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Family Counseling Offered
Some addiction treatment programs offer family counseling and therapy as part of the recovery process. This is because substance abuse and addiction often affect families in negative ways, and these effects have to be dealt with to ensure long term recovery.
About Family Counseling
Although known as family therapy, family counseling is a form of group therapy in which the participants are in a relationship or a related in such a way that they form a family network. Most of these therapy and treatment programs will draw on the strengths of the family unit to improve communication and bonding while ensuring that the unit is able to support the substance abuser in their recovery journey.
Through family counseling, addiction treatment programs can help families heal old traumas and arguments, improve their communication skills, and move along on the road to recovery as one unit.
Family therapists and counselors often understand how every individual in the family is affected by others within the group. They also have special experience and education in helping each member of the family interact within the unit as well as heal.
Although each family is a system, it is comprised of unique parts. To this end, changes in any of these parts could bring about other changes within the other parts. As a result, when one member struggles with substance abuse and addiction - or they are in a recovery program - the rest of the family will be affected in one way or the other. In the same way, a health family unit can be useful in helping individual members achieve long lasting recovery and wellness.
How It Works
For this reason, family counseling is designed to address the various problems - including but not limited to substance abuse and addiction - that the family might be struggling with. These include other co-occurring mental and behavioral health disorders, learning disorders, peer networks, problems with work and school attendance, family conflict, and communication within the family unit.
Through family therapy sessions, the recovering addict will inform the counselors who need to participate in the counseling process. Anyone who might be instrumental in maintaining the household, providing support, providing financial resources, and offering enduring and strong bonds will be invited to the family counseling sessions.
With the progress of the treatment process, the family will learn about the substance abuse and its negative effects. They will also get the opportunity to talk about they have been affected - either as individuals as a collected family unit - by the addiction. After that, they will work through all these negative issues and emotions until they are fully recovered.
The Importance of Family Counseling
Family counseling will also provide an opportunity for the addict and their family to learn about how they can reduce their enabling behavior and ensure that the addict does not relapse to their old substance using ways.
Through this process, family therapy can play an important role in the ongoing recovery of the addict. The family can also help the addict by seeking support - on their own - through support groups and individual counseling over and above the support that they receive from family counseling sessions.
Questions? Need help?
If you or a loved one needs help for substance abuse or addiction, fill out the form below and a counselor will respond shortly.
