Robert J. Meyers, the psychologist who developed the CRAFT approach to alcoholism, wrote in an introduction to one of his books that "although my mother was blessed by the support and comfort she found in Al-Anon meetings, she was never able to achieve her most cherished goals of getting my father into treatment and getting him to stay sober". Witnessing this as a child inspired Meyer to seek an approach that was more effective for people with those goals. The origin of CRAFT:“Drs. Robert J. Meyers and Jane Ellen Smith of the University of New Mexico developed the CRAFT program to teach families how to impact their loved one while avoiding both detachment and confrontation, the respective strategies of Al-Anon (a 12-Step based approach), and traditional (Johnson Institute-style) interventions in which the substance user is confronted by family members and friends during a surprise meeting. While all three approaches have been found to improve family members' functioning and relationship satisfaction, CRAFT has proven to be significantly more effective in engaging loved ones in comparison to the Johnson Institute Intervention or Al-Anon/Nar-Anon facilitation therapy.”Having worked with Nathan Azrin in the early 1970s whilst Azrin was developing the community reinforcement approach, Meyers started to look into using the process in other settings. CRAFT combines CRA with family training, which equips the families and friends of addicts with supportive techniques to encourage their loved ones to begin and continue treatment and provides them with defences against addiction's damaging effects on loved ones.