Family Therapy and the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders The Fami

The level of commitment people have to each other and substance abuse counseling the duration of that commitment also vary across definitions of family. Table 1 presents information on the various family-based treatments for adolescent substance use. It includes information on the populations treated, the location of the service, therapist qualifications, treatment parameters, and the stage of research.

Levels of Family Involvement

For example, a father may state, “This is just the way it is in this house,” without allowing discussion of the rule or boundary in question. Children may move away from these values and beliefs as adolescents or adults, but they are nonetheless influenced by them. Other families experiencing duress or operating chaotically may not have enough rules. In families with SUDs, unspoken rules develop in response to the effects of drinking or drug use. For example, children may come to understand that they don’t ask permission from their mother when she is drinking.

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• The addiction treatment field has adapted family systems approaches to address the unique circumstances of families in which substance misuse and SUDs occur.
• How to make changes as an individual and as a family to address the impact of the SUD.
• At times, family members can be too emotionally taxing for one person, which is why an emotional cutoff can be helpful.
• Building upon Carl Rogers’ person-centered approach, motivational interviewing is a counseling method that incentivizes participants to change their behavior.

Their input will help you understand how the family system is organized around and reacts to the behavior (Gehart, 2018). The next task is to explore the family’s strengths and positive ways they have managed the disruptions to family life caused by substance misuse. Evaluating the appropriateness of including children in family sessions and when it would be most effective to include them. Determining the need for further screenings and assessments of SUDs and mental disorders for individual family members. Your first priority should be to form an alliance with the mandated client without “taking sides” with the client regarding the need for treatment.

Family Dynamics that Influence Addiction

You should be familiar with both local and online family recovery support groups and maintain up-to-date contact information so that you can easily link family members to appropriate recovery supports. Actively linking family members to community-based recovery support groups that are in alignment with the recovery support the client is participating in. Ask recovery supports to share positive, non-substance-using experiences with the client. Talk with your client in the early stages of treatment about the importance of having family members, CSOs, and recovery support people involved in his or her treatment. Emphasizing to the network the importance of solidarity and remaining committed as a group to supporting the client.

Online Therapy Can Help

Systemic-motivational therapy is a model of SUD family counseling that combines elements of systemic family therapy and MI. It was developed by Steinglass (2009) to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD) in the family but can be applied to other substance misuse. Goals include assessing the relationship between substance misuse and family life, understanding family beliefs about substance misuse, and helping the family work as a team to develop family-based strategies for abstinence. Clients with co-occurring mental disorders or those who are prescribed medications for alcohol use disorder or opioid use disorder often are uncertain about adhering to medication routines. Some of the reasons clients stop taking medications include cost, negative side effects, the belief that they are not in recovery because they are substituting one drug for another, or systemic barriers (e.g., having to go to a clinic every day to receive a methadone dose). When clients stop taking medications, symptoms of mental disorders or old substance use behaviors reemerge, and families return to previous patterns of dysfunction.