CRAFT is a set of skills that teach you how to encourage your loved one who is struggling with addiction and or a mental health disorder. It is focused on behavior change that can help everyone in the family.

One of the first things we learned in CRAFT was the 3 C’s of behavioral health disorders:

● You didn’t CAUSE it

● You can’t CONTROL it

● You can’t CURE it

CRAFT Connect offers four levels of support

Assess & Connect

Education

Support groups

One on one coaching

Validation means finding the kernel of truth in someone’s perspective of a situation that verifies their facts. It acknowledges that their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors are real, make sense, have causes and are understandable to you. It is important to validate the valid … of others' experience, feelings, beliefs, opinions, or thoughts.”

There are three components to Communication skills training in CRAFT Connect:

● PIUS Communication skills as to how we talk

● Reflective Listening as to how we truly listen

● Validation skills that help bridge and balance how much talking vs listening we do

Focus on the Mending. How CRAFT Connect Helps to Reconnect

If you’ve been following these posts, you’ve read plenty about what I’ve learned through CRAFT Connect. However, in spite of the learning and practicing, I can easily revert to “pre-craft behaviors”, the reactionary behaviors that I relied on before building a CRAFT Connect toolkit.

CRAFT Connect Family Support has been an important place for me to face that fear, to accept the realities of my daughter’s life. With CRAFT Connect skills I can acknowledge my fear, and accept that acting from my fear is not the best way to support my loved one. In fact, it often leads to non-productive and hurtful ways to “support”. And, I have tools that I can call on to help me act and connect from a place outside of that fear.

There are three components to Communication skills training in CRAFT:

● PIUS Communication skills as to how we talk

● Reflective listening as to how we truly listen

● Validation skills that help bridge and balance how much talking vs listening we do