAFT and ITC
When a person is experiencing issues due to their drug or alcohol use, their loved ones do too. The family wants to immediately send their loved one to treatment, control current use and expect the loved one to do all the work. But what happens when the family is met with resistance by their loved one? What can they do?
CRAFT (Community Reinforcement and Family Training) is a program designed to help families who have a loved one experiencing issues with substances, alcohol and/or drugs that has become problematic. CRAFT helps families stay connected, learn new ways to communicate differently and also learn to effectively encourage their loved to get some help. Families also learn to take care of themselves during this journey.
Robert Meyers is an internationally known psychologist from The University of New Mexico who created this approach with other colleagues and has the evidence to show that the CRAFT model has a 70% success rate of getting the loved one to start treatment within a year. His studies have shown that the family members who learned CRAFT skills had less anxiety, anger and depression as well. Unlike family therapy which includes the loved one, CRAFT’s approach centers around the family members.
“We look to help change the behavior of the clients so he or she does not continue to use old school ways that do not work.”
-Robert Meyer
Building upon the foundation of CRAFT, the Invitation to Change (ITC) model further enhances family support with an emphasis on empathy, understanding, and action. ITC promotes a deeper connection by encouraging family members to reflect on their own emotional responses and perspectives, empowering them to approach their loved one’s substance use with compassion and self-awareness. In combination, CRAFT and ITC provide families with a comprehensive toolkit to help them foster healthier communication, reduce stress, and encourage meaningful change.
Let’s explore the essential skills these models offer to families, and how they can be applied to create a more supportive environment for both the individual and their loved ones.
Setting Boundaries with Empathy: Key CRAFT Skills for Families
Families know their loved so well, what motivates them, how they behave while under the influence, their moods and yet they are unsure of how to use this information to help their loved one. Often families are either yelling, nagging or avoiding conversations, but with CRAFT, families learn how to:
- Communicate their needs effectively
- Begin to understand why their loved one drinks or uses drugs, which helps them navigate a conversation and build connection
- Improve empathetic listening, vs shaming and blaming
- Have a conversation about their use that encourages seeking treatment
- Gain access to treatment options once interest from the loved one is discussed
- Focus on the “positives” no matter how small or big, which encourages change that is sustainable
- Set boundaries with natural consequences that are kind and effective vs “tough love”
- Take care of themselves through the ups and downs
- Skills to address their loved one’s resistance to change
While CRAFT equips families with the tools to improve communication, set boundaries, and encourage treatment, the Invitation to Change (ITC) model expands on these principles by integrating deeper self-awareness, empathy, and action. ITC incorporates CRAFT by focusing on a compassionate, holistic approach that enhances the family’s ability to navigate their loved one’s resistance to change, fostering a more collaborative path to recovery.
Families who learn skills that incorporate kindness and compassion can begin to find connection with their loved one which in turn helps their loved one find their own motivation to change their behaviors around alcohol and substances.
The Invitation to Change: A Holistic Approach for Families
Another method like CRAFT is “The Invitation to Change” (ITC) mode. ITC is a holistic helping framework based in science and kindness, designed for the families and loved ones of people struggling with substance use, as well as the professionals who support them.” It was created by The Center for Motivation and Change.
ITC is made up of 3 main parts:
- Understanding
- Awareness
- Action
- AND Practice, Practice, Practice
The Three Pillars of ITC: Understanding, Awareness, and Action
It is a normal reaction to view a loved one’s substance/alcohol use as being selfish, crazy, or a moral failing. It’s also very common to feel frightened, lost, confused and angry and to take this personally. “Why me?” And how you view your loved one’s use can make it harder for any change to occur.
ITC uses three evidence based approaches:
1) Helping With Understanding-helps shift the perspective of the helper, enabling them to connect and collaborate, and to understand that the person’s using behaviors have an underlying reason and are “not crazy” or “personal.”
2) Helping with Awareness-helps the helper to include themselves in the “change process”. What can you do… being aware of your feelings and thoughts and how your body is doing along with checking in on your values, and what matters to you.
3) Helping with Action-helps the helper to learn communication tools and behavior tools which help recognize and reward positive behaviors, AND invites more change to occur.
Let’s explore a bit more within these modules.
Helping With Understanding
- Behaviors Make Sense-If we can understand the “why” behind the using behavior, it allows the helper to use that information to help their loved one get what they need in other ways. We all want to “fit in”, feel less anxious, sleep better etc, and substances are reliable, immediate and in the loved one’s control. Understanding that “Behaviors Make Sense” provides the opportunity to talk to your loved one in a way that helps them feel understood.
- Ambivalence is Normal–Changing old behaviors comes with ambivalence. It’s normal to want to change AND want things to stay the same. Understanding this will help the family to stay calm and have a very positive impact on communication. It can help you talk to the part of ambivalence that is considering a change.
- One Size Doesn’t Fit All– The “whys” people have for using are all different which allows for many paths to getting help. All families have different wants, needs, resources, influences and values. So, what works for one family may not for another family. No one else can fully understand the depth of a family’s experiences, emotions and challenges like the family itself. Though outside advice is meant to be helpful, we are the ones who must decide what works best.
Helping With Awareness
- Self -awareness–This section has families becoming aware of their own feelings and thoughts and the values that matter to them. It is very easy to get caught up in the crisis, feeling panic and frustration yet when you are aware of these feelings, you can develop strategies and plan which keep everyone on track.
- Willingness–This section helps families accept all feelings, including the pain so that you can stay connected to your loved one. Even when the loved one is not responsive at all (no reinforcement is experienced by the family members to continue to connect) is a time to explore what you value most, what you deeply care about, which helps you stay motivated (internal reinforcement).
- Self-Compassion–It is becoming aware of the negative chatter in your own head, that you have somehow failed and practicing a self-kindness voice and staying in the present rather than getting stuck in worries from the past or the “what-ifs” of the future.
Helping Through Action
- Communication Skills-These tools can help facilitate families responding in a way that their loved one feels “heard” and increases the likelihood of positive change. It involves being curious, engaging in empathetic listening, motivational Interviewing and pushing “pause”
- Behavior Tools–Using positive reinforcement is by far one of the most powerful ways to encourage and support changes in your loved one’s behavior. Learning how to catch them by doing something positive, setting boundaries and allowing for natural consequences to occur are skills learned in this section. By using reinforcement, it can help positive behaviors make sense to your loved one too.
- Practice, Practice, Practice-Give yourself room to make mistakes. Change happens by addition not subtraction.
CRAFT and ITC Empower Families in Substance Use Recovery
Both CRAFT (Community Reinforcement and Family Training) and the Invitation to Change (ITC) model offer families powerful tools to support loved ones struggling with substance use. CRAFT focuses on helping family members recognize their own roles and responses, allowing them to develop new skills that reinforce healthy behaviors and set effective boundaries. It shifts families from reacting emotionally to responding strategically, using communication techniques and self-care to create an environment conducive to change.
ITC complements CRAFT by incorporating kindness, connection, and science. This holistic approach emphasizes the uniqueness of each family’s situation, with the core belief that “One Size Doesn’t Fit All.” Together, CRAFT and ITC provide a comprehensive framework for families to not only support their loved one’s recovery but also to foster their own growth and resilience along the way.
Advaita Integrative Medicine hosts a weekly virtual family support group, rooted in the Invitation to Change model, which combines CRAFT and Motivational Interviewing strategies. If you’re seeking guidance on how to support a loved one struggling with substance use, simply fill out the form below to get started.
Written by: Carol Rose, CARC
