CRAFT Coaching for Families Affected by Addiction
There is another way to support your loved one and yourself.
When someone you love is struggling with substance use, it can feel like you’re running out of options. You’ve tried talking. You’ve tried pleading. You’ve tried setting boundaries. You’ve tried giving consequences. You’ve tried helping. You’ve tried stepping back.
And you may have heard:
“They have to want help.”
“There's nothing you can do until they're ready.”
“You need to let them hit rock bottom.”
But what if you don’t have to wait for rock bottom?
What if there were practical, evidence-based skills you could learn to communicate differently, reduce conflict, encourage positive change, and take better care of yourself along the way?
There is. It’s called: CRAFT - Community Reinforcement and Family Training.
What Is CRAFT?
CRAFT is a behavioral, research-supported approach designed to help family members and other concerned loved one’s support someone who is struggling with substance use, especially when that person isn't interested in changing or seeking treatment.
CRAFT focuses on what you can do.
Rather than trying to control, confront, convince, or force your loved one to change - you’ll learn strategies for understanding behavior, improving communication, reinforcing positive behaviors, allowing appropriate natural consequences, and strengthening your own well-being.
You can’t control whether your loved one uses substances.
You can’t make them choose recovery.
But you can learn new ways of responding that may influence what happens next. And that can be incredibly empowering.
Is CRAFT Right for You?
CRAFT May Be Right for You If…
You love someone who is struggling with alcohol or other substances, and you’re feeling:
- Exhausted from constantly worrying about them.
- Unsure what to say, or afraid that saying the wrong thing will make things worse.
- Frustrated by repeated conversations that go nowhere.
- Caught between wanting to help and wondering if you’re enabling.
- Afraid to set limits because you don’t want to damage the relationship.
- Confused about when to step in and when to step back.
- Tired of hearing that you should simply “detach”.
- Uncomfortable with the idea of waiting for your loved one to “hit bottom”.
- Ready to learn a different way of responding.
CRAFT coaching can be helpful whether your loved one is a young adult, adult child, spouse, partner, or another family member.
And your loved one does not have to be ready for treatment for you to begin. You can start learning new skills now.
Communication
Learn how to communicate in ways that are more likely to reduce defensiveness and keep connection possible.
We’ll explore what to say, how to say it, and when to say it. Because sometimes knowing when not to have the conversation is just as important as knowing what to say.
Positive Reinforcement
When substance use has become the focus of family life, it's easy to see everything that’s going wrong.
CRAFT teaches us to intentionally notice moments when your loved one is making healthier choices or doing something positive and learn how to respond in ways that encourage more of that behavior.
What we notice and reinforce can grow.
Understanding Behavior
CRAFT encourages curiosity about what happens before and after substance use and other behaviors.
- What might be triggering the behavior?
- What happens afterward?
- What might unintentionally be reinforcing the pattern?
Understanding doesn’t mean approving, it gives us more choices.
Natural Consequences
When you love someone deeply, it can be incredibly difficult to watch them experience the consequences of their choices. CRAFT helps you consider when stepping in may actually keep an unhealthy pattern going and when allowing a natural consequence may be more helpful.
This isn’t about punishment.
It’s about making thoughtful choices that are compassionate, sustainable, and consistent with your values.
Your Well-Being
CRAFT isn’t only about changing what happens with your loved one. It’s about changing what happens for you, too.
Supporting someone through substance use can affect your stress, relationships, sleep, emotional well-being, and quality of life. Learning to take care of yourself isn’t abandoning your loved one. It’s part of supporting your family.
My Personal Experience With CRAFT
A message from owner, Laurie Santiago-Hooper
As a Family Recovery Coach and CRAFT-trained facilitator, I’ve found CRAFT to be one of the most helpful frameworks I can offer families who feel stuck.
It gives you real-life skills - not just information or another list of things you’re “supposed” to do.
Skills you can practice in the middle of everyday situations:
- The difficult phone call.
- The missed commitment.
- The unexpected crisis.
- The conversation that isn’t going the way you hoped.
- The moment when you realize you’re about to fall back into an old pattern.
CRAFT gives us an opportunity to pause and ask:
“What response is most likely to move me toward the relationship and outcome I value?”
I’ve seen how learning these skills can help reduce some of the tension that so often develops in families affected by substance use. Not because CRAFT makes difficult situations disappear. But because families begin to feel less stuck and more capable.
They begin to recognize that they have choices.
They begin responding with more intention and less reactivity.
And sometimes, changing the way we respond can begin changing the entire dynamic of a relationship.
CRAFT Resources & Further Reading
I believe families deserve access to trustworthy, evidence-based information. These organizations have been important resources in my CRAFT education and practice:
Partnership to End Addiction
Resources & education for families affected by substance use, including information on CRAFT.
Center for Motivation and Change
Research, education, and resources related to CRAFT, family support, and evidence-based approaches to substance use.
American Psychological Association
Information about CRAFT and research related to family-based approaches to substance use.
“Invitation to Change” Free Support Group
FREE 15-week online support group for family members navigating a loved one’s substance use or other harmful behaviors. This group offers practical, evidence-based tools for responding to a loved one’s substance use or other harmful behaviors.
Join us any Wednesday night at 7pm ET.