“Our daughter often comes home drunk. She shuts down every time we try to talk to her about it. We’re worried about her and at our wits end. What can we do?”
CRAFT, or Community Reinforcement and Family Training, is a therapeutic approach to help family members change the way they have been interacting with their child to influence choices around substance use.
Created by Dr. Robert Myers, it is intended to help parents and other caregivers (known as “concerned significant others,” or CSOs) change their child’s substance use by staying involved in their life in a positive, ongoing way.
Sometimes, parents worry that if they don’t cut their loved ones off, they’re just enabling them to use substances, or that they need to wait for their child to “hit rock bottom” before intervening. But by using techniques taught by CRAFT, they don’t have to do any of these things.
Studies have shown that CRAFT can be a highly effective intervention for both the CSO and their loved one.1 CSOs have reported improved mental health and familial relationships and that it helps their loved ones often enter treatment.
CRAFT provides families like yours with tools to better understand your child’s reasons for substance use, ways to improve communication, and to reward healthy behaviors while discouraging substance use. Equally important are the tools around self-care to handle negative emotions like anger, shame, fear, guilt and depression, and to address feelings of isolation.
Learn more about the various tools you can use by clicking on the articles highlighted below on listening, identifying solutions, using reinforcement and more. You may also wish to join our online support group meetings as each week a CRAFT or related parenting topic is discussed with parents and other caregivers who face similar challenges.
Last Updated
April 2026
