Individual Therapy

When you’re ready to accept that you have an addiction, you’ll hopefully recognize that there’s only one path to recovery. Through the front doors of a reputable drug rehab center. When you get there, you’ll discover that a great deal of your treatment focus will be on individual therapy.

There is no way around it. If you expect to fully recover from your addiction, you must attend therapy. As an individual, you’ll need to commit to openness and honesty with your therapist. If you can do that, there is a good chance that you’ll achieve sobriety. It’s important to focus on the concepts behind individual counseling for addiction and the benefits of individual therapy.

We Believe in Treating the Individual, Not Just the Addiction

What is Individual Therapy?

Individual therapy is talk therapy that occurs one-on-one between a patient and a therapist. Individuals in addiction treatment spend the majority of their therapy time in individual therapy.

The primary goal of individual therapy for addiction treatment is to self-reflect and discover the root cause of one’s desire to abuse substances. Again, individual therapy is a time of deep self-reflection and self-discovery. As long as addiction treatment patients are open and honest with themselves and their therapists while in individual therapy, the therapists can guide them through their life experiences, emotions, and inner psyche until they discover their truth.

Therapy itself comes in various forms. In the past, rehab centers used a cookie-cutter approach to therapy. A lot of time was spent on therapy in a rather generic way. The relapse rates from basic therapy were unacceptable with this approach.

In recent years, the addiction treatment community has innovated more ways to deliver therapy. From holistic treatment methods to evidence-based therapies, there are a lot of options today.

Through the various forms of individual therapy, individuals can develop the coping and life skills that they need to avoid relapse and maintain sobriety long-term.

Although the majority of a person’s therapy time while in addiction treatment is one-on-one with a therapist, there are forms of therapy that allow people to meet up with a therapist in different groups. To learn the differences between these other forms of therapy and individual therapy, continue reading.

Individual Therapy vs. Group Therapy

During individual therapy, the therapy sessions are completely geared towards the one person attending therapy at that moment. Thus, the only personal information that gets talked about in individual therapy is that of the particular patient in the session.

When attending therapy in a group setting though, therapy sessions are geared towards general areas of discussion or disorders that multiple people can relate to. For example, there may be a group therapy session for adults that are in recovery from addiction.

One benefit to attending group therapy is the ability to learn from the insights and experiences of others. Another beneficial aspect of group therapy that differs from individual therapy is the ability to connect with other people that have gone through similar experiences to you. Because group therapy allows patients to connect with other people, it is a great way to build one’s support group.

Because there are multiple people talking and giving their perspectives in group therapy sessions though, individuals don’t get the time and space to dive as deep into their own personal struggles and be as introspective as they would get to be during individual therapy. This is because individual therapy is geared to only one person’s needs and thus provides the time and space to dive deep into one’s own emotions and psyche.

When to Attend Group Therapy and When to Attend Individual Therapy

Because of the differences between individual therapy and group therapy, patients that are looking to dive deep into their own emotions and psyche should attend individual therapy. If a person is shy and not good at opening up or talking in groups, he or she should probably attend individual therapy as well. Those that are looking to build on their support network and gain more perspectives about their condition should attend group therapy.

Individual Therapy vs. Family Therapy

Individual therapy is important in terms of self-improvement. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much to address issues that a person may have with other people that affect their lives. For example, many people that suffer from addiction strain the relationships that they have with their close family members and friends. To help repair such relationships, these people should attend family therapy.

The focus of family therapy is all on repairing the family unit. During family therapy, a therapist will help individuals discover the role that they play within their family. For example, in a family with a person in it that suffers from addiction, someone often plays the role of the enabler.

By having every member of a family discuss their issues with one another along with their perspectives about the issues that go on within the family, the therapist will help each person discover his or her own role within that toxic family dynamic. Once each family member in family therapy discovers the toxic role that he or she plays in the family dynamic, all the family members will work together with the therapist to change their toxic behavior patterns.

Family members also work together with a therapist during family therapy to better understand one another. For example, when a family with a person that suffers from addiction in it attends family therapy, the therapist will make it a point to educate the family members of the recovering addict about addiction. That way, the family members can better empathize with the person in the family that is recovering from addiction. By better understanding addiction, the family members of a recovering addict can even act as a form of support.

Types of Individual Therapy

Even when just focusing on individual therapy, there are many forms that individual therapy can take. Some of the major types of individual therapy are described below.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a form of individual therapy in which the therapist helps patients turn their negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors into positive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. As it pertains to patients that are recovering from addiction, CBT will help them understand how their negative thoughts and emotions are driving their need to abuse drugs or alcohol.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical behavioral therapy is similar to cognitive-behavioral therapy with one major difference. This form of therapy focuses on helping patients accept their negative thoughts, feelings, and emotions rather than changing them. DBT focuses on using coping mechanisms to help people manage their negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors when they come.

Holistic Therapies

Not all forms of individual therapy during addiction treatment allow people to use medications to cope with their conditions or focus on other standard medical practices. Holistic therapy, for example, focuses on using alternative practices to help people heal their minds, bodies, and souls. Alternative forms of holistic therapy include things like massages, acupuncture, meditation, art and music therapy, exercise, equine therapy, etc.

Attend Addiction Therapy At Grace Land Recovery Center

Here at Grace Land Recovery Center in Memphis, Tennessee, we provide specialized and individualized addiction treatment and addiction therapy services. So, you can take advantage of various forms of individual therapy at our treatment center.

If you’re ready to tackle your addiction issues, we’re here to support your efforts. To learn more about our treatment center and the services that we provide, contact us today. Our staff is more than willing to answer any questions that you may have.

Benefits of Individual Therapy

Individual counseling for addiction provides plenty of benefits. After all, this is the meat and potatoes of the entire addiction treatment process. Let’s take a look at some of the primary benefits of individual therapy.

Time to Focus On One’s Individual Needs

In group therapy, patients get a limited amount of time to communicate. In an individual setting, patients can talk and focus on just themselves and their personal issues with a therapist.

Privacy

The ability to talk to someone about one’s own struggles in individual therapy is particularly beneficial for people that are uncomfortable talking about their personal struggles in groups. This is especially true for people that get embarrassed easily.

Self-Discovery

For therapy to be effective, one must gain some level of self-discovery from it. Gaining self-discovery is much easier when having deep dive conversations about one’s personal struggles one-on-one with a therapist during individual therapy.

Learning About One’s Own Triggers and The Best Coping Mechanisms to Manage Them

Because individual therapy gives patients the time to discover things about themselves, one of the things that people often discover is their triggers. Once individuals know what triggers their addictions, they need to find ways to cope with those triggers. Luckily, individual therapy is a great tool to use to also discover the coping mechanisms that one can use to manage one’s triggers.

Improving Communication Skills

One thing that many people lack is the ability to communicate effectively. If a person can’t articulate what his or her problems are, how will anybody be able to help that person? In individual therapy, patients get ample time and practice to effectively communicate their issues with their therapists. It also helps that patients get to communicate about their private struggles one-on-one with just themselves and a therapist.

Find Your Recovery

Our mission is to help individuals achieve sobriety by getting to the root of their addiction issues. We also aim to treat the minds, bodies, and souls of our patients.

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