Drug Abuse Counseling

There are many different methods to drug abuse counseling. We will provide an overview of some of the most common drug abuse counseling techniques.

Cognitive Drug Abuse Counseling: This type of drug abuse counseling is based on the belief that our thoughts are directly connected to how we feel. The cognitive therapies include Rational-Emotive, Cognitive-Behavioral, Reality, and Transactional Analysis.

Therapists in the cognitive field work with clients to solve present day problems by helping them to identify distorted thinking that causes emotional discomfort. There's little emphasis on the historical root of a problem. Rather, “what's wrong with my present thinking that it is causing me distress?”

Common traits among the cognitive approaches include a collaborative relationship between client and therapist, homework between sessions, and the tendency to be of short duration.

Behavioral Drug Abuse Counseling: This is based on the premise that primary learning comes from experience. The initial concern in therapy is to help the client analyze behavior, define problems, and select goals. Therapy often includes homework, behavioral experiments, role-playing, assertiveness training, and self management training. Like its cognitive therapy cousins it utilizes collaboration between client and therapist, and is usually of short duration.

Psychoanalytic Drug Abuse Counseling: The original so called "talking therapy" involves analyzing the root causes of behavior and feelings by exploring the unconscious mind and the conscious mind's relation to it. Many theories and therapies have evolved from the original Freudian psychoanalysis which utilizes free-association, dreams, and transference, as well other strategies to help the client know the function of their own minds. Traditional analysts have their clients lie on a couch as the therapist takes notes and interprets the client's thoughts, etc.

Many theories and therapies have evolved from the original psychoanalysis, including Hypno-therapy, object-relations, Progoff's Intensive Journal Therapy, Jungian, and many others. One thing they all have in common is that they deal with unconscious motivation. Usually the duration of therapy is lengthy; however, many modern therapists use psychoanalytic techniques for short term therapies.

Primal Psychotherapy Drug Abuse Counseling: Adlerian Drug Abuse Counseling: Named for its founder, Alfred Adler, it is also called individual psychology. Considered the first "common sense" therapy, the basic premise is that human beings are always "becoming," that we're always moving toward the future, and our concerns are geared toward our subjective goals rather than an objective past. We are constantly aiming towards what Adler calls superiority. When we have unrealistic or unattainable goals, this can lead to self-defeating behaviors and discouragement which may foster neurosis, psychosis, substance abuse, criminal behavior, or suicide.

Generally, a long term therapy, sessions involve the therapist listening and questioning towards the goal of knowing the client as fully as possible, so that the therapist can feedback the faulty objectives and behaviors of the client.

Person-Centered (Rogerian) Drug Abuse Counseling: Founded by Carl Rogers in the 1940's, like Adlerian therapy, a basic premise is that we are all "becoming;" we are all moving towards self-actualization. Rogers believed that each of us has the innate ability to reach our full potential. As infants we are born with it, but because of early experiences, we may lose our connection to it. The self concept we develop in response to our early experiences may tend to alienate us from our true self. In this theory there is no such thing as mental illness. It is just a matter of being disconnected from our self-potential. This therapy is often considered the most optimistic approach to human potential.

Gestalt Therapy and Drug Abuse Counseling: This term was first used as the title of a book in 1951, written by Fritz Perls,et.al. The therapy did not become well known until the late 1960's. "Gestalt," a German word meaning "whole," operates as a therapy by keeping the person in what is known as the here and now. Therapists help clients to be attentive to all parts of themselves: posture, breathing, methods of movement, etc. Unresolved conflicts are worked out in the therapy session as if they are happening in that moment. An emphasis is placed on personal responsibility for one's own well-being through being as aware as possible at all times of one's interactions with the environment. This usually lengthy therapy is accomplished by the therapist asking questions and suggesting experiments which will increase the awareness and sensitivity to the many parts of the client's total self.

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