Counseling During Rehabilitation

The Specialization chosen is addiction counseling. This paper will cover the key aspects of addiction counseling which include biological, psychological and physical aspects. As well as medical and social aspects of addiction and counseling. Addiction counseling must adhere to strict ethical codes, and the counselors need to have an understanding of addiction, and have knowledge in the various types of treatment programs. Other key aspects that are important in this specialization are the application to practice, and most important professional readiness. Addiction counseling differs from other specializations because it requires long-term care and treatment, and requires more than one form of treatment within individuals. Treating

The family has a central role to play in the treatment of any health problem, including substance abuse. Family work has become a strong and continuing theme of many treatment approaches , but family therapy is not used to its greatest capacity in substance abuse treatment. A primary challenge remains the broadening of the substance abuse treatment focus from the individual to the family.The two disciplines, family therapy and substance abuse treatment, bring different perspectives to treatment implementation. In substance abuse treatment, for instance, the client is the identified patient (IP)—the person in the family with the presenting substance abuse problem. In family therapy, the goal of treatment is to meet the needs of all family members.

Not every addict should be treated the same. The regimen should address all of the aspects of an individual's life, including medical and mental health and follow up options. Behavioral Treatments help patients modify their attitudes and behaviors and increase healthy lifestyle skills and options. They can enhance the effectiveness of medication and help addicts stay committed to the treatment process. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a behavioral treatment with the goal of helping the user recognize, avoid, and cope with anything and everything involving their drug use and recovery (Davison, 2007). Therapeutic communities can also be extremely effective, especially for those who are severely addicted. They are highly structured programs that often involve residency for up to 12 months. It is important to recognize that no single treatment is appropriate for all individuals addicted to drugs (National, 2005).

Contact between an addictions counsellor and a client is usually initiated by the client referring him/her self, an outside agency refers them, family physician or the addictions counsellor initiates contact through outreach or other agencies. Assessment can be seen as the beginning of treatment and it becomes an opportunity to encourage the client to begin to move towards change. The initial assessment involves a mutual investigation and exploration between the client

When most people think of substance abuse and addiction counseling they often only think of the 12 step program or alcoholics anonymous. The truth is that an addiction counselor must have a vast knowledge in the

Counseling and Therapy - This component is used to help the addict understand aspects of their addiction. They are taught to identify triggers and find appropriate methods for dealing with them without the use of drugs and alcohol.

A question that I was curious about asking dealt with how individuals in recovery function as substance abuse counselors. From experience, I have noticed that most substance abuse counselors are themselves in recovery. When I was in treatment, I related much better to

Drug and chemical abuse affect many families and that particular family that lives through a loved one who is an addict and the priority is to get help for the individual. In any intervention that involves drug addicts, a family's disposition is very important. Full recovery of any drug addict involves the restoration of the person's life as well as ensuring that those who are around the addict have the best ability when it comes to helping with abstinence which is a long-term goal. Abusers are often in denial or even believe that they are totally in control of their use of drugs

There is no denying that drug abuse not only affects the addict but also his or her family and relationships. Drug treatment programs are intended to help the addicted individual overcome addiction to drugs and lead a healthy and productive life.

In life there are always two sides to every story. Furthermore, there are always relationships between the two. Counselors in recovery and counselors who have never been addicted can both perform well and help others. The real question is how would a client feel if they know the person who is helping them is in recovery? Or how can a counselor who’s never been addicted create a bond with clients so they feel understood? Reality is that being a counselor is harder than it seems. Hearing people's life problems and putting aside your own personal ones to help others is sometimes more complex than we think. Some of the disadvantages for recovery counselors are that there might be challenges that may yield relapse including burnout and potential

Stevens, P., & Smith, R. L. (2013). Substance abuse counseling: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Treatment is based on the patient’s individual and realistic goals, concerns, and meaningful activities. A lot of the time group therapy can be useful for patients with substance abuse to regain their social skills and be associated with people going through the same situation. Also, treatment could be broken up into several stages to meet the needs of each individual and inpatient or outpatient treatments can occur. “Therapists need to educate the patients about the addictions they have. They need to learn that their moods will be exacerbated and to learn that they can deal with their feelings through certain techniques for anger and stress management

These types of programs have proven to be particularly effective with patients seeking drug rehab. They involve counseling sessions that teach the patients how to control consumption and abuse of drugs. These sessions are either with groups of

For offenders who have problems with drugs or alcohol, community-based treatment programs offer meetings between 1 and 3 times per week for a designated period of time while the offenders live and work independently. It is estimated that drug or alcohol use or abuse affects about 7 out of 10 people who get into legal trouble. Outpatient treatment may be used during transition from inpatient drug treatment, transition from prison, or solely as a part of probation conditions. Several options are available depending on the extent of the problem. Some programs are tailored to chronic abusers, while others are for occasional users (Alarid & Reichel,

These treatments could be given on out-patient basis, in-patient basis or on short-term or long-term residential basis. There are variety of professionals are giving service for drug addiction treatment. These professional are physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, rehab counselors, social workers, nurses, etc..