Success in recovery, or rather, staying in recovery, is dependent upon
a variety of factors.   For example, it appears that
attending daily NA or AA meetings and staying in communication with
ones chosen sponsor will definitely assist an individual in
successfully implementing his recovery plan.  Getting and staying
committed to working the 12 Step Program also appears to increase the
probability of the person staying abstinent from drugs and
alcohol.  While the above-mentioned elements of a persons overall
recovery plan are crucial to his recovery, another major factor that
will greatly influence an individual's continued abstinence is how he
is able to handle the breakdowns that happen in life.



Knowing about breakdowns, what they are and how to manage them, is
absolutely necessary for one to stay committed to his recovery
plan.  Breakdowns are what brought an individual into treatment
and eventually created the space for him to begin his recovery. 
Breakdowns also happen while a person is in treatment and will continue
to take place after he leaves.  Even after successfully completing
a treatment program, breakdowns are almost certain to happen as one
returns to the community from which he came.  In fact, both the
client and his counselor should expect breakdowns to occur after
treatment.  It is for this reason that knowledge of the structure
of breakdowns and how to transform them is very important if not
crucial for the individual wanting recovery.



What are breakdowns  Experientially breakdowns start to occur
when an event or events happen that the individual believes should not
happen or ought to happen differently than how they take place. 
As a result the individual starts to feel frustrated, angry,
disappointed or even sad about what is happening in his life. 
Inside these types of emotions the person starts to become resentful,
creating a story about the event and to which he will eventually begin
to blame, be it other people, places, things, situations or
circumstances for that which is appearing.  A breakdown eventuates
into a relapse when the individual believes that his experience is
intolerable, feels inadequate with respect as to how to handle it and
chooses to use drugs or alcohol to reduce the emotional component of
that he is experiencing.  In this case, a breakdown and ones
inability to transform it leads directly to relapse.



Inside the work of transformational counseling, the process of
enrollment will assist the individual in becoming authentic where he
was being inauthentic and also allow that person to stay in his
recovery.  Enrollment is the third component of transformational
counseling the utilization of which allows the individual to again move
out of his self-limiting belief and back into being his created
possibilities.  When one begins to experience a breakdown he has
gone back into being his self-limiting belief.  Their will be the
pretense of what is happening and that which is again hidden from him
hence the created inauthenticity.  The technology of the
enrollment process allows the individual the ability to transform the
experience by being authentic and as a result regaining his power and
freedom through being his possibilities.  Utilization of the
process of enrollment as with transformation itself is a practice that
requires a great deal of commitment.  As with any skill the
structure of enrollment is taught and it is in communication with the
persons coach or even sponsor that its implementation is brought forth
into the individualās
life.           
 



The first component of enrollment has to do with recognizing when one
is in a breakdown.  The key to such awareness is to be found in
how the individual is feeling about what is happening in his life at
any one moment.  There are many times in our lives where we do not
stop to monitor or become present to how we are feeling. 
Sometimes we have a tendency to merely ignore or move away from how we
are feeling about something or someone.  Breakdowns have certain
emotions attached to their design.  Those most common are emotions
such as fear, anxiety, anger, frustration and sadness.  The first
part of utilizing the enrollment process is to monitor ones feeling
state, to become present to how one is feeling and to do so to the
point that it becomes part of ones very way of being in the
world.  Learning how to stay aware of ones emotional state is
crucial to being able to successfully transform the breakdown
experience that is being created.     



The second component has to do with becoming present to the story that
the person is creating with respect to the breakdown.  While the
emotional state of the individual is very important to become aware of,
listening to the story that he is creating is also equally of
importance.  Within a conversation of transformation, every
emotion is created by a thought.  When there are negative emotions
present in a personās life as he is experiencing a breakdown there are
also corresponding thoughts taking place.  The thoughts that are
taking place will appear as a story in the personās mind.  Within
a breakdown the story will be other oriented, involving external
people, places, things, circumstance or situations.  Within the
structure of the story, inherent to it, will be the belief that the
external events are the real or true cause of how the person is
feeling.  It is with these thoughts that the breakdown and
inauthentic way of being exists, a pretense that it is about another,
hiding what it is truly about.  As mentioned above, blame and
resentment will eventually result.  Becoming present to the story
is vital if one is not to impulsively act upon it and as a result bring
its destructive consequences into existence with respect to his
life.  Becoming present or an observer to ones story is crucial to
transforming a breakdown.      



The third component involves becoming present to ones self-limiting
belief, to the source, to that which actually created the
breakdown.  Becoming present to ones self limiting belief, to that
which has determined ones life up until the process of transformation
began to take place, is the first component in the process of
transformational counseling.  Even though the distinction of ones
self-limiting belief will create the space for the person to begin to
create his life anew, it does not go away, become fixed or get
cured.  The self-limiting belief, much like a virus that has
appeared in the human body, continues to exist.  As with any idea
that we have or create about us, it is also a way of being.  We be
or exist by what we think and more specifically by what we think about
ourselves.  What we are familiar with is being our self-limiting
belief in the world.  It is familiar for us to think and feel that
the world is more powerful and real than we are and furthermore, that
it is something that must be controlled and even survived.  We
will eventually experience a breakdown given our sense of inadequacy
with respect to the world as this is how we have been in the community
in the past.  However, once the self-limiting belief is again
distinguished the inauthenticity begins to weaken or be
dissolved.             
 



The fourth component of enrollment involves creating a possibility
inside the breakdown experience.  This act of creation can be to
invent a new possibility or enroll oneself back into a personās
previously chosen possibilities.  Creating possibilities for ones
life is the second component of transformational counseling. 
However, once we get it that we are being our self limiting belief,
that the source of the breakdown is the self limiting belief and not
that which the story tends convey, it is at that moment that we can
generate a possibility to be at that moment, a possibility to stand
inside given the breakdown experience.  It is by generating a
possibility by our spoken word that the experience itself will
transform.  The breakdown only happens because of who we are
being.  It is by causing a possibility to come into existence
through our word that the inauthentic way of being completely dissolves
and with it the breakdown itself.  It is with the creation of a
possibility that the personās power and freedom are once again
restored.       



The final component of the enrollment technology is
acknowledgement.   Once the experience is transformed it is
important for a person to get the victory that his possibility has made
for himself and his life, to acknowledge the difference of such a
victory.  Acknowledgement is about getting how the created or
invented possibility has transformed the breakdown from what it was to
that which is truly a breakthrough for the individual, especially with
respect to the event or experience occurring.  Acknowledgement is
about getting the power of our word for allowing us to transform
breakdowns into breakthroughs, to once again become our
possibilities.  It is this acknowledgement that strengthens ones
process of transformation leaving the personās power, freedom and
self-expression fully restored.  Acknowledgement is about standing
in ones possibility, celebrating ones power and freedom having given up
being a victim.     



The practice of enrollment will make a difference for the person
wanting recovery.  Applying the technology of enrollment will
enable the person to transform a breakdown when it happens and as a
result avoid the destructive and possibly even lethal consequences that
would have happened as a result of staying in a breakdown.  For
the individual in recovery, staying in a breakdown only increases the
chances that he will turn to drugs and/or alcohol to reduce the
emotional component of a breakdown.  Staying in a breakdown as
opposed to being able to transform tends to lead to relapse. 
Clients at the Holistic Addiction Treatment Program in North Miami
Beach, Florida are taught to distinguish their self-limiting belief,
create new possibilities for their life and furthermore, how to utilize
the power of enrollment technology.  The success of utilizing
enrollment and even recovery itself, especially in the early stages of
sobriety, will necessitate the person staying in contact with his
sponsor or counselor especially when breakdowns happen.  It is
only in communication with another that the individual will continue to
be his possibilities in
life.           
 





Harry Henshaw, Ed.D., LMHC

http://www.enhancedhealing.com