Addiction Counseling

Addiction counseling with me can include individual, couples and even family therapy. I will almost always want you to be checked out by a doctor and most assuredly will want you to go to the emergency room if you are in detox. As we move forward, the process will have some overlapping themes no matter what is going on with you, but each person will establish their own unique path to recovery. Together we will work to determine what path works best for you. My favored frame of reference is existential theory, where I believe our work together is ultimately focused on helping you determine meaning in your life. It is likely, in my view, that if you are in early recovery, drugs and/or alcohol at the moment may be a part of your journey to find that meaning, so we will work to reflect on that and discuss alternatives to living a life worth living. No matter where you are in your recovery, we will work from a Recovery Model of Addiction, which you can read about on my Journal page. I work from a humanistic perspective, meaning I believe that human beings are valuable, that you are capable and good, even if your actions and behavior are problematic. I am not a CBT therapist, but I may use some strategies from that theory, especially since I am a trained SMART Recovery facilitator; SMART pulls from REBT (Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy), a type of CBT. I will also consider interventions and practices from positive psychology, mindfulness, solution focused therapy and Refuge Recovery (a Buddhist informed system). If you are so inclined, I will also rely on some aspects of 12-step facilitation therapy, and work with you to integrate into the 12-step support system. Contrary to popular belief, the 12-step system can work for atheists and agnostics, as well as for people who identify as Christian, Jewish or any faith; we may explore how and why that is so.