Family therapy
From Drug Rehab Wiki
The Role of Family Therapy in Substance Abuse Treatment
Addiction doesn’t just affect the addict—the consequences of a person’s substance abuse create a ripple effect that spreads to everyone in his or her life. The effects of addiction are mostly shared by the ones closest to the abuser: his or her family. The addict and his or her loved ones will suffer equally throughout the extent of the abuse.
This means that it is equally important to treat the addict’s loved ones through family therapy, which is geared toward two main goals: providing the family an assessment of the addiction as well as methods to encourage the recovery of the addict by harnessing the family’s strength in an effective support system; and alleviating the damages caused to the individual and their families. Therapeutic sessions are beneficial for everyone associated with the addict, and can create customized approaches for everyone to learn to live without the chemical dependency.
As addictions grow stronger over time, the abusing individual can become unrecognizable to others, almost as if he or she has morphed into another person. The substance abuser’s identity becomes indistinct to the ones who once knew them best. People lost within the confines of addiction tend to feel isolated in their struggle. On the outside, however, family members and loved ones may feel betrayed, let down, abandoned, disappointed, angry, or powerless against the battle. Substance abusers also have a propensity to shut out those who try to inhibit their habit, criticize or put them down for their substance use, or even those that try to help.
Family members—nuclear and extended alike—may even want to cut ties with the individual. One of the implemental measures taken by treatment centers is reorienting the victims of substance abuse with the lives they had prior to the abuse. In conjunction with medical treatment, detoxification, psychiatric support, and individual and group therapy, most rehabilitation centers incorporate the use of family therapy for its multifaceted benefits during and after stabilization.
Main Bases for Family Therapy
There are four main bases for family therapy: the cognitive-behavioral approach, the family systems model, the family disease model, and multidimensional family therapy. Family therapy can include group sessions with the patient, individual therapy with any member of the family, or group sessions with just the family members. Another methodology includes age-appropriate therapy and educational support for any children in the household. One important strategy is to teach family healing and address the needs of each family member to create solutions and intervention strategies.
After the family and therapist have become accustomed to each other, communication can be strengthened within the family unit as the therapy sessions become a neutral atmosphere for expression and promotion of ideas and problem solving. Family therapy breaks down cultural barriers (e.g., gender roles, provider roles, bonds of dependency, etc.) and reconnects the family by distinguishing a familial sense of acceptance and belonging. This establishment of identity is also valuable for family members since all families are different—e.g., nuclear households, single-parent homes, integrated households, distant relations, and family history—and adjustments can be made to help reunite the family unit.
The family is educated in prevention methods and how to communally work towards providing a drug-free home environment for the patient to help decrease the possibilities of relapse, increase the safety of the patient, and decrease the risk for future generations. Patients can express their relationship to their families, and family members can be assessed in developing effective support, including positive reinforcement, elimination of negativity, conflict management, and compassion for the disease that exists in their family. This is important since some families may be ill-prepared or unable to provide the needed support. The patient’s living situation will sometimes need to be completely rearranged as personal situations may have been altered since the inception of the addiction. Key factors such as employment, income, place of residence, marriage, children, religion, and physical and mental health must be considered when creating an appropriate support system.
The counselor and treatment providers will aid families in creating specialized approaches to produce positive results in the drug recovery process as well as the mental health of the patient and family members alike. It is important to follow the guidelines set by the therapist facilitating the family therapy, as safety precautions must be set in place to ensure successful recovery and the welfare of all members of the family involved. The extent of the family therapy will be evaluated and can be discussed with the treatment providers so cost-effectiveness of the program may be ascertained.
