PSRT Intervention

The training deliberately begins with an in-depth one-to-one conversation — protected, without the group, and tailored entirely to the individual. Together with the trainer, participants clarify the basic needs, personal values and life goals behind their actions. In a structured, guided conversation they work out what really matters to them and look openly at how their substance use relates to those goals — where it gets in the way and what function it has served so far. This creates a personally meaningful frame of reference that reaches participants emotionally and serves as a stable anchor throughout the following weeks: a clear picture of what the effort is for.

The second module begins the work in the group. Participants gain an accessible picture of how their own personality works — not as a fixed entity, but as a dynamic interplay of emotion, motivation, thinking and volition that continually influence one another. What becomes especially clear is the role emotions play: whether, in the decisive moment, we still have access to our own goals and actually move into action — or whether a situation overwhelms us. This shared basic understanding forms the language that all the following modules draw on.

Building on this basic understanding, participants practise perceiving bodily and emotional signals earlier and more precisely, and telling them apart. They learn to notice the subtle forerunners of a feeling before it becomes overwhelming, and to name what a signal is telling them. Being able to perceive and regulate emotions consciously is the prerequisite for keeping access to oneself and drawing emotions into one’s own action rather than being overrun by them. This sharpened awareness is the tool that the following modules build on.

Feelings often intensify because we appraise and interpret a situation in a split second, without even noticing. This module helps to keep three levels cleanly apart: what actually happens, how we appraise it, and what meaning we give it. Using concrete examples, participants practise recognising these levels in the moment. Once they are consciously separated, automatic, feeling-amplifying appraisals lose much of their force — this brings noticeable mental relief and makes dealing with stressful situations more flexible and less compelling.

Building on the sharpened awareness of the previous modules, attention now turns to one’s own patterns. Participants analyse which triggers lead them into impulsive behaviour and learn to recognise the first signs of an emerging action tendency early — often before the urge even becomes conscious. Together they develop and rehearse concrete strategies for interrupting impulsive chains in time, before they lead to substance use or other unwanted behaviour. The gain is a window of time between stimulus and response in which a genuine choice becomes possible.

This module connects directly to the values work from Module 1. The focus is on aligning one’s actions more closely with personally meaningful values and needs — that is, not only avoiding unwanted behaviour but moving positively towards what really counts. Participants identify action patterns that contradict their own values and develop concrete alternatives to them. Value-based action strengthens the motivation that comes from within and, at the same time, provides emotional stability, because one’s own conduct feels coherent again.

From here on, the emphasis shifts from understanding to applying. Participants transfer the practised strategies to concrete everyday situations and gather their first experiences of how self-regulation works outside the protected group setting. What goes well and what remains difficult is reflected on together in the group and adjusted step by step.

Here participants identify their own personal stress triggers and high-risk situations — those moments when the danger of relapse is particularly great. For exactly these situations they develop targeted, pre-considered strategies to maintain their self-regulation even under pressure. The result is a personal plan that takes hold when it matters.

This module practises staying able to act purposefully even under strong emotional strain. It is precisely when feelings grow large that many people lose access to their own goals and fall back into old patterns. Participants try out how, in such moments, they can hold on to what matters to them and preserve their capacity to act instead of surrendering it to the emotion.

Setbacks are addressed explicitly — not as failure, but as a normal part of a living process of change. Participants develop helpful, kind responses to them, so that a single step back does not call the whole path into question or set off a downward spiral. The aim is to find one’s way back on track quickly after a slip, and without self-criticism.

The final module brings together the insights of the whole training and consolidates them. The most important content is condensed into a personal self-regulation motto: a short, memorable guiding phrase that captures one’s own strategy and can be quickly recalled in everyday life. This motto is meant to help carry the competencies learned beyond the training and keep them for good — a tangible keepsake of one’s own journey through the eleven weeks.