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.

Expressive arts or creativity therapy uses art as a therapy. The end result is not always of great importance in art or creative arts therapy, but rather the process of creation. Imagination is a potent tool for healing, and in artistic therapy, there are many different ways for people to express themselves.

Therapists that use the artistic methods believe that creative expression taps into the imagination, allowing people to examine their emotions, feelings and even the body and thought processes. Some of the models used in creativity therapy, include dance, drama, psychodrama, music, art, horticulture, and writing.

Creative Arts therapy has the ability to foster healing, development and human growth.It can help a person of any age to reclaim their capacity for creative expression about individual and collective experiences in artistic form.

Through creativity expression, an experienced therapist will help you to manage emotional and physical problems, using a range of creative activities. Art therapy provides an avenue for the client to explore emotional conflicts and to increase self-awareness. Expression therapy helps a person to express unspoken and usually unconscious issues, allowing for those issues to be expressed in a safe, nurturing environment.

During therapy, the therapist and the client will move freely between the different models, preferring the intermodal approach to facilitate deeper exploration. It enables the therapist to explore a wide range of emotions through different art forms, from journaling, to painting, dancing, drama, poetry, phototherapy and a range of traditional artforms. Evidence has shown that it is helpful in a range of circumstances, from helping with emotions related to diagnosis of an illness, to dealing with grief or post traumatic stress disorder.

If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who offers creativity therapy to address your emotional issues you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.

Spirituality counselling does not necessarily refer to religious practice, although it could include that as well. In this context, spirituality refers more to reaching a new level of consciousness, or finding inner contentment and harmony and the removal of blockages that prevent self realization and the ability to reach one's full potential.

People of different races, cultures and communities have differing ideas or interpretations of spirituality and counselling can help a person to find a practical application that can work in a therapeutic context. Spiritual counselling can help an individual to gain a deeper understanding and a greater awareness of the self. When a person reaches a greater purpose in life and an enhanced self-esteem, he or she will develop a sense of well-being.

Spirituality counselling is important for people who feel depressed, desperate, hurt, despair and discontentment. The spirituality counsellor will help the person to recover their peace of mind, happiness and stability. During the therapeutic relationship, the client and the therapist reach a level of spirituality which can help resolve the issues the person is experiencing. The person can then explore the 'self' in a spiritual context, which can help with growth and healing.

Psycho-spiritual therapy addresses the soul, rather than the mind in order to create balance. The world is complex, and a mystery which combines a range of factors, including spiritual theology, energy systems, spiritual presence and metaphysical experiences and we all build our own innately personal viewpoints. Spirituality counselling can help a person to find their own personal truth within their history, experience and belief system.

If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who offers spirituality counselling to address your emotional and spiritual issues you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.