Intervention Models

There are basically two models of intervention which that are commonly practiced by  Intervention specialists today. The Johnson Model, which is based on the philosophy espoused in the quote above, seeks to break the denial of the individual.  The second ane more recent model is predicated on  Motivational Interviewing.  It accepts the denial as peripheral to other core issues. We'll explore both of these in more detail below.

Intervention based on the Johnson Model
The Johnson Model of Intervention is named after Vernon Johnson who is thought by some to be the father of intervention. Johnson believed that it was a myth that individuals would wake up one day and realize all of their own volition that they needed to seek treatment for their alcohol or drug problem.  This lead him to believe that forceful confrontatio will nearly always be necessary to break through the denial that is so pervasive among alcoholics and addicts.

In the Johnson Model a professional interventionist  help family, friends and even employers to confront the chemically dependant individual.  Many interventionist today will have each family member express their care for the person in their own words.  This will be followed by statements of how the chemically dependant person is hurting his or her self as well as hurting the speaker. This will be followed by guarantees of support for the positive behavior of entering treatment, but also an explanation of negative consequences if the individual refuses treatment.  In this way the proverbial "bottom" is raised so that the chemically dependant person may seek help before doing further damage.

Motivational Interviewing as Intervention
In 1991, long after the Johnson Model had been accepted as the best practice model of intervention, William Miller, of the University of New Mexico, and Stephen Rollnick, facult at the University of Wales College of Medicine, developed a research based approach to intervention. Their seminal work Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People to Change Addictive Behavior acknowledges that not all individuals may be open to the direct tactics employed by the Johnson intervention model.


In their work Miller and Rollnick propose a methodological approach which looks at stages of change in the client.  Through Motivational Interviewing they seek to have the professional counselor, or interventionist, work with a client to determine the specific desire or willingness of a client to change. Obviously, inherent in this is an assumption that clients will desire change when they understand how and why their use of alcohol and/or drugs is not serving them well.  The counselors appropriate course of action is therefore determined by the driving motivations behind the individuals desire to change. Motivational Interviewing suggests that "client resistance is a therapist problem"; not the problem of the client. In this models professionals take corrective courses in their own actions to bring about change in the client.

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