When a patient enters treatment or individual counseling, there seems to be a misconception of “the counselor will fix me”. This simply isn’t the case. The role of a counselor in addiction recovery is to help the patient identify goals to achieve and work towards them. But make no mistake, it is the patient driving recovery.
Therapy and counselors give perspective, teach skills and strategies to cope and actions to go along with recovery. It is the patient who needs to work to implement actions and make changes to achieve recovery goals.
For example, in counseling, a patient might decide their goal is to stay sober for 6 months. The counselor can then break it down into smaller steps by discussing with the patient how to achieve that. Do they need a new job, is the current job causing too much stress? Is the patient spending too much time around a bar? Do friends influence and sway decisions to continue an addiction? In addition, the counselor can teach coping skills and layout effective strategies to assist with change.
At end of day, it is up to the patient to implement changes that are discovered or taught through therapy.
If you or a loved one need help for an addiction and want to know more about treatment programs, feel free to contact us.