Family Counseling + Support

If someone you love is struggling with an alcohol or other drug problem, you may experience painful and overwhelming emotions. We believe that through individual, group, and family counseling, family members can play a powerful role in helping to engage the substance user and make an important contribution to their treatment.

Why do I need counseling for their problem?

As a family member, you can benefit profoundly from the counseling process by learning how to manage your discomfort and interact more effectively with the substance user. Most of us have been told that if we want our loved one to stop using, we have to stop enabling, practice "tough love," and allow the user to hit rock bottom. We have also been taught that addiction is a disease and immediate and total abstinence with the support of a 12-step program is the only way we should allow our loved ones to be connected to us.

We believe it is unrealistic to expect people to change complicated behaviors overnight. Therefore, any approach that limits you to an all-or-nothing choice ignores the reality of how we know people change. People change in incremental steps, by practicing new behaviors and new ways of coping with life, and with emotions over time. Understanding and support are the crucial ingredients to making lasting changes.

We use a motivational, harm-reduction approach to helping family members heal themselves and support their loved one's recovery.

Counseling for the Family

Through individual, group, and family counseling, family members of those who are using substances in a problematic manner can make an important contribution to the treatment of their significant other. The family can play a powerful role in helping to engage the substance user. In many cases, the substance user reports that it was the pressure or influence of their family that led them to treatment. In addition and of equal importance, the concerned significant others can benefit from the counseling process by becoming more independent and reducing their depression, anxiety, and anger symptoms even if their loved one does not enter treatment.