Why do we drink? What drive us to do so? What other things are we dealing with in life? These are just a few of the questions we look to answer with addiction treatment. Upon admission to one of the private Cirque Lodge facilities, we assign a personal counselor to the client. We have master’s level professionals who facilitate these sessions. We offer multiple independent therapy sessions each week for residents. Through more sessions we can look to address the underlying concerns involved in alcohol use. Some of the things addressed in personal counseling involve:

1. The resident’s reasons for alcohol use. Strategies to reduce or stop using. The areas in life that may prohibit the resident from halting use.
2. Addressing resident’s personal strengths and how these strengths can be used in the recovery strategy.
3. Coaching on personal, family, school or professional directives.
4. Assignment work – 12-step work. Giving the resident the chance to apply what was worked through in therapy.

There is an old adage, “if you change your thoughts; you’ll change your actions.” Cognitive behavioral therapy is one way to do this with counseling. CBT, as it is often referred to, is an effective tool used in both mental health and addiction treatment. It involves many approaches of therapy. One approach is to help residents recognize and stop the negative thoughts and behaviors accompanied with the addictive mindset.

A good example of this is how to think through and react to various stressors. These stressors are often called ‘Triggers’ in the recovery community. It can be a person, place, thing, or an emotional reaction that can trigger that impulse or craving to drink. Through CBT sessions, a resident can better know and understand how to avoid or act differently in these situations. CBT is generally a positive reinforcement tool and is beneficial for relapse prevention and building coping strategies.

Many positives are also found through group counseling. Group sessions in alcohol treatment are facilitated by one or more of our addiction counselors and cover a broad range of common concerns had by the group. Process sessions allow those involved to process things like, addiction, family, self-esteem and recovery. Those in the group support one another as they process through the subject matter. They also function as a sounding board from their own experiences. While individual residents may feel at times that they are alone in their struggle. The positives and supports of group sessions will show them that they are not.

When we drink it is a family struggle. Whether we are willing to admit it or not, our drinking affects the ones we love. One of the powerful pieces to our alcohol rehab experience at Cirque is our attention and involvement of family in treatment. A lot of times, family members think that their part is just to ship their loved one off to rehab and all is done. Family members are also integral to recovery. We encourage you to be a part of your loved ones treatment throughout.

Face-to-face sessions are scheduled during our family program. Family counseling is also facilitated through phone and video conferencing for loved ones unavailable to attend. Communication is one of the areas that break down in active addiction. Family sessions provide the platform for rebuilding lines of communication between loved ones. This may not be an easy process. Our professional counselors will work with resident and loved ones in a caring way. In the long run, this can be very therapeutic to the healing and recovering family.