Alcohol & Substance Use
Treatment
Over-reliance on alcohol or other substances can negatively impact your relationships, your ability to function at work or in school, as well as undermining other important areas of your life. This can lead to feelings of hopelessness, despair, fear, and anxiety. Alcohol and substance use treatment offers tools to help you maintain sobriety by identifying and minimizing exposure to triggers, cope more effectively with cravings, address any underlying issues that may be contributing to your chronic use, and to reconnect with what ultimately bring you joy without the use of substances.
Loss of Control & Dependency
Do you find yourself over-relying on alcohol or other substances to cope with boredom, stress, anxiety, depression, or intrusive thoughts/memories? Do you have a pre-existing mental health concern and substances are no longer effective at helping you cope with distress? Have important people in your life expressed concerns about your use? Whether it’s alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, heroine, or prescription drugs, people often seek out treatment when they realize that their lives have become unmanageable and will continue to be until they get clean. As your relationship with substances grows stronger over time, you may find yourself prioritizing drugs and alcohol over other activities you would otherwise enjoy. This may include neglecting important relationships with friends and family, work obligations, hobbies, and other commitments. Quitting cold turkey may feel unbearable and as such, you may be feeling hopeless or helpless to overcome or manage your use.
Sobriety & Relapse Prevention
Addiction severity can vary. Thus, during our initial consultation, I assess the severity of your use to determine whether my services are the appropriate level of care. Depending on the frequency and duration of use and the impact that substances have on your life, I may recommend residential/inpatient treatment, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, or the ER if for instance, withdrawal from alcohol or benzodiazepines are anticipated. If weekly individual therapy is the level-of-care most appropriate, I may recommend meeting with you once or twice weekly. If you attend AA or NA meetings regularly, treatment will focus on integrating the 12-steps, as well as other abstinence-based approaches. You’ll learn concrete coping skills to manage cravings, identifying triggers, problem-solving strategies to manage exposure to triggers, and cognitive restructuring skills to assist you in strengthening your recovery. In addition, we also address any underlying stressors in your life, based on current or past experiences that may have contributed to relapse in the past. This component of treatment is particularly important if you’ve repeatedly relapsed in the past and have struggled to get consistent clean time under your belt. Once you’ve gained abstinence overtime, relapse prevention strategies are meant to keep you on track in your recovery process. Lastly, reconnecting with the activities you used to enjoy and new activities is an important goal for improving your overall quality of life.