Habits - Patterns - Addictions

Patterns

We all manage our experience by organizing our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings into patterns. Forming these patterns enables us to create order and make sense of our lives. In fact, these patterns are necessary for survival. We form a pattern in response to a set of circumstances; when the circumstances repeat, we apply the pattern we have chosen because it worked well the first time. But when circumstances change or our goals change, often we don't adapt our patterns as quickly. The result is that some of our current patterns have stopped helping us to get where we now want to go.

Habits vs. Addictions

What is a habit and what is an addiction? From our frame of reference, there is no hard distinction; habits and addictions are on the same continuum of repetitive behavior. And there are many definitions of addiction. We are less concerned with the definition and more concerned with the grip a habit/addiction has on you, as well as its impact on the quality of your life and those around you.

If you find you are arranging your schedule, relationships, and your identity around your habit, you are engaged in addictive behavior. If you find yourself saying "I can stop/control this anytime I want" - but you never do - you might be looking at an addiction. If your repetitive responses to life events damage your mental and/or physical health and/or diminish life for those around you, you might be facing an addiction.

Smoking, gambling, Internet use, work/life imbalance, shopping, drinking, and the misuse of prescription medication are all patterns that can become addictions. Thousands who experience problems in these areas would benefit greatly from HabitShift. In some cases, though, our workshop is not appropriate.

We do not offer substance abuse treatment, nor are we trained psychotherapists. We can, however, work with your EAP (Employee Assistance Program) to hardwire your success. We take what you learn in an EAP and show you how to make it last. We do not focus on the past; we focus on your future.

A Note to Clinical Professionals

Thank you for checking out our program. The veteran counselors, coaches, teachers, facilitators, and consultants who have created this workshop value the opinion of the healthcare community and strive to deliver an experience, and results, that earn their respect.

We use researched models, proven techniques and practices, and highly skilled facilitators to deliver a viable, reliable, and effective workshop. We use simulation, private contemplation and reflection, stress reduction and meditation, role play, dialogue, lecture, journaling, and kinesthetic and just plain fun exercises to build an unforgettable, eminently practical, and immediately usable experience for all participants.

HabitShift reinforces efforts participants might currently be using for support. We counsel participants that we are not medical or psychological treatment providers, and if they are under the care of a healthcare professional, they should continue treatment and keep their providers informed of what they accomplish in our workshop as is appropriate.

Unlike so many programs offered in the self-help realm, we are not selling the quick fix. Our belief is that if there is a "magic wand" to be found, it lives within each participant. HabitShift helps participants discover and nurture the internal resources that grow the self-efficacy needed to initiate and sustain changes.

Our participants leave with a clear understanding of the exhaustively researched and highly regarded Transtheoretical Model, so they have intellectual information about habit change as well as emotional anchors and grounded strategies that empower them to manage systemic patterns in their lives - to change their lives for the better.

We hope health care professionals will see HabitShift as a useful adjunct for their clients. Professionals may want to attend the workshop to diversify and enhance their current skill base.

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604 - 261 - 9792 (Vancouver, BC, Canada) 509 - 430-8942 (USA)