Our Invitation to Change Approach® (ITC) is full of techniques that do work—with an enormous amount of research to back them up. In place of the stigmatizing understandings of addiction that are so common and so harmful, the ITC responds to substance use with evidence-based methods for improving communication, strengthening motivation to reduce or stop using substances, and practicing compassion and self-care to create the conditions for change.

Training families, lay people and professionals in the ITC is the core of what we do at CMC:Foundation for Change. We have taken evidence-based ideas for helping those who struggle with substance use problems and put them together in a way that lay people (family, friends, first responders, educators, faith-based leaders) and health professionals of all kinds (nurses, doctors, therapists and recovery coaches) can understand and use in their efforts to help. The ITC is user-friendly, jargon-free, and can be used by family, friends, and anyone else in a helping role.