Assessment | Planning | Implementation | Evaluation
Assessment: Many substance abusers see their addiction very differently than those family and friends who are directly and often negatively affected by the users’ behavior. So when a drug and alcohol assessment is conducted where just the substance user provides the data is often an incorrect assessment. The MLB Method uses an assessment model that forces the client to divulge the actual root causes of their addiction and focuses on truths that can’t be denied, thereby creating for the client a more accurate perception of their level of addiction.
Planning: The MLB Method planning stage addresses the client’s most critical addiction concerns and behaviors. We will thoroughly review the assessment data and counselor findings with the client. This interaction allows the client to partake in the planning process moving forward while adhering to our recommendations and conclusions that we have drawn. Together we will determine the keywords that most identify and relate to the client’s particular drug and alcohol abuse experience so that we may write a new chapter of sobriety and recovery.
Implementation: Once the client and MLB counselor have agreed on the path forward, the balls will literally start rolling. The MLB Method is an innovative and creative toolkit for focusing and verbalizing deep-seated thoughts and issues at the core of a substance abuser’s psyche. Our objective is to use keywords singularly or in combination to help better understand and craft potential sobriety pathways through self-realization and adopting new thought processes antithetical to substance abuse. We communicate openly and honestly and readily confront challenging issues to deliver the truth directly.
Evaluation: While we at My Life Ball want our clients to embrace and enjoy the methodology, we are not in the warm and fuzzy meeting business. Drug and alcohol addiction is a deadly serious affliction affecting our society. As such, our approach is to speak bluntly to clients while maintaining a level of humanity that fosters positive outcomes. After assessment and implementation data have been compared and it is determined that the desired behavioral changes are not occurring, we will adjust our approach to achieve the correct pathway to sobriety.
Sober Visioning
Sobriety starts with a dream. Individuals that dream, called a vision, is the realization of a desired future outcome. It provides the roadmap for what the individual or group intends to do, become, or create. Operating without a vision is much like taking a trip without a destination. My Life Ball trigger word ball selection helps clients discuss and travel the critical points on their roadmap. MLB counselors provide the expert facilitation needed to bring their vision to fruition.
Daily Affirmations
The mental rigors of attaining and maintaining sobriety can take a severe psychological toll. Verbal affirmations can help to view the world from a more positive, addiction-free perspective. The MLB Method can help counsel participants to find the words that replace the negative thoughts that prevail in times of drug and alcohol addiction cravings. Over time, the daily use of these affirmations may help reduce the potential for relapse.
Relapse Risk Avoidance
The MLB Method seeks to address the most common forms of drug and alcohol relapse triggers. The Emotional Relapse with features of suppressed emotions, isolation, and poor self-care. Mental Relapse is evidenced in memories of people, places, and things associated with past use. The Physical Relapse represents the collapse of sobriety by partaking in drugs or alcohol consumption. The MLB Method focuses on addressing relapse’s emotional and mental aspects to avoid the failure of continued drug and alcohol addiction.
Maintaining Sober Life
The My Life Ball approach counsels clients to understand the consequences of sobriety inaction may include financial, legal, and interpersonal costs. We help participants know the value of “Key Word” Life Balls that trigger specific paths of communicating their innermost thoughts and feelings concerning addiction. We then stress the positive impact of expressing themselves to those most negatively affected by their drug and alcohol abuse. This reconciling conversation may help reinforce our client’s desire to maintain sobriety.
Updating Life Skills
One of the most harrowing fears of those striving to maintain sobriety is the reintroduction to a sober society that requires documents such as a social security card, driver’s license, or State ID long lost in the haze of addiction. Other accounts with banks, utilities, etc., help reestablish a client’s productive place in society. In addition, the soft skills of business/personal interactions may need to be relearned to increase the likelihood of long-term sobriety success. The MLB Method understands a client’s potential apprehension and trepidation when broaching these subjects. It uses the trigger word Life Balls to hone in on the underlying fears to summon the courage to pursue these needed credentials, skills, and institutional relationships.
Employment Goal Setting
Gaining post-addiction employment might be one of the most daunting pursuits that a former substance abuser may face. An extended absence from the job market and much-deteriorated job skills, if any, may seem like impossible roadblocks to overcome. Our counselors use the My Life Ball tool kit to assist clients in finding the words that express their fears of attaining employment and gaining acceptance once in the workplace. Our objective is to instill in clients the confidence needed to aggressively take the additional steps required to achieve their employment goals.
Managing Sobriety
MLB counselors realize that staying sober means participating in activities that prevent relapse. Long-term sobriety can mean seeking support and developing relationships that foster a healthy mindset. Our team has developed a word-based relapse prevention model that focuses on social networks, role functioning, and self-monitoring and conceptualizes self-care as critical to extending periods of wellness. The MLB tool kit uses trigger words that provoke client discussions that may not otherwise occur.
Rebuilding Relationships
Drug and alcohol abuse takes a massive toll on the family and friends of those addicted. Most relationships end up in tatters, but many are not beyond repair. The MLB Method specifically strives to tailor conversations to address the hurt caused by actions taken while in the throws of addiction. Healing can not occur until our clients recognize and understand the full extent of harm caused to family and friends. Only then can our clients construct a framework of forgiveness and take steps to implement it.
