Join Us For A Panel Discussion: Addictions and Substance Abuse in the Family Business

With Dr. Karl Benzio; Bill Messinger, Esq. & Melissa Mitchell-Blitch, MS, MA

We have all seen a loved one make some destructive decisions. When someone we love is in the grip of a harmful pattern, we naturally want to help. In spite of our best intentions though, our efforts are sometimes actually more harmful than helpful. The psychobabble term for this is "enabling," otherwise known as "good intentions gone wrong."

For Family businesses there are added pressures and stresses in that, people know each other’s baggage, insecurities, weaknesses, and shortcomings. There are extra pressures to succeed, work harder, and work longer. In the Family and the Business, at times, a lot more enabling occurs – meaning family usually ignores or “protects” the person from the natural consequences thus enabling the destructive/dysfunctional behavior to continue.

What is a Family Business to do? How should a Family Business address these critical issues?

Karl Benzio, MD, Psychiatrist is an international speaker and frequent media guest expert. Karl

testified for Congress and the President's Bioethics Commission, taught counseling program courses,

and spearheaded a unique Katrina relief effort. He has started a non-profit ministry, called Lighthouse Network, has directed adult and adolescent programs, psychiatric ER, as well as a Christian Rehab program, using his unique cutting-edge workshop, WITHIN REACH, to help people transform their lives, as it did Karl's addiction.

William F. Messinger JD, LADC, Attorney, Advisor and Counselor. As the architect and leading

proponent of using family resources and influence to encourage compliance with treatment recommendations, Bill is pursuing his mission to improve recovery rates from alcohol and drug addiction. In 1998, he originated the concept of applying very successful treatment protocols for physicians and pilots to other groups and has written extensively on the use of leverage by families to improve outcomes for their loved ones.

Melissa Mitchell-Blitch, MS, MA. Melissa pulls from her previous careers as a CPA/advisor, then

counselor, to help families navigate the relational and emotional challenges of wealth and business. She provides both coaching and consulting to families, and collaborates with the family’s advisors. Through her work with hundreds of challenging cases over the past decade, Melissa has developed an empathic yet direct style, which allows her to establish rapport with a wide range of personality types. She works with families to displace wishful thinking with skills, to replace avoidance with communication, and to dispel fear via clarity and intention. This process has shown to transform families in ways they never imagined were possible.

Join The Network of Family Businesses for thisWebinar on Wednesday December 17, 2014 at 11:00 AM Eastern Time.         For additional information email: steve@netfamilybusiness.com