Does Outpatient Counseling Work for Drug Addiction?

Counselor after school. Beautiful stylish girl wearing jeans and grey hoodie visiting counselor after school

If you are ready to quit drugs for good and enjoy long-term successful sobriety, counseling is your best bet. Counseling is just one spoke on the bike wheel of what is needed for getting sober and staying sober, but it’s one of the most important parts. Keep reading this blog for more about counseling for drug addiction, the different types of counseling, and what else is needed for successful, long-term recovery.

Counseling for Drug Addiction: Individual Counseling

Individual counseling, also known as one-on-one therapy, is a type of counseling you can look forward to receiving at a drug rehabilitation center. With individual counseling, you sit in sessions one-on-one with a professional and licensed substance abuse counselor who can help you explore your reasons for using drugs and/or alcohol, underlying causes for using, co-occurring disorders, triggers, and help you with the tools you need for overcoming your addiction, both short term and long term.

The ability to be open and honest with your counselor is key for individual counseling. Counseling for drug addiction works best when you connect with your therapist, the program, and have an individualized treatment plan. This makes finding the right top rehab facility like Compassion Recovery Center very important.

Co-Occurring Disorders

According to reports published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 37 percent of alcohol abusers and 53 percent of drug abusers also have at least one serious mental illness. You cannot sustain long-term sobriety without treating the co-occurring disorder, making counseling essential in treating addiction. We at Compassion Recovery Center focus a lot of our program not only on mental health conditions, but substance abuse counseling as well.

Co-occurring disorders most often include:

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • PTSD
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • ADHD
  • Schizophrenia
  • Many more

Group Counseling

Another form of counseling for drug addiction is group counseling. Group counseling provides a safe environment for individuals to share stories and experiences, be able to bond with others, seek advice, and helps put your own situation into perspective by listening to others. Groups are led by professional and accredited substance abuse counselors and therapists. Most of the best rehabs in California offer comprehensive group counseling as part of their drug rehab program.

Building Sober Support

Support is a big key to drug addiction recovery. Having a support system of people to call or rely on that understand what you are going through is essential. Leaning on each other, providing advice, a shoulder to cry on, or having fun hobbies together are all things you can gain from group counseling.

Family Counseling

Addiction can cause severe damage to a family and affects all members, not just the person experiencing the addiction. Family counseling is important for drug addiction recovery because it can help:

  • Establish better communication
  • Begin repairing broken bonds
  • Setting up boundaries and consequences
  • Working through hurtful situations
  • Learning how to support each other moving forward
  • Rebuild trust

What Else Is Needed

Counseling for drug addiction is a very important part of the recovery process, but it won’t work by itself. Other important aspects of drug addiction recovery include:

  • Medication-assisted detox. Getting sober can be difficult not only behaviorally, but physically as well. Medication-assisted detox will help you detox from drugs safely and more comfortably, especially from dangerous prescription drugs.
  • Healthy lifestyle. Eating healthily and staying active is not only great for your body but they are also great for your mind. Keeping stress levels low is essential for long-term sobriety.
  • Aftercare program. Once your residential treatment is completed, your work will continue. Deciding what to do after you leave residential treatment and sticking to it is important, no matter how confident you are in your recovery.

About Compassion Recovery Center

Drug addiction counseling will help you get off drugs, learn the tools to stay off them, and also teach you what to do if you’re feeling tempted to relapse. Treatment at Compassion Recovery Center in Laguna Hills, CA is systemic, integrative, and client-centered. Our philosophy is grounded in the understanding that in order for the client to heal, the entire system needs the opportunity to heal along with them.

We start from the premise that the treatment that is currently available to active addicts or alcoholics, even the supposedly high-end variety, is inadequate, and our mission is to offer something better. Here at Compassion Recovery we believe strongly in understanding your underlying issues and figuring out what’s motivating you to use drugs, and in order to accomplish that goal, we offer more individual therapy sessions in 30 days than any other drug rehabilitation or alcohol rehab centers in California.

It is a priority for us that our life-changing drug and alcohol treatment be available to the people who need it. We are fully familiar with how much strength and courage it takes to pick up the phone and ask for help. Our counselors are invested in your well-being and are ready around the clock to guide you or your friend or family member through the initial steps of overcoming drug or alcohol addiction.

With our superior team of clinicians, we are able to succinctly pinpoint those areas of focus that will give the client the most advanced opportunity for success. Our approach towards healing is collaborative, comprehensive, and committed.

For more information, visit Compassion Recovery Center

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