What’s the Point of Family Therapy for Addiction

Recovering from addiction takes a full spectrum of treatment. Family therapy for addiction is just as necessary as individual therapy. However, some people don’t understand the point of involving family members in treatment. What they don’t realize is that addiction is a family disease, so everyone in the household has been affected by the addiction and needs help.

An Overview of Family Therapy

In basic terms, family therapy is a form of psychotherapy that helps families resolve conflicts and heal relationships. It also teaches them how to communicate better with each other. The treatment occurs over a short period.

As addiction treatment, family counseling includes a person with addiction and some or all family members. A therapist leads the sessions with the objective to help everyone understand addiction. The counselor teaches them skills that strengthen their relationships. Families also learn techniques to resolve stressful conflicts in the future.

The Point of Family Therapy for Addiction

Family counseling has two primary purposes in addiction treatment. One is to use the resources and strengths that the family has to help the person with addiction live sober. The other is to improve the effectiveness of treatment for everyone in the family.

How the Treatment Helps Families

It’s not easy for people to overcome addiction, partially because it requires substantial lifestyle changes. Sometimes these changes include moving to a new city, making new friends or starting new careers. Since they can’t change family members, everyone needs to work together to defeat addiction.

Family therapy for addiction shows families the significance and importance of lifestyle changes. It also helps them recognize their roles in these changes and in sustained recovery. Therapists can define clear goals for how they can change so that they can be supportive of treatment. Counseling gives them guidance to determine which changes to make and how to make them.

For those in treatment, family therapy teaches family members about addiction so that they understand what their loved ones face. This element makes them more compassionate to encourage those in rehab to complete treatment. In turn, it increases the likelihood of a successful recovery.

For the family members, counseling can demonstrate how their actions affect their loved ones’ behaviors. Doing so helps them realize that they need to make some changes themselves. They learn to identify anxiety and conflicts and to develop plans to deal with them. The family members also begin to understand their own needs and those of the entire family, which aids the healing process.

Together, these elements reduce the risk of relapse. The family can grasp how not to enable their loved ones. After treatment, they can better recognize triggers and signs of trouble, which puts them in a position to prevent problems.

Improve At-Home Support With Family Counseling

Do you or a loved one suffer from addiction? Beaches Recovery can provide family therapy to treat your entire family. In addition, we offer several addiction programs and services, including:

• Experiential therapy
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Alcohol detox
• Drug detox
• Student addiction treatment
• Men’s drug addiction rehab program
• Women’s drug addiction rehab program

Don’t only seek addiction treatment for yourself. Bolster the support that you or a loved one receives at home with family therapy for addiction. Call us now at 866.605.0532 for more information.