what is transformation and why does it matter?

If you have been around BALM for awhile, you know that we have a dual approach to recovery with three prongs and a curriculum designed to bring it all together.

The dual approach is:

• • get your life back
  • help your loved one get theirs back

The three prongs are:

• • information
  • transformation
  • support

These three prongs frame the curriculum as follows:

• Information:
  • 12 BALM Principles of Family Recovery
• Transformation:
  • 7 Steps to Be A Loving Mirror
• Support:
  • BALM Family Recovery Group Coaching
  • Journal Your Way to BALM Recovery
  • BALM Mindfulness Meditations

The recovery field is clear about the importance of family’s being well informed on the research and other information available today about SUD, trauma, use disorders in general, and other struggles of the mind that our loved ones face. Yet, when it comes to helping families become the people who can turn that information into well-informed action, few if any family programs provide the sort of inner change process that can help family members do so.

That’s our specialty at the BALM: Transformation.

Through our signature 7 Steps to Be A Loving Mirror course, family members attain:

• • a sense of inner calm
  • objective observation skills and
  • non-judgmental awareness of their own emotions

that transforms their ability to see themselves, their loved one and the world around them in a new way. On that basis, they learn how to communicate with their loved ones in a way that allows the communication to breakthrough  denial and resistance through brief, loving, fact-filled conversations that interventionists have referred to as “Daily Brief Mini-Interventions.”

BALM families hardly recognize their own approach as they go deeper into the program, and often their loved ones make comments like:

• • You have really changed
  • Did you really just ask my thoughts on that?
  • You are listening better than you ever have before
  • What is going on with you?

As a result of this new way of communicating and being in relationship with their loved one, they often find their loved one experiencing inner motivation to change their own lives, where before, there was total resistance.

This is not always an overnight process. Whereas some families see a change in themselves and their loved ones immediately, others take time.

The BALM One Year Online Program allows for this gradual change, as families build their recovery knowledge base along with their BALM Conversation skills. Support can help a great deal so many BALM families hire a BALM coach if they can and/or avail themselves of the group coaching that is part of the one year program.

Inner quiet is one of the major gifts of the BALM and the 7 Steps is the pathway to achieving it. For families looking to reinforce what they are learning in the one year program or who find they need an intensive approach to the 7 Steps, we offer an online 7 Steps retreat.

To learn more about the one year BALM Family Recovery Program, click here.

To learn more about the 7 Steps Retreat, click here.