Addiction Therapy Services in California

Behavioral therapies help clients fully engage in their recovery by changing negative attitudes and behaviors to positive ones. They also help clients manage stress, triggers, and craving by teaching clients stress management tools and coping skills.

Many types of therapies are used in addiction treatment programs, like partial hospitalization (PHP) and outpatient programs. Each therapy type is different; depending on the client’s needs, one may be more effective than another. If you or a loved one is entering addiction treatment, you may participate in some of the following addiction therapy services.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is based on the principle that psychological disorders like substance use disorder are partially the result of negative and harmful thinking patterns, learned behaviors, and coping skills. Instead of focusing on the past, CBT is centered on the present and helping people build a positive and healthy future.

A form of talk therapy, CBT helps clients understand how their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors work together. With the help of a therapist, clients discover how unhealthy thinking patterns negatively affect beliefs and behaviors.

Once clients identify these negative patterns, the therapist helps them change negative habits into healthy ones. As a result, clients learn how to react positively to situations, people, cravings, and triggers.

The great thing about CBT is change can begin right away, and the skills learned will benefit clients for life. Some of the many benefits of CBT include the following:

• Focusing on the present and setting goals
• Developing the tools to cope with cravings, stress, and triggers
• Working in both individual and group therapy
• Building the client/therapist relationship by working together to change negative thinking to positive
• Build the healthy skills and tools to positively affect everyday life

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a type of CBT. Dr. Marsha M. Linehan developed it to treat severe mental disorders such as chronic suicidal ideations. The biggest difference between CBT and DBT is that BDT focuses on accepting and validating uncomfortable feelings rather than avoiding them.

Today, DBT is one of the addiction therapy services used to treat substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health disorders. Therapists commonly use DBT in both individual and group settings.

DBT is a multidimensional and comprehensive therapy. It teaches healthy skills to change unhealthy thoughts and behaviors. Therapists help clients learn behavioral skills by giving them instructions, telling stories, coaching, practicing, and giving feedback.

Common techniques and strategies therapists use in DBT include:

• Mindfulness – Mindfulness is the core of DBT. Clients learn to bring awareness to the present moment. Clients can slow down and focus on healthy coping skills by observing thoughts, feelings, sensations, and impulses along with the environment around them.
• Interpersonal effectiveness – Many people struggling with addiction also struggle in their relationships. Therapists use this technique to repair, maintain, and establish healthy relationship behaviors. This also means unhealthy ones. Clients learn to enforce boundaries and communicate effectively.
• Emotional regulation – This technique focuses on unhealthy emotional responses. By identifying and naming the negative effects of an emotional response, clients learn to create opposite actions for positive emotional experiences.
• Distress tolerance – This part of DBT teaches clients to sit with the discomfort and accept their negative emotional experiences. They learn techniques such as distraction and self-soothing to empower them to handle future emotions with a positive outlook.

Contingency management is an addiction therapy that rewards clients for making positive life changes. It is based on the principle that positive rewards increase positive behaviors such as recovery. For example, rewards can include prizes for negative drug tests and vouchers for making positive relationship changes.

Benefits of Contingency management include:

• Increases the length of time people stay in treatment
• Increases the chance of lasting recovery
• Helpful for a variety of people and addictions
• Works alongside other addiction therapy services

In motivational interviewing, the therapist motivates recovery in clients by identifying their motivations and values and focusing treatment around them.

Instead of being forced into recovery or facing legal trouble, motivational interviewing helps clients find their motivation for change.

Benefits of motivational interviewing include:

• Improves the length of stay in treatment
• Motivates clients to make positive changes that encourage lifelong recovery
• Increases participation in treatment
• Reduces the risk of relapse
• Encourages developing self-actualization goals

Individual therapy is often called psychotherapy or talk therapy. Individual therapy aims to help clients identify harmful thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Clients work one-on-one with a therapist who may use a variety of techniques.

Individual therapy helps clients uncover the root of their addiction and learn the tools needed to maintain their recovery. A therapist may use behavioral therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing. Individual therapy also addresses any co-occurring mental health disorders.

Benefits of individual therapy include:

• Confidentiality
• One-on-one attention
• Intense level of treatment
• Personalized addiction therapy services
• A strong client/therapist trust
• Developing a deep sense of self-awareness
• Flexible scheduling
• Building healthy communication skills

Group therapy is at least one therapist and more than one client. Group therapy sizes can vary depending on the type of therapy. For example, couples therapy is a type of group therapy consisting of two people. But other groups like Alcoholics Anonymous or AA can have 10 or more people in a group session.

Group therapy as part of addiction therapy services offers clients insight and guidance. By sharing struggles and wins, clients can receive and give support.

Benefits of group therapy include:

• Not feeling alone
• The chance to give and receive support
• Developing healthy communication and relationship skills
• Developing self-awareness
• Building self-esteem
• Building a support system
• Modeling others’ positive behaviors

Family therapy addresses the client’s addiction issues and their effects on the family unit. Therapy involves those affected by the client’s addiction, including immediate and extended family members.

The goal of family therapy is to improve relationships. Therapists will address things like stress, enabling behaviors, and communication to improve the family unit and home environment.

Benefits of family therapy include:

• Helps motivate clients to be active in their recovery
• Provides addiction education
• Gives a safe space for family members to express their thoughts and concerns
• Helps family members develop skills and strategies to encourage recovery
• Improves communication

Addresses mental illness in the family