Professional has been active in the addiction field for 10 years as an interventionist, counselor, with 27 years of personal recovery from addiction
HENDERSON, Nev. – When Arthur Westinghouse was 17, he volunteered his time sharing life experiences and offering support at high schools, jails and mental health facilities. Already in recovery from alcohol addiction, Westinghouse found that his volunteer work gave him a purpose, but he was unaware that it could lead to a satisfying career. Instead, over the next 16 years, he followed multiple career paths that were lacking passion and meaning.
“I tried every other job,” he said “But it just didn’t fit.”
Finally he asked his mentor if it was okay to have a career as an addiction counselor.
“I asked him, ‘Can I do this for a living?’ His response was, ‘Your pay will be in successes,’” Westinghouse said. “That was good enough for me.”
Westinghouse spent the following two years becoming a certified alcohol and drug counselor, putting in his facility hours with the Westcare Program at the Sheridan Correctional Center in Illinois.
Today, Westinghouse has been active in the addiction field for 10 years as an interventionist and counselor, with 27 years of personal recovery from addiction. He has completed more than 300 interventions – a number that often takes other professionals twice as long to achieve. He recently joined forces with his wife, Dian Buckley-Westinghouse, to form Westinghouse Intervention, a family company helping families. For the last 15 years, Buckley-Westinghouse has been an educator for children with a focus on autism/special needs. With a background in music, she has utilized both of her passions to empower people by raising their self-esteem. She was inspired to join forces with her husband by her own personal commitment to healing and seeing the difference he makes.
“Arthur is an inspiration,” she said. “He comes from his heart and is committed to transforming lives.”
The company’s mission is to guide families or individuals who are suffering from the effects of addiction to a real solution of treatment and long-term recovery through education and compassionate support.
Specific services include intervention for addiction/alcoholism, family and community support, addiction education, and transport to and from treatment centers (which most interventionists don’t do), even if the facility is out of state. He also helps the family talk to different treatment centers, to determine which one is right for their loved one.
Westinghouse’s interventions generally take two days, but can sometimes last as long as three or four. The first day focuses on education of the family, helping them to understand how to change the family dynamics to support their loved one’s recovery, and an initial reach out to the person with whom they are intervening. The intervention takes place the next day.
“I have yet to have someone not show up,” Westinghouse said. “Most of the time, the person who has the addiction has already given numerous cries for help, but no one knew how to provide help.”
The short-term goal: get the person with the addiction into treatment. Longer term: to change the family dynamic and environment.
“The person who is addicted isn’t going to lead the way,” said Westinghouse, who provides a lifetime of support to the family, should they have questions or need guidance. “I help the family learn what to do when their loved one comes home.”
This is unique in the intervention industry, where most interventionists’ sole goal is to get the person who is addicted into treatment.
“Addiction is complicated,” Westinghouse said. “It’s hard to break the cycle, but with a willingness on all sides to try to make their loved one’s recovery work, it can be done.”
Westinghouse recommends intervention for those who have a loved one who is on a destructive path of addiction or living a self-destructive lifestyle, displaying a lack of control and unmanageability, and is unwilling to seek help.
Westinghouse has committed his life to helping families and individuals who are suffering from the effects of addiction with a real solution of treatment and long-term recovery. It’s personal, fulfilling work, and Westinghouse never knows where his clients will come from. Once, when he was at a restaurant talking with a family, a person at the next table who had overheard their conversation broke down in tears and asked Westinghouse for his card.
The company is based in Las Vegas, but Westinghouse and his team travel nationwide to conduct interventions.
For more information on Westinghouse Intervention, visit westinghouseintervention.com or call 702-601-9095.