HALO Coaching (Helping a Loved One)
Scientific research supports the HALO method
Dr. Marc F. Kern's HALO Method (Helping a Loved One) is backed by a massive amount of clinical research studies, including the study highlighted below. These studies, involving thousands and thousands of men and women who have loved ones with alcohol and drug problems, have consistently proven that the HALO Method and its predecessor method, CRAFT, are significantly more effective getting the loved one into treatment than other programs including Al-Anon.Research Highlights:
Excerpted from "The CRAFT of Getting Loved Ones Sober," Brenda L. Wolfe, Ph.D. and Robert J. Meyers, Ph.D.In a large trial funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, (Miller et al., 1999), 130 Concerned Significant Others (CSOs) were randomized into one of three treatments. (93 percent female; 53 percent white; 39 percent Hispanic)
(1) Al-Anon facilitation therapy, designed to encourage CSO involvement in the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program and to get their drinkers into treatment,
(2) Johnson Institute Intervention to prepare the CSO for a family meeting designed to push the drinker into treatment, and
(3) CRAFT, which taught behavioral-change skills and strategies for guiding the drinker into treatment (Dr. Kern's HALO method is based on this approach)
All three treatments included twelve hours of contact over a six-month period. By the end of the study:
- 64% of CSOs in the CRAFT group were effective in engaging their resistant drinkers into treatment
- 30% of CSOs in the Johnson Institute Intervention were effective in engaging their resistant drinkers into treatment
- 13% of CSOs in the Al-Anon group were effective in engaging their resistant drinkers into treatment
Contemporary Addiction Recovery Guidance and Treatment