Beating any type of addiction—prescription drugs, street drugs, alcohol, or any other addiction is a tall order and a major success when you do. But detox is only the start of a continuing process. You’ll need to learn strategies to manage drug cravings and avoid relapse. You have probably left a trail of hurt feelings, mistrust and irresponsibility behind. Counseling is the backbone of substance abuse treatment therapy. 

Goals of addiction therapy treatment:

  • Stop using drugs
  • Recognize triggers to prevent relapse
  • Be beneficial to the family, at work and in society
  • Learn how to forgive yourself and others addiction therapy services

Why You Need Therapy in Addiction Treatment

Addiction is more than the physical dependence on drugs or alcohol. After you complete detox and your body aren’t hooked anymore, you have a high risk for relapse. You will still have social and psychological issues that can trigger a relapse such as:

  • Stress-life stresses you weren’t able to handle sober
  • Environmental cues-like visiting a place where you used to use substances
  • Social network-spending time with friends who still use

Counseling helps you learn to control cravings and cope with stressful life situations without drugs or alcohol.

Common Addiction Therapy Services

Several counseling therapies are used to treat substance use disorder. No one approach works for everyone. The right treatment plan needs to be customized for the individual patient and his or her addiction. The success of these therapy plans depends on your individual needs. 

Because of this, many therapists use components of several approaches.                            

After a detox program, the next step tends to be a residential treatment program that provides a range of addiction therapy services. Some of the more common therapies shown to be effective during addiction treatment include the following:

Behavioral Therapies

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a psychological treatment that is useful for a range of problems, including depression, anxiety, marital problems, and alcohol and drug use. There have been many studies that show CBT leads to substantial improvement in functioning and quality of life. 

CBT allows clients to work closely with their therapists to identify negative thoughts and behavior patterns. They will then work together to create objectives and plans to reach these objectives to break these negative patterns. The therapist will help introduce new skills that will change how the client approaches and handles stress and problems without negative thinking. 

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

DBT provides patients with new skills to help cope with distressing emotions and decrease conflict in relationships. It focuses on providing the client with skills in four important areas: 

  1. Mindfulness—focuses on developing the individual’s ability to accept and be present in the present.
  2. Distress tolerance—is meant to increase a person’s tolerance of negative emotions rather than trying to escape from them.
  3. Emotion regulation—helps with the development of strategies to be in charge of and change negative feelings that are leading to problems in a person’s life.
  4. Interpersonal effectiveness—is made up of techniques that provide a person a way to communicate with others in an assertive manner, maintains self-respect, and improves relationships.

DBT skills have been proved to have the ability to help people who want to improve their abilities to regulate emotions tolerate distress and negative feelings, be mindful, and present in the moment and communicate effectively. It promotes balance and avoiding black-and-white or all-or-nothing types of thinking. The heart of DBT is learning to balance acceptance and change.

Family Therapy

Family therapy is a type of psychological counseling that gives family members an opportunity to improve communication and work through conflicts. Addiction can cause a severe breakdown in family relationships. Family therapy sessions are a must to rebuild these bonds in a safe, effective, and respectful way. 

Here, loved ones can talk through problems, establish boundaries, and learn how to communicate appropriately. You might discuss specific issues such as marital or financial problems, a conflict between parents and children or the effect of substance use on the family. 

It is typically short term. It might include all members of the family or just those who are willing and able to take part. 

Your family may consider other types of therapy along with family therapy if:

  • A family member has a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia—the family will attend family therapy while the person with the mental illness will continue with individual treatments.
  • A family member has an addiction—the family can participate in family therapy while the person with the addiction is in residential treatment.

Family therapy is useful in any situation that causes anxiety, sadness, anger or conflict. It helps you understand each other better and aids in learning coping skills that will bring you closer together.

Group Therapy

Group therapy typically involves one or more psychologists who lead a group of five to 15 patients. Groups usually meet for an hour or two each week. During these sessions, therapists will act as facilitators as the group discusses a wide variety of topics.

Many times, groups are meant to target a particular problem. It may be depression, obesity, chronic pain, or substance abuse. Groups often help people who have experienced personal loss.

Benefits of group therapy are:

  • Groups act as a support network. Other members often come up with ideas for negotiating a difficult situation or challenge in your life. They will also hold you accountable for your actions.
  • Groups put your problems in perspective. Talking and listening to others helps you put your problems in perspective. You may often feel that you are the only one struggling. Hearing other people discuss what they are experiencing makes you realize you aren’t alone.
  • The diversity of a group. Groups are made of people with different personalities and backgrounds and look at problems in different ways. By seeing how other people deal with problems and make changes helps you discover new strategies for yourself
  • Psychologists with specialized training. Group sessions are led by psychologists with specialized training who are able to teach scientifically proven strategies for solving problems.

Individual Therapy

When it comes to addiction therapy services, individual therapy tends to be the most common and well known. Developed by Sigmund Freud, it was the first kind of psychotherapy. Individual therapy is a process between a therapist and a person in therapy. Individual therapy involves investigating the composition of the personality and reorganizing it to address deep conflicts and defenses. 

It is also called therapy, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and talk therapy. It is not as popular today as it was a few decades ago, although it is still used to take care of deep-seated personality issues. Psychoanalysis often lasts for many years.

During these sessions, clients work one-on-one with their therapist to build a trusting bond. As clients become more comfortable, they can begin to talk through their background and past experiences with their therapist. Clients start to understand their own emotions better while learning new coping mechanisms for after treatment. 

Psychodrama Therapy

Psychodrama is a creative approach that uses role-playing to work through problems. It can be helpful individually or in a group. During each session, members of the group reenact specific scenes and experiences with supervision from the therapist. 

The “scenes” may include past situations, dreams, or preparations for some future event. The “audience” may offer support and call attention to underlying beliefs and problems. 

Some of the benefits of psychodrama are:

  • Improving relationships and communication skills
  • Overcoming grief and loss
  • Regain confidence and well-being
  • Enhancing learning and life skills
  • Ability to express feelings in a safe, supportive environment
  • Ability to experiment with new ways of thinking and behaving

Trauma Therapy

Trauma therapy is specifically focused on helping people who have had damaging things happen to them. When you experience a traumatic occurrence, your mind changes, and the psychological trauma can affect you for many years after the event that caused it. It may be the link to your substance use disorder. There is evidence that therapy can actually alter the way your brain functions after trauma. 

The most important goals of trauma therapy are:

  • To face the reality of the traumatic event without becoming stuck in it.
  • Reducing or eliminating trauma symptoms
  • Work towards switching focus from the past to the present.
  • Improve daily functioning.
  • Raise awareness of hereditary trauma.
  • To restore your personal power.
  • To defeat addictions associated with traumatic stress.
  • To develop skills to prevent a relapse.

Why Are There So Many Types Of Therapy?

When it comes to overcoming addiction, you must implement multiple steps and modalities to achieve your goals of recovery. If a facility approaches treatment with a one-size-fits-all attitude, recovery won’t be possible. 

This is why you need a menu of services to match your circumstances. Addiction therapy services are so crucial to the overall treatment plan of each client. Without these services, clients would lack the skills and tools they need to reach recovery. 

At our Los Angeles drug and alcohol rehab center, we create a plan around your needs to help give you the support you need for recovery.

When individuals struggling with addiction begin the process of finding a facility that suits their needs, they need to look at the therapies offered. If the facility only provides one or two options, it’s usually best to look elsewhere for help. 

Look for an addiction treatment facility that provides multiple addiction therapies that will give you the emotional support you need. These services will also help you learn more about yourself, your addiction, and how to stay in recovery.

Why Some People Avoid Treatment

It is important not to wait until symptoms multiply you or feel overwhelmed by your addiction and other issues in your life. 

Reasons people avoid treatment are:

  • Worry about the stigma that comes with rehab.
  • Feelings of shame when talking about past hurts.
  • Don’t want to admit that anything is wrong.
  • Fear that treatment discussions won’t stay confidential.
  • Money issues.

Call LA Detox Today

At LA Detox, we believe that when our clients have a reason to get sober, they find the will to begin the journey. Let us help you find your reason through addiction therapy services. Contact LA Detox today to start your journey towards sobriety. It’s the most important thing you can do to help yourself or someone you love. It’s as easy as picking up your phone. 

References:

www.drugabuse.gov

www.mayoclinic.org

www.apa.org

www.goodtherapy.org

www.betterhelp.com