Addiction therapy is a vital part of treatment for a person recovering from substance abuse. Therapists offer patients the support, resources, as well as judgment-free guidance that they need on their road to addiction recovery.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), family counseling, among others, can help patients overcome addiction and fully recover. Counselors offer patients both crises as well as long-term addiction management solutions, including immediate medical intervention as well as support in managing their long term recovery.
Here are some of the roles the addiction therapy play in recovery:
1. Building a Therapeutic Relationship with Patients
Patients struggle with the decision to seek addiction treatment. Opening up to a counselor is even more challenging for them. Therefore, counselors should try as much as possible to create a strong bond between them and the patients when patients approach them. Having a therapeutic alliance plays a vital role during recovery from substance abuse.
The counselors’ role in addiction therapy treatment should go far beyond just talking to an addict through treatment. Also, it should involve being highly empathetic and passionate and building close relationships with patients.
With a therapeutic alliance, the patients view the counselors as trustworthy people who have their best interests at heart. This allows the patient to feel comfortable with their counselors and can freely speak out what is in their hearts during the counseling sessions. The patients can also develop a relationship with the counselor, feels relief after the appointments and would be willing to go back another time.
Here is how a counselor can achieve a therapeutic alliance:
- Ensure that you have the best interest of the patient at heart and are genuinely interested in patients’ well-being.
- Empathize with the patient and let them know
- Be attentive during counseling sessions
- Make the patients feel welcome and comfortable when discussing their issues
- Understand and communicate the fundamental issues at play in the recovery
2. Helping Clients Deal with Cravings, Withdrawals and Developing a Relapse Prevention Plan
Relapsing is a chronic issue that affects most of the addicts. Some research reports indicate that 40% to 60% of addicts are likely to relapse at some point during their life. However, relapsing should not be an indication of treatment failure but an indication that we should try a different form of treatment.
In drug rehab centers, patients get different types of treatment that are tailored to meet their needs and to avoid relapsing. For example, if you’re in Southern California, you can get treatment in an Orange County rehab centers like Laguna Treatment center. The center offers different levels of care, including medical detox, medically intensive residential treatment, and partial hospitalization program. The medical detox can help patients overcome cravings and be safe and comfortable during drugs and alcohol withdrawal.
To deal with cravings and avoid future relapse, patients need a therapist to walk with them and counsel them through recovery. Therapists teach patients how to manage the triggers of addiction. To overcome relapsing, it takes more than just the willpower to say no to the temptations. Developing a relapse prevention plan should start early in the recovery process with the counselor in charge.
The relapse recovery plan should be tailored to the individual needs of the patients but can include elements such as:
- A comprehensive account of the experiences of the client with the specific substance abuse including any previous relapses
- A well-detailed list of friends, relatives, and counselors that can be part of the patients support network
- Any warning signs of relapsing and how best a patient can manage them
- An emergency relapsing episodes
- Some lifestyle changes that the client can adapt to better their well-being
3. Encouraging Patients through Recovery
Most patients struggle and are even hesitant about seeking addiction treatment. Though the counselors have a little control over the patients’ desire for transformation, they can motivate or encourage them to change. Counselors should find the best style to meet each client’s needs better.
According to the findings of NCBI, some of the attributes that counselors should possess include friendliness, non-possessive warmth, respect, genuineness, empathy, and affirmation. According to this study, confrontational counseling produced negative results; for example, the more the client was confronted about their alcoholism, the more they got drunk.
Addiction therapy councillors should adapt the best style to enhance client motivation and should go beyond listening, offering advice, or teaching the clients. They should empower patients to help them take action and embrace change.
4. Creating Meet-ups With Family Members to Offer Guidance
Recovery is a lifelong journey and therefore having supportive family members, and friends are one of the essential parts of recovery. The support of family members and friends plays a crucial role in recovery from addiction. They can help the patient to become accountable and to stick to their addiction-free lifelong goals.
However, friends and family members may not know precisely how to address the addiction recovery process of their loved ones. Therefore, during the addiction therapy, the counselors can help the family members and friends learn how to handle the patient. Counselors help in mediating the family therapy sessions as well as assisting them in finding a self-help group to join.
5. Referring Patients to Outside Support Groups and Programs
Counselors can also play a role in helping patients locate the best support groups and community-based programs. Some of these programs include Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, which can enhance the level of outside support. The twelve-step programs such as Narcotics Anonymous are useful parts of the recovery program through trained psychotherapists who don’t lead them. There is also a non 12 step recovery program that focuses on restoring a patient’s self-worth and self-control while also allowing them to take control of their lives.
With these support groups and community-based programs, a patient gets an extra layer of accountability. Therefore, if the patients attend programs where people with similar struggles share their stories and experiences, they acquire excellent lessons in a non-judgemental environment.
Group addiction therapy is preferred to individual therapy because, in group therapy, peers challenge and support one another who are also going through drug rehab. With individual treatment, though, the patients can get help with bipolar disorder, depression, among other mental health conditions that need treatments in their own right separate from addiction.
