What is the Freedom Model’s Coaching Method and
Why is it so effective?

But what exactly is Freedom Model Coaching?

The reason coaching is a preferred method for solving substance use problems centers on the back and forth dialogue that provides insights and a logical path out of the substance use habit trap. It takes into account each student’s individual needs. Because of this focus on the individual, Freedom Model Coaching is the most successful coaching method for substance use problems in the addiction-help world. Also, it has four distinct proprietary elements that makes Freedom Model coaching sessions powerful, logical, understandable, and most importantly, highly effective!

1. The FM Certified Coach 

The reason coaching is a preferred method for solving substance use problems centers on the back and forth dialogue that provides insights and a logical path out of the substance use habit trap. It takes into account each student’s individual needs. Because of this focus on the individual, Freedom Model Coaching is the most successful coaching method for substance use problems in the addiction-help world. Also, it has four distinct proprietary elements that makes Freedom Model coaching sessions powerful, logical, understandable, and most importantly, highly effective!

 2. The Teaching Technique – The Socratic Method 

All FM Sessions are based on the Socratic Method. Meaning, we will ask a lot of questions as a means to problem-solve issues. As Mark Scheeren, Freedom Model’s Co-Founder says when working the first few sessions with a student, “We will need to build your puzzle. Try to remember, you’ve lived with yourself, well, since your beginning – I’m here just learning about you. So I’ll have to ask a lot of questions to build the puzzle. And then I’ll ask more questions that will facilitate self-discovery. This is known as the Socratic Method, and it works.” In a Socratic Method session the student and teacher build a comfortable dialogue that allows for the student to learn by his/her own cognitive processes, not by the teacher leading, coercing or manipulating. 

 3. The Information – The Curriculum 

No other addiction-help coaching model has a vetted, proven effective curriculum with more than 37 years of success backing it up. By providing what the research shows about the actual objective drug effects as well as debunking the massive misinformation about addiction and recovery through the 470-page Freedom Model text/curriculum, Freedom Model Coaching provides students the necessary facts and information to challenge their current beliefs, change their preference, and solve their problem. All Freedom Model Coaching packages always include these online learning products: The Solution to Addiction Workshop and a 3-month subscription to The Freedom Model Online Program bundle which includes more than 170 video tutorials across multiple modules that explain each concept in detail, the Freedom Model for Addictions book, workbook, and audiobook, The Freedom Model for the Family Online Program, book and workbook, 12-Step Deprogramming Course, and a monthly 2-Hour Live Q&A Coaching Session with Freedom Model founders, Mark Scheeren and Michelle Dunbar.

 4. The Overall Methodology – Cognitive Behavioral Education (CBE)
 

When we combine all 3 components of Freedom Model coaching, they form a discipline we call Cognitive Behavioral Education (CBE).

To understand CBE, it helps to briefly compare it with its predecessor Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Over the 40 years CBT has become one of the most widely used approaches in mental health. It is well known for being effective at helping people overcome mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and OCD by focusing on how thoughts and beliefs influence behavior.

However, CBT has far less success when applied to substance use issues and other behavioral “addictions”. Much of the limitation stems from the fact that it is usually combined with the prevailing disease and disorder narratives of about addiction, along with personal judgments and assumptions that therapists may bring into treatment.

When we began developing our coaching method in 1989, we examined the leading therapeutic models as potential frameworks. After extensive research and experimentation, we ultimately rejected them in favor of an educational approach. We discovered that education – delivered through clear information, research, and open discussion – was far more effective and far less judgmental than traditional therapy models for helping people to resolve substance use problems and other unwanted behaviors.

Our earliest model, developed in the early 1990’s was called The Educational Initiative. Over the next 2 decades it evolved as our research expanded and our coaching method improved.

During the early 2000s, we integrated the most useful insights from CBT with our educational framework. The result was Cognitive Behavioral Education – a model that combines the power of understanding how thoughts and beliefs influence behavior with a structured, research-based curriculum that empowers individuals with accurate, research-backed information.

Today CBE serves as the foundation of Freedom Model Coaching.

In simple terms, CBE works like this: When people identify their thoughts and beliefs, challenge them with new information and change them – their behavior changes quite naturally, which ultimately leads to a change in their lifestyle and choices. This process is guided not through therapy or judgment, but through facts, research, and education delivered by the Certified Freedom Model Coach.