Addictions - Including Substances, Trauma Counselling Family Systems
Addictions - Including Substances, Trauma Counselling
While some people can use prescription or recreational drugs with no negative effects, many others become addicted and face dramatic health and lifestyle problems as a result. Substance addictions negatively affect relationships, home, school or work, leaving the person feeling ashamed, helpless and isolated.
Physical symptoms of substance abuse and addiction are varied depending on the drug of choice, but the symptoms of the addiction itself are similar. People who are addicted to substances may neglect their responsibilities, take potentially dangerous risks and get into trouble with the law. As their drug use spirals out of control, they will lose interest in activities that used to be enjoyable and continue to take drugs despite knowing the harm it causes.
Substance addicts tend to build up a tolerance to their drug of choice, and get angry when they can't get more of it. Withdrawal symptoms are highly probable when an addict goes without it for too long. Depression, nausea, insomnia, sweating, restlessness, anxiety and shaking are all common withdrawal symptoms.
Psychotherapy can help you to overcome substance addiction by focusing on correcting maladaptive behaviors. Substance abuse is usually a coping mechanism against emotionally overwhelming past events or memories. Substances are often used to provide instant gratification instead of facing certain issues.
Therapists are equipped to help clients deal with addiction recovery through empowerment and helping them set simple short term targets. The first target is sobriety, followed by empowering the client with adaptive skills and finding new coping strategies that deal with the issues that caused the addiction. Substance addiction can be ended, allowing the person to live a healthy, productive life.
If you need a counsellor or psychologist to help you address the effects of substance addiction, you can search the directory below to find a professional with the approach best suited to your situation.
Trauma counselling can assist with a wide range of internal emotional reactions to devastating situations. Some people experience things as more traumatic than others, and therefore they will need help in coping the emotional burdens of an event or situation.
Stressful events such as death of a loved one, rape, abuse, accidents, divorce, violence or bullying can leave people unable to cope or process the emotional burdens. However, it is not only events linked to the individual personally, but also being a witness to events that might leave a person with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This includes being a victim to violence or natural disasters - there is no limit to the causes of trauma.
In the case of PTSD, people can develop many different psychological reactions, as determined by their own coping skills, emotional stability and background. Symptoms of PTSD include a anger, depression, flashbacks, insomnia, nightmares, social withdrawal, loss of self esteem and confidence, and substance abuse.
It takes a strong person to have the courage to stand up and request trauma counselling. This is no time to compare yourself to other people in similar situations, but rather to recognize that everyone has a different reaction to trauma. Therefore, it is important to address the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder as soon as possible to help you deal with emotions in a healthy way and to overcome the difficulties you are facing. Trauma counselling can help avert potentially more severe psychological disorders, that can occur if PTSD is left untreated.
If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who provides trauma counselling to address your posttraumatic stress management issues you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.
Family Systems, Shame Counselling & Therapy
Family Systems therapy is a type of counselling specific to helping interpersonal relationships within a family system. Family Systems counselling is facilitated by marriage and family therapists who work with the various family combinations, including siblings, couples, parent and child, or step families.
The principle of family systems counselling is to help each individual to first learn to understand his or her own emotions, and how to manage interpersonal relationships effectively, as that influences all future relationships. Once family members understand themselves and the emotional system within the family, it is easier to be flexible in relationships with family members, marriages, community, school and other relationships.
If you are looking for a therapist who offers Family Systems Therapies, please browse our list of practitioners below..
There are a variety of approaches to address the issue of shame. One of them is the Shame Resilience method is based on the research of Brené Brown, Ph.D. LMSW.
Shame Resilience is the developed ability to practice authenticity when we experience shame, to move through the experience without sacrificing our values, and to come out on the other side of the shame experience with more courage, compassion, and connection than we had going into it.
Shame Resilience is about moving from shame to empathy- the real antidote to shame. Self-compassion is also critically important, because when we’re able to be tender with ourselves in the midst of shame we’re more likely to reach out, connect and experience empathy.
Other approaches, like Complex Integration of Multiple Brain Systems (CIMBS) uses what is called a systems perspective that can address how an individual has learned to respond due to early trauma and or other developmental experiences.
Approaches to shame are not limited to the above. There are many other therapies that address feeling.
If you do contact a therapist regarding shame issues please make sure that you ask them about their training in this area and choose a therapist whose approach makes sense to you.
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