Dr. Vernon E. Johnson, also considered to be the founder of the intervention concept, started his controversial method of intervention in the early 1960′s. Johnson, as many other interventionist and intervention models know to be true, says the family does not have to wait for the addict or alcoholic to hit bottom before receiving help for their addiction. Dr. Johnson’s model put all of the emphasis on “confronting” the addict or alcoholic with little or no emphasis on repairing the family system; a system that is largely in part responsible for the addiction getting worse through enabling. As a result of Dr. Johnson’s model and his non systemic approach; the Johnson model had a high rate of success getting addicts and alcoholics into treatment, however it had an extremely poor success rate of long term success for sobriety. Dr. Johnson’s model was said to be very confrontational focusing only on the behaviors of the addict and alcoholic and the surprise concept of this model was said to be aggressive in nature. It is amazing how much controversy the surprise model has, considering the addict and alcoholics behaviors surprise you every day. It is important to understand that other than the invitational model of intervention, which brings on its own bundle of controversy, all models are somewhat of a surprise. No other intervention model invites anyone to an “intervention”, they are invited to some type of family gathering or meeting. This make the intervention far less controversial in nature. Not focusing on the family system and only on the addict is why the Johnson Model and non professional intervention counselors should not be used. Any one can talk your loved one into treatment, it takes a skilled professional intervention to keep your loved one in treatment and remain sober.