“Your Empowering Solution”

Five years ago when we sat around discussing whether or not to combine our individual practices, we played around with what we should name it. We knew what we did, and what you might want, but how to describe it?

We played around with acronyms and slogans and had brainstorming sessions and laughed at the ridiculous impossibilities we conjured up until…

One day we played around with the word “YES” – as a counterpoint to the idiotic “just say no” – and there it was:

“Y” Your solution, not ours, or theirs, or some half-baked cults. Yours;

“E” Empowering, not “powerless” and not a program that turns you into a victim, but one that frees you from alcohol, from labels, from a diminished life;

“S” Solutions, not rigid conformist “steps”, not a magic bullet, and not a quick fix – just the particular combination of changes that make up your individual solution to your unique alcohol problems.

And so, “Y.E.S.” we became and remain.

No, it’s not a phrase that most of you would have typed into Google to find us. But it’s still what we do and who we are. And it’s what we offer you every day – the answers that truly do make up

“Your Empowering Solution”

We’re ready to help you discover it and live it. Give us a call.

Working With Couples

Over the years we have developed an approach that is effective for couples whether they both abuse alcohol or not. This has allowed our clients to be far more successful than any other program.

Why?

As usual, the research is clear, those who succeed in changing self-destructive behaviors are successful, first, when they believe they can (the exact opposite of “admitted I was powerless”), second, when they have a supportive spouse, and, third, when they have good short-term help. Put these three together and the odds of you eliminating your alcohol abuse go from less than 5% (AA and 12-Step based treatment) to 66% or more.

Since we’re interested in helping you achieve the outcome you want, not in initiating you into a cult, we provide every resource we can that will assist you in succeeding. That includes working with spouses so they can be truly supportive or working with both of you together so that you can fix your mutual problem together.

How hard is that to understand?

That’s right. It’s easy to understand, and easier yet to see why this approach means you’ll be ten or fifteen times as apt to leave alcohol abuse behind than you are with any of the other failed regimens that pass for treatment here in the U.S. as well as in Canada and Australia.

No, both spouses don’t always have an alcohol problem, and neither is responsible for the other’s drinking. But ending the problem means creating a better relationship and that requires changes by both spouses.

Why not give us a call and we can discuss what’s needed? After all, you’ve nothing to lose and a lot to gain.

And whether we work with one or both of you, you’ll know you’ve chosen the best possible help for the problems you want to leave behind.

A Letter

Hello — I was involved with the alcohol and drug research program at Vanderbilt University in the early 1980s. Several researchers there were beginning to take a critical look at AA and related 12-Step programs and were subjecting their claims to rigorous program evaluation criteria. Stanton Peele’s ideas, for example, were influential among the researchers I worked with. I developed a highly skeptical outlook on all 12-Step programs and have intermittently tried to keep up with those who share that skepticism even though I left the field many years ago.

I’ve recently faced serious alcohol abuse in my own family, and I’m delighted to find that you are diligently exposing some of the bunk, dangerous misinformation, and outright exploitation in the 12-Step industry. I’ve passed your website and all of your Newsletters on to two people who are fighting this problem as part of an effort to provide an alternative form of help. I’m very pleased to report that – without ever having met these two relative of mine – your approach has made a genuine difference and has helped to restore their self-respect and sense of autonomy in dealing with their problems.

I look forward to your very sensible counsel and observations in the Newsletter and the website. It was really refreshing to discover your approach, and I’m greatly reassured that we still have many practitioners who haven’t been cowed by the 12-Step tyranny, as I call it.

You have really helped, and I can’t thank you enough. Not only have you vindicated everything I have tried to say to the people who are struggling with alcohol, but you also show an awareness of the long-term consequences to privacy and confidentiality of getting drawn into the conventional treatment racket. I’m greatly relieved that both are doing well and have declined residential treatment. I’m very optimistic now.

C. McL.

And if the Newsletters and articles leave you wanting additional help in successfully addressing your own alcohol abuse, or that of a spouse or other family member, give us a call.

One of us answers the phone personally from 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., Pacific Time, unless we’re 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.