Addiction and Recovery Therapy
Addiction impacts EVERYONE,
not only the person struggling with the addiction, but also their parents, children, spouses, and friends. Addiction and recovery therapy can be an important component in helping someone to maintain sobriety and experience lasting recovery or to support the loved ones impacted by the addiction.
There are many paths to recovery and if you are here on this page, we want to commend you for your bravery in taking a first step or the next step for yourself or someone you love. “Getting clean” or stopping the use of a substance, alcohol, gambling, sexual addiction, food addiction etc. is really only the first step. Recovery cannot and will not be long lasting if further steps are not taken to address the mental health symptoms, past trauma, current or past unhealthy relationships, environment, friendships, legal consequences, or other circumstances that trigger, reinforce or maintain the addictive behavior(s). Addiction and recovery therapy can do just that! Schedule a free 20 minute consultation today to see if we can help!
Therapy for the addict
There are many forms of addiction treatment including detoxification, inpatient treatment programs, outpatient treatment programs, multiple therapeutic approaches and support groups including 12 step, SMART recovery, Celebrate Recovery etc. Resilience Family Therapy supports all of these approaches and offers individual and/or family therapy to help deepen recovery by addressing the underlying causes of continued addiction. About 20% of Americans who have depression or an anxiety disorder also have a substance use disorder. I believe that treating both the substance use disorder AND the mental health disorder is key to lasting recovery and freedom.
Using individualized behavioral approaches including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), our clinicians help people struggling with addiction to explore triggers, thoughts, and feelings that lead to addictive behaviors and learn coping strategies to maintain recovery and supplement their treatment in outpatient or 12 step programs. Our therapists are also trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) which can be a beneficial treatment in helping to teach the regulation of emotions to prevent reactivity and self-destructive behaviors that can lead to relapse and the ongoing cycle of addictive behaviors.
Therapy for those who love an addict
Not everyone is ready or open to recovery. You can’t force someone to change before they are ready, and one of the hardest truths for friends, family members, spouses, and children of someone struggling with addiction is realizing that you cannot want their recovery more than they do or work harder at it than they are willing to.
Finding therapy for yourself can be an incredibly freeing and healthy decision. Therapy can provide a place to process the impact of a loved one’s addiction, learn how to set and maintain healthy boundaries, recognize patterns of enabling or over-functioning, and begin making decisions based on your own well-being rather than the chaos addiction can create within a family.
Your loved one may also be in recovery, and you may find yourself surprised by how complicated that feels. You can be deeply grateful that they are sober while still carrying hurt, anger, resentment, fear, or wounds from what happened during their active addiction. Recovery doesn’t automatically erase the impact addiction has had on the people who love them.
Having a safe, nonjudgmental place to process all of those feelings - the good, the bad, and the ugly - can help you heal, rebuild trust where appropriate, and move forward in a healthier way.
At Resilience Family Therapy, we understand addiction as something that affects the entire family system. Our clinical experience includes helping individuals and families navigate addiction and recovery, as well as developing and overseeing recovery-focused treatment programs. We’re here to support not only the person struggling with addiction, but the people who love them too. Reach out using the link below to schedule a free consultation and see how we might be able to help.