Addiction Counselors

Getting Therapy For Addiction

Anyone suffering from a drug or alcohol addiction knows how powerful and devastating this disease can be. Sometimes a person abusing substances believes they are managing addiction on their own, when in reality their addiction is managing them. A licensed addiction counselor can help a person abusing substances at any stage of readiness to achieve and maintain sobriety.

Addiction counselors can help support you throughout the treatment process and create an individualized plan for recovery, relapse prevention, and after-care. There are various types of therapy available while in treatment that will provide an array of benefits and allow you to sustain your sobriety while in recovery.

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What Does An Addiction Counselor Do?

With the help of an addiction counselor, you can explore what caused you to use drugs or alcohol, share and process feelings, increase awareness of negative though and behavior patterns, learn healthy coping skills, identify potential triggers, and create a long-term plan to sustain your sobriety. Both inpatient and outpatient treatment programs rely heavily on the use of addiction counseling and these take place in individual or group formats.

An addiction counselor’s role is to:

• Conduct substance abuse evaluations and general assessments
• Provide unbiased emotional support for individuals throughout a treatment program
• Conduct one-on-one, couples, and family therapy sessions to get to the root of the addiction
• Provide psychoeducation
• Facilitate process groups and group exercises
• Administer periodic drug and alcohol tests
• Develop a specialized plan for treatment based on your individual needs and goals
• Help you create an aftercare plan based on care available in your area

Addiction counselors will also conduct group therapy sessions that often incorporate family members or other patients in addiction treatment. Group therapy can lead to discussions about family dynamics and how unhealthy relationships can create or feed into addictive behaviors. Once these dysfunctions are identified, the patient can begin making important post-treatment plans.

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What Makes A Good Addiction Counselor?

An addiction counselor collaborates with their patients to evaluate their situation and establish goals to develop a customized treatment plan. Your counselor should be a good listener and possesses an overall demeanor of compassion. The initial counseling sessions are designed to lay the foundation for mutual trust, which is imperative for a successful outcome.

I contribute hard work, and my friends at AA for helping me stay sober. I’m still in contact with my counselor at the Greenhouse, my rehab. I love talking to other recovering addicts.

Through a counselor’s empathy (many are former addicts themselves) and patience, they create a safe environment for the user to openly communicate. This will help the counselor identify the underlying issues that may be driving the addictive behavior. This part of therapy is on of the keys, because without pinpointing the underlying issue, long-term recovery is less likely.

A good therapist will also be able to diagnose and treat any co-occurring mental health conditions. The most important quality in a good addiction counselor is a desire and commitment to help their patients move through the stages of change with the ultimate goal of achieving long-term sobriety.

What Types Of Therapy Are Available?

There are many different types of therapies designed to complement the traditional addiction counseling sessions. Depending on the treatment center, these may include:

• Biofeedback and Neurofeedback. These therapies use real-time displays of brain activity to monitor levels of muscle tension, blood pressure, and heart rate. This trains the patient on how to manipulate brain function in order to gain some control over their physiological processes.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT is effective in helping addiction and mental health disorders because it focuses on the relationship between thoughts and the subsequent behaviors and choices related to them. Through the use of CBT, a counselor can help patients identify triggers that lead to drug or alcohol use and then replace those responses with healthy ones.
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). DBT is used to treat individuals with a dual diagnosis; one of the main objectives is to help patients gain confidence and coping abilities to handle stressful situations in healthy ways. DBT will also improve communication skills and self-image, which can help people with conditions such as Borderline Personality Disorder and eating disorders.
• Meditation, Hypnotherapy, Guided Imagery, and Mindfulness. These types of therapies place a focus on identifying triggers, controlling stress responses and using deep relaxation techniques. The main idea of these types of therapy is to get an individual into a relaxed state of mind to utilize healthy coping strategies to manage cravings, feelings, and stress. Aromatherapy is an effective supplement to these types of therapy.
• Holistic therapies. In addition to traditional treatment methods, holistic therapy helps patients practice introspection and learn healthy coping skills. It also gives patients who are not comfortable opening up in traditional therapy sessions a way to communicate their deepest fears and issues in a non-threatening manner. A few forms of holistic therapy that can be useful in treating addictions are yoga, art therapy, music therapy, and equine therapy.

Quality addiction treatment centers also include nutrition and wellness and provide a variety of additional types of therapies in order to treat the whole person, with the ultimate goal of guiding the patient toward a lasting recovery.

Why Do I Need Addiction Counseling?

It may be tempting to think that you don’t need to go through the work and efforts required for addiction counseling. Few people actually enjoy the process of discussing and uncovering long-held pain and trauma; without doing the work necessary to isolate the underlying issue that may be driving addictive behavior, however, sobriety will likely be short-lived.

If you need help finding a treatment program, contact a treatment provider today.

Try Online Therapy

Get professional help from an addiction and mental health counselor from BetterHelp by phone, video, or live-chat.

Take the Quiz. Get Matched. Begin Therapy.

GET STARTED NOW

Online therapy can help you with long term addiction support. Connect with a therapist from Talkspace anytime, anywhere.

Get matched with a therapist now.

GET STARTED NOW

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