What role that you play is most important to you? Dad? Citizen? Provider?

How do beliefs in yourself affect your roles as parent, citizen and financial provider? Are these beliefs important?

Can you share here what that is?

What about CTC and AOD beliefs? Good question.

Permission-granting criminal thinking and conduct, CTC beliefs are critical regarding family and public safety. When the permission-granting beliefs are about using, dealing, or trafficking in alcohol and other drugs, AOD, we are talking about a deadly social cocktail. If it’s illicit it is a real problem.

People die. Even under or after the care of professionals, people die.

Mathew Perry is the latest public figure example. His death was tragic and avoidable.

What are your beliefs about the quality of care he received? He reported spending $7M-$9M on 15 or more rehabilitation programs over 30 years.

“Yougottawanna” change as AAers have heard for decades. Did he want to change? Did he want to live? He says yes. He wanted to change and live, as he stated in his book, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.”

What were his beliefs?

Newsweek published a list of the Top 350 Treatment Organizations in the U.S. That’s the top 2%. There are 17,353 of these according to Google.

Is your organization on the list?

How can all agencies have an 85% success rate when the department of justice reports an 85% recidivism and reincarceration rate after 10 years?

Do you believe ten years is long term? I do.

“There will be no long-term behavior changes unless you change permission-granting, CTC beliefs, regarding AOD first.” Wanberg, Milkman, Beck and Dokmanus.

You, we, I have got to work with the clients and offenders to help them to identify and change their CTC beliefs.

No B, therefore, No A. Where B equals long-term behavior change and A equals belief change.

KISS. Simply address the limiting beliefs ASAP in treatment. Begin the first hour, day and week. Time will fly. People die.

Keep it simple with ATA. Ask, tell, ask. “If I could show you a way to change that limiting belief, would you be interested in seeing how it works?”

Then you have permission to start your first BEMT session. Do it now. People die.

Belief Eye Movement Therapy, BEMT, is the quickest, shortest route between two points in treatment. But, “Yougottawanna!”

Message me if you are interested in getting started individually or as a group.

The CBT map image is from Drug Court Treatment: The Verdict. Amazon.com.

Last week I asked if you were in Newsweek’s Top 350 of Substance Abuse Treatment Providers leaderboard? Did you check if you were on the list?

I checked for local names and there were none.

I’d mentioned I’d been in my company’s Top 10 out of 6000 agents, It takes commitment, focus and relentless pursuit to be in the top 10.

It’s like they say in AA: YouGottaWanna. That implies a need for motivation.

I’d noticed that apathy and ennui seemed to be pervasive at my workplace. I’ve wondered about the cause and what were the CBT similarities between organizations and humans.

Anhedonia kept popping up. I questioned AI about my theory.

AI: “It’s important to acknowledge that anhedonia, which is a symptom characterized by a lack of motivation or enjoyment in usual activities, can indeed have a significant impact on individuals, including those who work in substance abuse treatment and mental health agencies. People with a history of substance use disorders may experience anhedonia as a result of their condition. Your concern about how anhedonia can affect group morale and the willingness to explore new treatment possibilities is valid.”

This was encouraging. I asked AI for recommendations to provide solutions.

AI: “Certainly, let’s discuss how the challenges and issues mentioned earlier can contribute to limiting beliefs among staff and the group, which in turn can hinder their performance and ability to help clients.

1. Anhedonia and Limiting Beliefs:
Challenge: When staff members experience anhedonia or a lack of motivation and enjoyment in their work, it can lead to limiting beliefs such as “we can’t make a difference” or “clients won’t change.”

AI: “Impact: These limiting beliefs can become self-fulfilling prophecies, causing staff to be less proactive in seeking innovative solutions and providing the best care possible.”

AI: “Solution: Address staff well-being through mental health support and training to combat these limiting beliefs. Encourage a positive mindset by highlighting success stories and the impact of their work on clients’ lives.”

Matthew Perry was a drug court spokesperson. His death was tragic and avoidable. He didn’t speak well of treatment providers. “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” pp180-181, Flatiron Books.

Not a success story at all. He’s dead. Remember: If nothing changes, nothing changes.

The top is where everything starts in organizations. There is a trickle-down effect. This is where the changes must start. I’d like to help.

12-Step program for SUD treatment providers:
Step 1: We came to believe that our beliefs about how to do treatment needed improvement if we want to reach the top 350.

Beliefs are the first place to start. Message me if you would like more free information or to discuss your situation.

The CBT map image is from Drug Court Treatment: The Verdict. Amazon.com

I’ve been in the top ten. The top ten on the leaderboard for my company. Top ten out of six thousand agents. 6000. It’s a great feeling.

Previously I was a life insurance professional. I have my CLU, ChFC, and LUTCF designations. I sold of lot of life insurance.

It takes commitment, focus and relentless pursuit to be in the top 10.

Beliefs, values, goals, thought, feelings, and emotions lead to successful sales outcomes.

It’s the same CBT process that leads to other behaviors such as crime and addiction. Or the top 350.

Organizations have a CBT process too. Why not?

Limiting beliefs and values don’t get positive results.

When I transitioned back into human services as a substance abuse counselor, I could see that the process was the same.

Establish rapport, find the problem, show the solution, close the deal, and ask for referrals. As a counselor serving the drug court system asking for referrals isn’t as important.

The judge gave us all the referrals needed.

What did the leaders listed by Newsweek do different to get in the top 350? There are 17,353 treatment providers in the U.S. Three hundred fifty is the top two percent (2%.) That is quite an accomplishment. Bravo!

What do other substance abuse treatment providers need to do to get to the top 350?
What are they not doing that the really good ones are doing?

Matthew Perry did not have a lot of good things to say about most of the treatment providers he dealt with. He used a lot of foul language to describe them. “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” pp180-181, Flatiron Books.

His death was tragic and avoidable. Permission-granting beliefs need to be addressed.

Most learning is done by observation. The top 350 would make excellent role models. Why not check with them to see what they do different?

Why not hire a coach?

The top is where most of the organizational processes starts. Then everything sort of rolls downhill.

How do the bottom 350 agencies get out of the basement?

If there were a 12-Step program for SUD treatment providers what would Step one look like?
Step 1: We came to believe that our beliefs about how to do treatment needed improvement if we want to reach the top 350.

This could be a sensitive issue requiring confidential coaching. The CEO could meet in private with a coach with fresh eyes. After a meeting of the minds regarding next level performance the information could be shared with and utilized by the staff.

Beliefs are the first place to start. Message me if you would like more free information.

We can learn a lot from Matthew Perry’s memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.” Is it your story?

Matty, as his “friends” called him, leaves a message for all of us. This includes communities, governments, treatment organizations, and individuals.

I said it’s a sad tale. That’s an understatement. He just wanted to feel “different.” He didn’t want to die. He begged and prayed for help.

Did the system betray him? Is it malpractice by treatment providers? Is it moral failure? Alcohol? Addiction?

We need tighter controls; more governance is this field.

Using since the age of 14, he spent $9M on 15 rehab stints over about 29 years, and then, addiction killed him.

He spent more time in sober living. He claimed over 10,000 hours of AA meetings.

He wrote that he felt most treatment organizations were simply a money grab. He could afford the best like some of those mentioned in Newsweek’s top 350 treatment providers.

He does not speak well of them overall. “My own experience,” he wrote, “…led me to believe that most of these places are pieces of s***…” (Friend, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing, Flatiron Books, Matthew Perry, pp180-181.)

Talk about beliefs.

On my second reading of the book, I still cannot find proof that he ever changed his permission-granting beliefs about using alcohol and other drugs. They were in his system when he died.

There is no proof that anyone showed him how to identify and change his limiting, permission-granting addiction beliefs.

My opinion is that teaching belief change is the number one priority for providers. If nothing changes, nothing changes.

Change work must be emphasized above all. Matty was not paying for reports and documents. He didn’t care about billing. “I didn’t want to die.” (p. 164, he tells us now, from the hereafter.

He just wanted to feel better. He wanted someone to help him
with his sadness to fill the holes of abandonment. He wanted to change.

Did standard treatment protocols get in the way of change work?

If nothing changes, nothing changes. We need to help people like Matthew Perry change. That starts with helping them change their CTC permission-granting addiction beliefs as Beck stated.

“Nothing had ever worked LONG TERM before,” he wrote, (P. 168.)

“There will be no long-term behavior changes unless you change core beliefs first,” according to Wanberg and Milkman. Albert Ellis showed us how with his ABC-DE Theory.

That’s what Belief Eye Movement Therapy, BEMT, is all about. The primary purpose of BEMT is to help people like Matthew to elicit, recognize and change unwanted, limiting, permission-granting beliefs that will kill them.

The primary goal is change work. Paperwork and billing will follow.

“Message me” if you want to learn how to do BEMT for you or your clients. We can do live staff trainings, Zoom, or any combination.