The battle against addiction can affect many of the people close to those who are fighting it. Despite this, the struggle between the user and their addiction is a deeply personal one. One that can have profound effects on an individual’s mental health and personality. Few are able to make complete and fulfilling recoveries from these issues without the assistance of individual therapy.
Each drug addiction therapist may approach individual therapy in a different way. Most will employ, to some degree, a form of cognitive behavior therapy, or CBT. CBT is a solution-based treatment designed to achieve abstinence from a substance. In sessions lasting usually no more than an hour-long, you and your therapist will discuss your motivations and habits and what actions or decisions led you to this point. Some things you may be looking to learn through individual therapy could be:
Individual therapy programs are not meant to make you feel guilty about yourself. The therapist is certainly not judging you but acts as a neutral discussion partner to help you come to realizations you may have otherwise not noticed. The point is to identify self-harming behaviors, ideas, and coping mechanisms in order to establish and practice healthier ones. Even after finishing treatment, it is often a good idea to continue an individual therapy program.
As stated above, individual therapy programs are not designed to make a person feel guilty or bad about themselves or their actions. Individual therapy is about discovering more about yourself. Done so with the help of an impartial guide to ask probing questions or steer you towards results. While you will have to discuss and identify your mistakes, it is not about dwelling on them. Your therapist will help you to create new plans of action for dealing with urges, triggers, and faulty behaviors from your addicted lifestyle.
Your addiction does not define you. No one here holds any judgment against our residents. We have a commitment to giving you the best in addiction treatment. Individual therapy programs are a large and important part of that treatment. Not only during treatment but afterward as well. Especially when leaving a treatment center, many residents find continuing individual treatment is incredibly helpful when returning to their old lives.