Wednesday 8 January 2020

Role of Substance Abuse Counsellors in Managing Recovery


Substance abuse counselors can play a huge role by offering a necessary support system for individuals recovering from drug and alcohol issues, gambling addictions and other behavioural issues. It’s advisable to go for addiction counseling in New York City since counsellors offer the support, resources, and judgement-free guidance that patients can put to use on their road to addiction recovery.

addiction counseling in New York City

What Role Does a Counsellor Play?

1. It is important on the part of counsellors to create a strong bond with their patients as the decision to seek treatment for addiction can be difficult, and requires a huge amount of trust between patients and counsellors. A strong bond ensures patients view their counsellor’s worthy enough to be trusted, allowing them to feel vulnerable dealing with their problems and work together effectively. Being attentive during sessions, letting your patients know you empathize with their problems, ensuring patients that their best interests are at the forefront are some ways to create strong bonds.

2. It isn’t easy to recover from addiction. Moreover, a patient’s motivation to change has frequently been a source of stress, since counsellors have little or no control over a patient’s desire to change. What counsellors can do is they can adapt their style to help encourage client motivation throughout each stage of their recovery. The responsibility lies with the counsellor to help patients realize problematic behaviours, and empower them to take necessary action and change these behaviours.

3. During addiction therapy treatment, it’s important for the family and friends of patients in recovery to be well-informed of how to handle their family member’s addiction moving forward. Counsellors can play a major role from mediating family therapy sessions to helping them locate a support group. Recovery is a lifelong journey which means having a solid family backing is of profound importance. If family members are informed about the addiction recovery, the chances of success throughout the recovery process are higher.

4. Counsellors should refer patients to programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous which can add another level of outside support and offers an additional layer of accountability to those seeking rehabilitation.

The role of the counsellor in addiction treatment goes beyond simply listening, teaching, and offering advice. They should be able to offer a safe space for patients to openly talk about their struggles with addiction, guide family members through the recovery process, address plans to avoid relapse and more.

The Harlem East Life Plan’s Mental Health Wellness Centre, is an outpatient counselling program that assists an individual in developing a full range of life enhancing skills.

Contact Us: 
Harlem East Life Plan 
Full Address: 
2367-69 Second Avenue New York, 
NY 10035 
Telephone: 212-876-2300 

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