Addiction affects everyone in a user’s life. Unfortunately, this can cause strained family relationships and the end of partnerships. For many people living with addiction, a strong family support system is crucial to successful recovery. However, it can be challenging for loved ones to understand and accept addiction. It can be just as hard for someone living with addiction to understand how it has impacted the lives of loved ones. Family programs provide family support and addiction counseling to improve communication and bring loved ones back together.
If you and your loved ones are ready to overcome addiction together, call La Fuente Hollywood today to learn about our family addiction counseling. Reach out to the staff at 888.903.9898 to learn more about our intimate LGBTQ addiction recovery programs.
What Is Family Addiction Counseling?
Family addiction counseling is what it sounds like: therapy for family members to overcome addiction. This type of therapy can serve traditional and nontraditional families struggling with addiction. Benefits of family addiction counseling include:
- Improved communication skills
- Active listening
- Healthy boundaries
- Improved problem-solving skills
- Understanding the experience of others
- Understanding and changing behavior patterns
- Recognizing family dynamics
- More easily adapting to change
- Proactively addressing disfunction
- Coping tools for life changes and daily stress
An experienced family therapist can help provide couples, parents and children, and other family groups with perspective. They can help families understand unhealthy power dynamics and behavior. Using different techniques and exercises, family therapists can help change dynamics to decrease the risk of reuse and strengthen a family.
Therapies to Support Loved Ones Living with Addiction
There are many kinds of family therapies to help loved ones living with addiction. Some include:
- Family systems therapy focuses on mental health for those with co-occurring disorders.
- Functional family therapy provides short-term crisis intervention for families with teens.
- Narrative family therapy asks family members to share their side of a loved one’s addiction for great understanding and communication.
- Psychoeducation pairs well with family systems therapy to educate loved ones about treatment and care for mood disorders.
Every family is unique. So are their needs in therapy. Some common techniques that help families reconnect include:
- Modeling and role-playing
- Psychodynamic techniques for emotional insight
- Structural techniques for healthy boundaries
For most families struggling with addiction, family therapy can be the best way to support one another. Through non-judgemental, open communications, family members can learn to understand one another and grow stronger in their roles and relationships.
Can Family Therapy Help My Loved Ones?
If someone in your life is struggling with addiction, family therapy is one of the best ways to support them. If you’re not sure if family therapy is right for you and your loved ones, the following list can help:
- Members of your family are willing the change
- Your family has undergone collective stress or trauma
- Your family struggles to discuss emotions
- You need better boundaries at home
- You have trouble understanding one another
- You’re reading to support the addiction and mental health of family members
- You want to develop more compassionate listening and communication skills
Sometimes it’s hard to know how to support loved ones struggling with addiction. Educating yourself and signing up for family therapy is the first step in showing your loved one that you are serious about their recovery. Family therapy doesn’t just benefit those living with addiction. Tools from family therapy help everyone and improve relationships outside the home, too.
Find the Family Program for You in Southern California
If you’re ready to learn more about what family therapy can do for your loved ones, call La Fuente today. Our LGBTQ recovery center can help bring your family back together. To learn more about our inpatient and outpatient programs for addiction, call us today at 888.903.9898 for more information.