Why We Only Accept One New Client Each Week

Callers often ask about our policy of only adding one new client, or couple, per week. Granted, it doesn’t make us rich, but it does insure that you will receive the attention that changing your relationship to alcohol requires.

It also allows us to invest in you. We get to know you, and you get to know us, so that follow-up, whether in person or by phone, has the necessary foundation to build on.

It also means that you needn’t fear exposure – our services are delivered in absolute confidentiality.

That not only applies to the work we do with you, but also to the physicians we work with. Gwenne or Tim Norcross will evaluate you for the possibility of withdrawal and suitability for the anti-craving support medication Naltrexone. They advise our clients and prescribe accordingly.

Their work is included in your visit to us and will never appear in either your regular medical or insurance records. That means receiving medical help for your alcohol related problems will not come back to haunt you in years to come.

We also do no group work – just you, perhaps a spouse or family member, and the two of us. No other clients, or volunteers, or staff, or “lifers” to put your privacy at risk.

In addition to safeguarding your privacy, what our provision of services model really delivers is a 100% focus on what you need. No wasted time, no “fillers”, and no time diverted to someone Else’s unrelated problems or distractions.

Imagine that. You have both of us working with you to unravel what you’re using alcohol for and how best to replace it. During that first 5 Days, we will each spend 12 – 15 hours with you, and we will be spending another 8-10 hours working together ourselves to bring all of our experience to creating your unique, individual, and personal solution.

What does that mean? Consider that most 90 programs give you as little 12 hours of individual time over 12 weeks – and that with a para-professional “counselor” with no training or experience beyond AA indoctrination. How well do you think that’s going to work out for you?

Finally, there’s the matter of follow-up. As you know, most programs offer little or none, and most of it is the counter-productive “don’t drink; go to AA” Bucket of Crabs refrain.

No, sitting around back rooms and basements, drinking bad coffee, collecting trinkets, and whining about drinking and the old days isn’t going to make it happen. Just the opposite – it’ll keep you from ever making the changes that a healthy and satisfying life require.

We, on the other hand, are fully aware that changing your drinking behaviors really takes place in the context of your every day life. Treatment either prepares you to make those changes, and supports you through the first critical months, or it doesn’t.

And we stick with you. For most of you, that amounts to 12 weeks but we’re available for as long as it takes. We schedule appointments every week, but we’re also available whenever you need us. After all, with any change, “things” come up – and you need to know we are available – not some clueless cult member, inane meeting, or online chat room.

What’s that all add up to for you? It comes to 45-60 hours of experienced, coordinated, effective services for one quarter to one tenth the cost of what the ineffectual 12 Steppers are foisting off on you as treatment. Along with a 70+% chance of success as opposed to a less than 5% chance.

Our clients are successful because they believe in themselves, they are motivated to change, and because we believe in them while support and coach them through the entire process.

Together we can help you create a better life without alcohol abuse. So, give us a call and let’s get started now!

Teamwork!

Callers are surprised to learn that we work with them as a team. Yes, we could see more clients if we worked individually, and we are each pretty good at what we do. But together we are a lot better and you deserve the best we have to offer you.

What does this team approach mean exactly? It means you get the advantages of:

  • Ed’s personal experience with alcohol abuse and fully recovering from it;
  • Mary Ellen’s experience as a family member looking for and finding help;
  • our experience as smart, competent, professional men and women;
  • our extensive experience, training, and research;
  • men’s and women’s perspectives;
  • the choice to work with either or both of us at any time;
  • and, when working with couples, no one ends up feeling like it’s “two on one” the bug-a-boo of all “couples’ counseling” whether it’s true or not.

As always those are big advantages, but what they add up to are choices for you. You stay in charge of your life and your success.

We don’t dictate what you must do, what group you must join, that you must leave your spouse behind; that you must isolate yourself from people, or anything else.

We believe in you and your ability to change and in our ability to work with you to make those changes effectively and permanently.

That’s why you get, and deserve, our teamwork approach. A team that includes you, possibly a spouse, and the two of us. And that the only “group” you’ll ever need.

Don’t hesitate to call and discuss all of the other advantages this approach offers you.

Odds and Ends

If you’re a new subscriber, or if you’re wondering about something you read in a previous Newsletter, most of the newsletters are archived on the website under the tab labeled – you guessed it – “Newsletters”!

More popular links:

Resources For You! for the Goal Setting; Cost/Benefit Analysis; and Weekly Planner Models – all free and available again for the 2010;

Alcohol Abuse, Alcoholism, and 12 Step Programs That Can’t Tell the Difference, don’t care, and will gladly burden you with an inappropriate and damaging label that will haunt you for the rest of your life;

Women and Alcohol – What To Consider In Treatment and why women need and deserve services built around women’s needs, not just another recycled (and failed) men’s program – which is all anyone else has to offer;

Confidentiality, why you want to avoid residential treatment, groups of all kinds, and/or using insurance for treatment or medications;

The Bucket of Crabs or Why AA and Al-Anon are Bad For Your Health;

*******

And, as usual, whether you need to abstain or cut back, or discover what’s possible for you, we’re here to help.

For information, or just to talk, one of us answers the phone personally from 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., Pacific Time seven days a week unless we are with clients.

If we don’t answer, leave your name and number and one of us will usually be able to get back to you within an hour.