Individual Therapy in Addiction Treatment

In the course of addiction treatment, you might have to go through individual therapy sessions with a counselor or a therapist. Although this form of therapy is highly encouraged, it need to form part of a larger and more comprehensive approach to treatment and recovery.

About Individual Therapy

While struggling with drug and alcohol abuse and addiction, you need an integrated treatment plan to approach long term recovery and wellness. Today, many treatment programs often use individual therapy as one of the options available to their clients.

During this form of therapy, you will only be spending time with the therapist or the counselor. Although the exact frequency and duration of the treat net will change based on different factors, you can expect the session to last for around a hour. These sessions will be offered for several times in a week - depending on your needs, requirements, and suggestions.

The goal of individual therapy is to address the specific issues and problems that you have been struggling with. Some of these issues include the shame and stigma that is attached to drug addiction, the difficulties involved in overcoming withdrawal, and struggling with a relapse.

To this end, this form of therapy will give you a safe and private space in which you can share all information that you might want to talk about knowing that there will be no judgment. The therapist will also have an unique position that will allow you to share and trust them with private and sensitive information.

You will also be safe in the knowledge that your therapist will not pass judgment or even cause problems in your future careers and relationships. Through this guidance, advice, and support, you may be able to get started on the road to recovery from your substance abuse and addiction.

How It Works

While enrolled in an inpatient or an outpatient addiction treatment and rehabilitation program, you will be assigned to a counselor or a therapist who will work on your case. For at least once every week, you will be required to meet with your therapist for individual therapy sessions lasting between 45 minutes and 2 hours - which will largely depend on the facility and your needs and preferences.

Most programs will encourage you to continue seeking treatment for a minimum of 90 days, during which time you will be required to undergo about 16 or more therapy session. As a result, this could lead to an increase in your rates of success.

Therapists who have been certified to offer addiction treatment services will often have their own unique ways of approaching patients and clients. However, most of them will use some form of behavioral therapy options, such as cognitive behavioral therapy.

Examples of the therapy options that they might use include but are not limited to dialectical behavioral therapy, schema-focused therapy, rational living therapy, motivational interviewing, rational behavior therapy, and rational emotive behavioral therapy - among many others.

In the majority of cases, your therapist will use cognitive behavioral therapy. This type of individual therapy has been shown to come with an approach that is oriented on solutions. It is also focused on helping you achieve the goal of abstinence from alcohol and drugs.

During the first few therapy sessions, you will work with your therapist. They will assess your individual motivations for change as well as help you set the goals of treatment. These goals might include but are not always limited to managing your emotions without turning to alcohol and drugs, enhancing your social support system, and learning the coping skills that will reduce your risk of relapse.

Over this period, you will also examine your damaging and destructive behaviors, beliefs, and self-concepts. Through this identification process, you will have a better idea about what you are going to have to do to overcome them and - in the process - manage your substance abuse and addiction problem.

As a client, you might have to work to overcome your justifications for ongoing drug abuse. Further, you may need to understand the harm that your behaviors have caused to yourself and to others around you.

Further, your therapist may help you address the changes that you need to work towards as well as make a cost-benefit analysis of these changes. In the process, you will also make a plan on how you are going to achieve these changes and other goals that you may have.

At times, the professional offering the individual therapy sessions might challenge any of your underlying beliefs and assumptions - because some of them might be at the root of your subspace abuse and addiction. Examples of these assumptions include the fact that you believe that all your friends abuse drugs and you are going to lose them if you give up these substances of abuse.

You may also believe that drug abuse does not affect anyone else other than you. The other negative belief would be that it is impossible for you to get through a full weekend without turning to alcohol and drugs.

In many cases, you will find that your therapist will assign you homework that you need to do during the time when you are not together with them. This could involve reading books, keeping a journal, or engaging in any other beneficial task.

Since the therapist will be the professional who is closest to your particular case, they will also be among the key people who are going to help you decide if and when you are fully prepared to leave the drug and alcohol addiction treatment and rehabilitation program. After they have made this decision and you have gone back home, however, they will still encourage you to continue seeking individual therapy sessions and services.

Getting Help

One of the important benefits of individual therapy is that it will allow you to develop a more personal and - even perhaps - deeper connection with the therapist than a group therapy session would. These sessions are also private, which could improve your long term outcomes towards recovery and wellness.