ROLE OF A COUNSELOR IN MENDING FAMILY RIFTS DURING ADDICTION

When a person suffers from addiction, the first party that gets affected by it is the family. Getting to know that a family member is going through addiction usually comes as a blow to the entire family and if not managed well, could cause rifts in the family.

The family is faced with thoughts of incompetency on their part as a cause of the addiction, there would also be fear for the addicted and frustrations when there seem to be scarce positive changes.

Family rifts during addiction are inevitable if not managed well through the help of a counselor. Counselors are neutral persons with the sole goal of seeing to the better management of the patient. As much as the addict must get professional help, the family also needs professional help to manage the situation.

The counselor can help the family from being drawn apart by organizing family therapy sessions. During the sessions, the counselor can teach family members how to be more supportive of the patient. Hence, this may help in promoting the personal and emotional well-being of individual members of the family.

Counselors help families build necessary skills to maintain connections in the family that is weakened by addiction. Such skills are accountability, expectations management, forgiveness, and trust re-establishment.

A counselor will set some clear treatment goals that will aid the family focus on getting the best out of treatment and not veering off due to stress and frustrations.

Sometimes, the addiction might have been birth by a deeper issue the family is going through that could come up during the treatment process. It could make the family lose focus on the goal they signed up for without the help of a counselor.

During addiction, communication among the family could be affected and worsen due to misunderstandings and high emotions. With the help of a counselor, techniques will be put in place to help improve communication and do away with communication patterns that can cause problems.

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