Whether you are opting for an inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation program, family counseling can make a significant difference in your recovery. Family programs can support not only the person who is recovering from addiction but their loved ones too. When substance use disorders occur, it typically affects the whole family and can strain relationships. However, each individual experiences this in their own way and working with a professional can help identify unique trauma and any other psychological condition.
Therapy is a foundational component in any type of rehabilitation program. Although it always involves individual counseling, your doctor can recommend family sessions for you and your loved ones too if they believe you are ready for those, and your family is willing to work as a team towards healing for all of you.
#1 Improving Communication
Sharing your needs and expressing your feelings is important to create and sustaining healthy relationships. Family programs can help you and your loved ones learn useful verbal and nonverbal communication techniques. Those can help foster understanding and forgiveness for all parties involved.
Family counseling sessions are opportunities for all members to express their thoughts and ask questions about how to approach recovery from addiction, work through trauma, and rebuild honest and meaningful relationships.
#2 Mending Your Relationships
Addiction usually causes issues in families, with your spouse, children, and any other relatives that play an important role in your life. Therapy provides a safe space for you to unpack what happened and allow you to work things out.
Benefiting from professional guidance and accountability can help you make more substantial progress in rebuilding trust with your loved ones. Although these sessions happen in the framework of your addiction recovery, all parties receive counseling and tools to support their own mental health as you work towards restoring healthy family dynamics.
#3 Educating Your Loved Ones on the Effects of Substance Use Disorders
The therapist can explain how addiction impacts the brain and what you are working through during your recovery. It can shed light on past behavior even though everyone needs to take responsibility for their words and actions. Your counselor can also educate your family on enabling behaviors that may interfere with your recovery as you work towards a sober lifestyle during your rehab and after its completion.
By understanding how addiction works, your loved ones can support you more efficiently as you work through your recovery program. This can make a significant difference for both you and your family as your relatives may be willing to help you but have little to no idea of how to do it safely and practically.
#4 Addressing Codependent Behaviors
Family therapy can help identify codependent behaviors between you and any relative or between some of your loved ones. Codependent behaviors can negatively affect your relationships generally speaking and interfere with your addiction recovery.
By watching you interact as a family and ask questions, your therapist can identify this type of issue and help you address them, from getting to the root cause to teaching you healthy individual and group coping mechanisms. This typically involves learning how to create and maintain boundaries.
The Carter Treatment Center offers family programs for addiction recovery in Cumming and Suwanee. Call us today at (470) 616-7274 or fill out our online form to schedule an appointment!