Family Therapy

Addiction treatment cannot be completed solely by the patient themselves. Behind every successful rehabilitation story, there are doctors and therapists as well as a support network of friends and family. Just as friends and family are there to support their loved one through recovery, they are recovering themselves from the effects their loved one’s addiction had on their lives and relationships.

For this reason, family therapy is a popular aspect of addiction recovery and can help to mend those relationships and provide external support in the long run.

How does family therapy work?

Family therapy includes a multitude of therapeutic approaches to address living in the presence of drug and alcohol addiction as well as specific aspects of parenting, possible abuse, conflict and economic strain. Because family therapy is especially important in increasing the likelihood of successful long term recovery after inpatient rehab or outpatient treatment, substance abuse education also plays a large part.

If family members can identify signs and symptoms of relapse and provide a safe, stable environment at home for their loved one going through treatment, it is less likely that their loved one will use again as they will have others holding them accountable for their actions.

Most family therapists, view addiction as a symptom of family dysfunction. In other words, the family unit as a whole undergoes stress when just one of the members is struggling. In this case, one member would be going through the rehabilitation process. Based off of this model, it is important that the entire immediate family of the individual participate in the recovery process, as they are affected by it as well.

The Partnership to End Addiction has condensed this model of family therapy into its four most integral parts:

Family Engagement

For many, addiction is an uncomfortable topic of discussion. When an individual is in recovery for addiction, close family members will often feel as though they have already failed and will have given up on being a source of healing for their loved one. In this case, intervention is necessary. Parents attending family therapy must be reassured by the therapist that their presence is necessary in the recovery process and that they must listen to their loved one and empathize with their experience.

On the other hand, the patient must also understand that their parents are there to help them get through it, not bring them back to how their addiction felt at home. In summation, family engagement is the beginning of the conversation involving both parties in the recovery process.

Relational Reframing

Rather than focusing on the individual roots of problems, family therapy often emphasizes the importance of relationships. For example, instead of focusing on the fact that one parent is yelling at their child for coming home late, focusing on the idea that they are yelling because they are worried about their child’s safety, not anything personal.

This also applies to substance abuse—rather than placing all the blame of addiction on the child, family therapy will emphasize the root causes of the addiction and remove some of the blame from internal to external.

Family Behavior Change

Family behavior change works on instilling new ways for family members to interact with each other. Obviously, changes depend on individual family dynamics, but they can usually be centered upon communication, enforcing rules and limits and giving each other room to express how they are feeling.

In other words, reshaping the environment that once allowed for addiction to thrive into an environment where the root causes of it can be spoken about openly and addressed appropriately. 

Family Restructuring

Family restructuring attacks the core beliefs and rules of the family. Hand in hand with family behavior change, family restructuring shifts destructive family dynamics into ones that are conducive of recovery in a healthy environment.

For example, if the culture of said family was not conducive of openly speaking about personal problems and internalizing them lead to destructive habits, restructuring can help break down those barriers and establish an environment that encourages speaking openly.

Benefits of Family Therapy

Family therapy is widely available in the realm of addiction recovery centers. Most inpatient and outpatient programs as well as private practices offer family therapy as it has become an important part of the recovery process. 

Additionally, families participating in family therapy will receive addiction education from licensed therapists and addiction professionals. When accompanied by the four core aspects of family therapy above, addiction education is extremely effective in creating a stable, supportive environment for the individual struggling from addiction once they are home.

Improving communication within the family as well as agreeing on boundaries and regaining trust allow the family unit to strengthen as a whole to work together to defeat the substance abuse plaguing their lives. 

Are you or a loved one struggling with addiction? We are here for you.