The Road to Recovery Often Includes Family Therapy
The Road to Recovery Often Includes Family Therapy
When a loved one has decided to enter rehab for their alcohol or drug addiction, their family may think that recovery is now up to their loved one. However, where it comes to making a complete recovery, the participation of the family is critical. Here’s how attending counseling as a family can help foster understanding about addiction, as well as heal family relationships.
Creating Change Within the Family Unit
In addition to the addicted member’s perspective of their addiction, each individual family member experiences and responds to their loved one’s addiction in a different way. Members learn how to respond and communicate in ways that may offer no benefit to the situation.
In trying to help or deal with their loved one’s addiction, family members may be doing a number of things unconsciously that may be having more of a negative than a positive effect on their family. They may:
- Deny their loved one has a problem
- Detach from their loved one completely
- Exhibit passive-aggressiveness or outright anger toward their loved one
- Try to control their family member’s behavior.
Indeed, the family of an addicted loved one experiences the entire gamut of emotions. Family therapy addresses existing issues that may have contributed to a loved one’s addiction and helps individuals process their negative emotions. Ultimately, stress on the family as a whole is reduced when individual stressors are effectively dealt with.
Healing Opportunities Through Emotional Expression
In family therapy, individuals are able to gain a clearer understanding of how their loved one’s addiction is affecting them. Although it can be very daunting, family members have the opportunity to express to their loved one how their addiction has made them feel.
This is an immense opportunity for healing, as the addicted family member can know the effects of their actions and the family members can finally express and release their emotions about how addiction has affected their lives.
Family counseling services also uncover offers the opportunity for families to learn to communicate in healthy ways. This can help children to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy behaviors, ultimately preventing the cycle of addiction from continuing.
Personal Growth Through Non-Judgmental Therapy
Family relationships have a direct impact on daily life, and even the slightest adjustment can improve the way in which the entire family unit works. Getting support for families of addicts therapy can be fraught with fear and doubt. Still, it’s crucial to seek help before family members are further affected.
The systemic psychotherapists at Matthew J. Bruhin & Associates understand that all parts of a family must work together in order to be healthy. In a non-judgmental but direct manner, we address difficult issues without blaming or labeling.
Using process therapy, educational sessions, and group therapy, families get the tools and insight they need to make changes for the better, and the addicted family member can finally begin on their own individual path to recovery. Call us today if you’re in need of family counseling: (619) 493-0510.
