This training is on February 21, 22, 24 and 25, 2022 (NO CLASS THE 23rd) from 9:00am to 12:00pm Mountain Time each day. 

12 CE's will be provided

The Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA) to alcohol and substance use treatment is a behavioral intervention listed on the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices that seeks to replace environmental contingencies that have supported alcohol or drug use with pro-social activities and behaviors that support recovery. This outpatient program targets youth 12 to 22 years old with DSM-IV cannabis, alcohol, and/or other substance use disorders.

Supported by 30 years of clinical research, ACRA is a comprehensive behavioral program based on the belief that environmental contingencies can play a powerful role in encouraging or discouraging drinking or drug use. Its goal is to make a sober/drug-free lifestyle more rewarding than the use of substances. A-CRA methods are evidence-based and provide clients with a positive and more effective alternative than other interventions. A-CRA is easily integrated into clinicians’ existing therapeutic approaches. It uses locally available healthy support systems and people, teaches motivational and positive communication skills, and importantly uses the functional analysis to allow the clinician to see and use teachable moments to encourage movement toward recovery from substance abuse, even with “resistant” teens.

Learning Objectives 

• GAIN a theoretical understanding of A-CRA 

• BECOME knowledgeable about the empirical research demonstrating the effectiveness of A-CRA 

• ENHANCE skills at presenting A-CRA to clients & engaging “resistant” clients 

• LEARN & PRACTICE these A-CRA clinical procedures relevant to clients you tend to or would like to work with: ·Completing a functional analysis 

·Teaching positive communication skills 

·Teaching problems solving 

·Identification of available and affordable social and recreational activities 

·Engaging supportive others 

·Sobriety sampling 

·Teaching drug refusal and assertive communi- cation ·Using the Happiness Scale for treatment planning ·Integrating career/school/job coaching and assistance

Robert J. Meyers, Ph.D. is an emeritus research associate professor of psychology who worked in the clinical research branch at the University of New Mexico's Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addiction for over 44 years. Dr. Meyers is the winner of the 2002 Dan Anderson Research Award from the Hazelden Foundation and the 2003 Young Investigator Award from the Research Society on Alcoholism. He has published over 80 scientific articles and co-authored 5 books on addiction, including Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading and Threatening and Motivating Substance Abusers to Enter Treatment: Working with Family Members. Recently, he co-authored Coming Home: A Warrior’s Guide with Dr. William R. Miller. Dr. Meyers has been in the addiction field for over 35 years.