Addiction is not a disease.
The proprietary TMA 2-step biopsychosocial Resolve Addiction methodology. A new model for working with addiction by Alistair Horscroft.
The disease model has helped many. It has also failed many.
For nearly ninety years the disease model has been the orthodox frame. It has genuinely helped many people build stable lives around abstinence and community. Some find real meaning in a new life inside the twelve-step tradition. That work matters and we honour it.
But many others don’t find what they need in that frame. Some feel they are always literally one step away — and are stressed by the constant vigilance the model requires of them. Some can’t work with the higher power framing. Some don’t recognise themselves as diseased. Some have done rehab twice and relapsed both times. The reasons the twelve-step disease model fails so many people are many, and they’re not the client’s failure.
Resolve Addiction is a complete standalone program — powerful on its own, and equally effective integrated with the twelve-step model, rehab, CBT, SMART Recovery, or any other treatment approach the client is engaged with.
The Cochrane Collaboration — one of the world’s most rigorous evidence-review bodies — conducted a systematic review of every published study on AA between 1966 and 2005. Their conclusion: no experimental studies unequivocally demonstrated the effectiveness of AA in treating alcoholism.13
Independent peer-reviewed analyses — most rigorously by Dr Lance Dodes, Harvard-trained psychiatrist with over twenty years of addiction research — put AA’s actual sustained-recovery rate at between 5 and 10 percent.14 That means the orthodox treatment model has been failing approximately 90 percent of the people who submit themselves to it — for nearly ninety years. Not because they lacked willpower. Because the model doesn’t fit them.
The evidence has been in the peer-reviewed literature for decades. Peele, Alexander, Lewis, Marlatt. All of them arguing that addiction is more accurately understood as a learned pattern responding to unmet needs and context — not a primary chronic disease. What’s been missing has never been the theory. It’s the coherent clinical methodology.
In 1971, Lee Robins studied Vietnam veterans returning to the US after severe heroin addiction rates during deployment. Prevailing medical opinion predicted lifelong relapse. The finding was the opposite: approximately 95% of the addicted veterans did not relapse in the first year on return to the US — without treatment. Three years later, sustained recovery remained at 88%. Context, needs, and environment had changed. So had the addiction.
The Robins study should have ended the disease model as the default frame. It didn’t. But it did establish, in peer-reviewed research, that addiction responds to context and unmet-need resolution far more than the chemical-hooking model predicts. Every serious practitioner since has had to work around a diagnostic framework that the evidence had already outrun.
An extraordinarily priced industry. Less than extraordinary outcomes.
Addiction has created an extraordinarily priced industry with less than extraordinary outcomes. Tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands per treatment cycle. Outcome rates that would be considered treatment failure in almost any other medical context.
A system charging elective-surgery prices to report outcomes that would end any other medical specialty. The gap between what’s charged and what’s delivered is where the addiction industry has quietly operated for decades. Resolve Addiction is built for practitioners who want to offer something different at a price the client can actually pay.
One method. Any addiction.
Whether the addiction is chemical or behavioural, it runs on the same underlying mechanism — an unmet need being met by the wrong route, and a brain-body loop reinforcing it. Resolve Addiction addresses that mechanism, whatever it’s attached to.
Alcohol
Smoking
Vaping
Recreational drugs
Prescription drugs
Gambling
Pornography
Gaming
Social media
Shopping
The specific substance or behaviour matters less than the mechanism keeping it alive. Once that mechanism is dismantled, the pull toward whatever it was attached to loses its grip. This is why the same core methodology works across categories that look completely different on the surface.
Two mechanisms of change. Twelve components. One coherent method.
Not two actions to perform. Two structural domains of change where addiction lives — each with its own core mechanism, supported by an integrated architecture of preparation, embodiment, and integration.
Resolve the mind.
Addiction is an attempt to meet a real need using the wrong route. Step 1 identifies the unmet needs and the developmental stage the client is in, using the TMA proprietary apps and clinical framework. We teach you to do reconciliation work through the TMA Magical Reparenting Process, and to rebuild the identity required of someone who is no longer an addict through the TMA Identity Process. The why is resolved — not repressed, not white-knuckled, resolved.
Rewire the brain and body.
In certain addictions the substance or behaviour itself is problematic, but more often the real driver is a brain-body loop that keeps running independently. We show you how to work with the TMA brain-body loop protocols that perpetuate the addictive urge — in a way that is unique and not found anywhere else. This is where the pattern is dismantled at the neurochemical and somatic level.
Why each component matters, and where it sits.
The Decision
Without a powerful why that has been worked out in a very specific way, there is no reason to change. We show you how to elicit that why — with the client, using the app — and lock it as the anchor for everything else.
The Brain-Body Loop
Most people focus on the substance or behaviour itself. We focus on the brain-body loop that perpetuates the addiction — the real driver. The client sees the machinery they’re in, and that alone begins to change what runs.
Needs
Every addiction is meeting a real human need by the wrong route. Until the need is named, the substitute has no chance of being replaced. We show you how to surface the real need honestly and structurally.
Life Stages
Every life stage asks something specific of the person living it. Addictions frequently sit in the gap between what a stage is asking and what the person is providing. Locating the client’s stage changes what recovery even means.
Magical Reparenting
The parenting that was missed leaves a specific shape of need. We teach the reparenting protocol that lets the client provide that missing parenting for themselves — as a living resource, not a story about the past.
Identity Alignment
You cannot be someone new until you know who that person is, and you have evidence of already being them. Identity Alignment installs the identity required of a person who is no longer an addict — grounded in their own lived evidence.
Re-Embodying
Addicts have often dissociated from the body the addiction was numbing. Re-Embodying returns the sense of self to the body — without which the new pattern has nowhere to actually live.
Boundaries
Interpersonal boundaries with the people who might pull the client back — and a distinctive extension we teach that most programs miss: the client sets boundaries with the substance or behaviour itself. As a relational party, not just something to resist. Powerful and unheard of.
Highlight Reel & Pain Reel
The TMA proprietary reel processes help you identify what really breaks the brain’s attachment to the addictive substance or behaviour. The romanticised memory loses its glow. The honest memory is restored.
The Right Path
Two paths, walked and lived to their honest ends. Pain and pleasure, toward and away. The client chooses the true path — not because they should, because they’ve walked it.
Expectations
The addicted brain runs on prediction. The craving fires before the client even reaches — an expectation of relief, reward, or escape the brain has learned to run automatically. We show you how to break the predictive pattern at source, so the expectation itself dissolves before the reach begins.
The HHW Model
Hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness are the three states most commonly present at relapse. Each has its own signature. Each responds to specific resources. We teach you to identify which is running and provide what actually resolves it — before it hijacks the client’s progress.
Volume vs value.
TMA is built on a value-based education rather than a volume-based education. Most methodology certifications are 300 hours of padding and a $10k invoice. Our approach is different — priced for you to help as many people as possible, with very high commercial viability.
Padding priced by the hour.
- 300+ hours of content across sprawling modules
- Extensive theoretical background you’ll never use in the room
- Certification measured in hours attended
- Price justified by volume, not by outcomes
- Practitioner learns a lot, applies little
Only what changes the outcome.
- Just a few hours of teaching delivered by Alistair Horscroft
- A methodological step-by-step follow-along platform
- All questions, processes, and interventions clear and easy to follow
- Priced for accessibility and high commercial viability
- Practitioner learns powerful new rapid-change methods and delivers real outcomes
Four ways in. One methodology.
Resolve Addiction is available to everyone as education. There are two ways to become a Certified TMA Addictions Facilitator, and one path if you or someone you love needs personal help right now.
Get the knowledge. Full methodology.
The complete training and full app access. Integrate the methodology into your existing practice under your own modality. Deliver the work to your own clients, charge your own rates. Open to anyone.
Certified TMA Addictions Facilitator.
For qualified practitioners who want the full commercial licence — TMA branding, the Certified TMA Addictions Facilitator designation, listing on the TMA Practitioner Register. Requires an existing registered qualification.
Not yet qualified? Take Mind Dynamics.
The flagship TMA practitioner training — eleven days live with Al, six months of coaching, plus Heart Dynamics, Resolve Anxiety, and Clarity Coach embedded. Completing Mind Dynamics qualifies you to progress to facilitator certification in this or any TMA specialisation.
Struggling with your own addiction?
If you or a loved one is dealing with addiction — alcohol, drugs, gambling, compulsive behaviour of any kind — there is a place to start. Resolve Addiction is delivered directly to consumer clients by Al and by Certified TMA Addictions Facilitators listed on the TMA Practitioner Register.
Two tiers. Both commercially viable.
The Education Tier for integrating the methodology into your existing practice. The Facilitator Tier for building a branded delivery around it.
Learn the methodology. Integrate it into your existing practice.
Full 15-hour training delivered live by Al. Full app access with all twelve components. Integrate the methodology into your work under your own modality — charge your own rates. No TMA branding, no register listing, no certification designation.
- Complete 15-hour live training with Al
- Full app access — all twelve components
- Includes the TMA Magical Reparenting Process ($49 standalone) and the TMA Boundaries Process ($97 standalone) — $146 of standalone training built into the bundle
- Deliver in your own modality, under your own brand
- Charge your own rates, keep 100% of client fees
- No TMA branding or register listing
- Lifetime access, no ongoing fees
The full commercial licence. The branded product to sell.
Everything in the Education Tier, plus assessment, TMA-branded delivery licence, use of the certification designation, listing on the TMA Practitioner Register, and facilitator community. This is the tier for practitioners building a named addictions specialisation as part of their practice.
- Everything in the Education Tier — including the $146 of built-in standalone training (TMA Magical Reparenting + TMA Boundaries)
- Assessment and certification — the mark of authority
- Commercial licence to deliver the branded Resolve Addiction program
- Certified TMA Addictions Facilitator designation — market it on your site and materials
- Listing on the TMA Practitioner Register — qualified inquiries directed to certified facilitators
- Facilitator community — peer support, case review, methodology updates
From year two: $295 annual licence with short online re-assessment to maintain certification, TMA Practitioner Register listing, and community. Re-assessment protects the register’s quality — and the value of your certification within it.
The straight facts.
Is this a clinical treatment methodology or an education program?
The 2-Step Addiction Program is delivered as education, not clinical treatment. It sits outside the medical and therapy regulatory frame deliberately. Certified facilitators may integrate it into their existing clinical or coaching practice according to the scope of their own qualification. The program does not diagnose, treat mental illness, or replace medical detoxification — clients with severe physical dependence on alcohol or opioids should be referred for medical detox before enrolment.
What’s the difference between the two tiers?
The Education Tier ($497) gives you the full training and the app. You can use it in your own practice under your own brand and modality — deliver structured 2-Step work with your existing clients, charge your own rates, integrate the methodology however you choose. The Facilitator Tier ($997) adds assessment, the TMA-branded commercial licence, listing on the TMA Practitioner Register, and the right to market yourself as a Certified TMA Addictions Facilitator. Different commercial products, both commercially viable.
How does the TMA Practitioner Register work?
TMA generates consumer inquiries through Al’s media presence and the growing brand. Certified TMA Addictions Facilitators are listed on the TMA Practitioner Register — a publicly-searchable register clients use to find qualified practitioners by location and specialisation. No per-client fee, no percentage share. Facilitators keep 100% of what they charge their clients. Register listing is included in the annual $295 licence.
What happens at the annual re-assessment?
A short online re-assessment reviewing your delivery of the methodology. Not senior-practitioner led — structured and app-based. The re-assessment protects the quality of the network and the value of your certification within it. Facilitators who’ve drifted are re-trained. Facilitators who’ve deepened are recognised.
Can I deliver to families of addicts as well as addicts?
Yes. A family-facing companion track is part of the methodology — taught in the certification. Families of addicted people are among the most under-served buyers in the field and represent a distinct commercial audience for certified facilitators.
How does this fit with the wider TMA training?
The 2-Step Addiction Program is one of several specialised TMA certifications for practitioners already qualified in the underlying model. If you want the whole TMA methodology — NLP, hypnotherapy, coaching, Heart Dynamics, Resolve Anxiety, Clarity Coach, plus certifications and association pathways — the Mind Dynamics program is the flagship. The 2-Step Addiction Program is a specialisation you can add to Mind Dynamics or take as a standalone if you already hold direct-entry qualifications.
I don’t have one of the direct-entry qualifications. What do I do?
You can still get the knowledge at the Education Tier — the full training, the app, and the methodology to integrate into your work. But to become a Certified TMA Addictions Facilitator, you’ll need to take the Mind Dynamics training first. Mind Dynamics is the flagship TMA practitioner program — eleven days live with Al, six months of coaching, embedded Heart Dynamics and Resolve Anxiety modules, plus certifications and association pathways. Completing Mind Dynamics qualifies you to progress to facilitator certification in this or any TMA specialisation.
Twelve steps for life.
Or two mechanisms of change.
The disease model helped many. It failed many more. This program is for the practitioners who want to serve the second group properly — and to build a practice around doing so.
Start your 2-step program →Sources & further reading
- Robins, L.N. (1974). The Vietnam drug user returns. Special Action Office Monograph, Series A, No. 2. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Follow-up: Robins, L.N. (1993). Vietnam veterans’ rapid recovery from heroin addiction: a fluke or normal expectation? Addiction, 88(8), 1041–1054. Approximately 95% of veterans addicted to heroin in Vietnam stopped without treatment on return to the US — a finding that fundamentally challenged the chemical-hooking disease model.
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Treatment and Recovery. Reported relapse rates of 40–60% for substance use disorders, with the majority of relapses in the first 90 days after treatment.
- Smyth, B.P., Barry, J., Keenan, E., & Ducray, K. (2010). Lapse and relapse following inpatient treatment of opiate dependence. Irish Medical Journal, 103(6), 176–179. Opioid relapse rates of up to 91% within one year documented across multiple treatment cohorts.
- National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics. Cost of Rehab. Average US residential rehab pricing of $30,000–$80,000 for a 30-day program; luxury and specialised programs $100,000+.
- Peele, S. (1995). Diseasing of America: How We Allowed Recovery Zealots and the Treatment Industry to Convince Us We Are Out of Control. Lexington Books. Foundational text in the social learning and life-process critique of the disease model.
- Alexander, B.K. (2008). The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit. Oxford University Press. Author of the original Rat Park experiments demonstrating environmental and unmet-need factors as primary drivers of addiction.
- Lewis, M. (2015). The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a Disease. PublicAffairs. Developmental neuroscientist and recovered heroin addict provides one of the most rigorous neuroscientific critiques of the disease model.
- Marlatt, G.A. & Gordon, J.R. (Eds.). Relapse Prevention: Maintenance Strategies in the Treatment of Addictive Behaviours. Guilford Press. Foundational work in the pattern-response and relapse-prevention literature underpinning Step 2 of the methodology.
- Prochaska, J.O. & DiClemente, C.C. (1982, 1986). Stages of Change model. The widely-cited framework describing change as a series of predictable stages, integrated into the elicitation architecture of The Decision component.
- Griffin, J. & Tyrrell, I. (2005). Freedom from Addiction: The secret behind successful addiction busting. Human Givens Publishing. Acknowledged theoretical adjacent reference for the unmet-needs framing extended in the TMA 12-needs framework of the 2-Step Addiction Program.
- Robert Dilts & NLP tradition. Logical Levels, Meta-Outcome elicitation. Underpinning the why-linkage chain technique used in The Decision component.
- White, M. & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. W.W. Norton. Externalisation framework underpinning the substance-or-behaviour-as-relational-party extension of the Boundaries component.
- Ferri, M., Amato, L., & Davoli, M. (2006). Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programmes for alcohol dependence. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 3. Systematic review concluded: “No experimental studies unequivocally demonstrated the effectiveness of AA or TSF approaches for reducing alcohol dependence or problems.” The most rigorous evidence-review body in health research finding forty years of literature (1966–2005) could not establish effectiveness.
- Dodes, L. & Dodes, Z. (2014). The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry. Beacon Press. Harvard-trained psychiatrist with over twenty years of addiction research; peer-reviewed analysis pegs AA sustained-recovery rate at 5–10%, placing 12-step in the worst-performing category of any widely-used intervention in mental health.
The 2-Step Addiction Program is delivered as education. It is not a medical or clinical treatment for substance use disorders and does not replace medical detoxification. Certified TMA Addictions Facilitators integrate the methodology within the scope of their own existing clinical or coaching qualification. Consumer clients with severe physical dependence should be referred for medical detoxification prior to enrolment.