Families coping with an addicted loved one experience trauma and learn to build their feelings around the behaviours of the sick family member. Many family members need to learn and practice strategies for dealing with their addict/alcoholic, such as how to set healthy boundaries (and hold up to them in difficult situations), overcome co-dependency, and shift from an enabling role to a truly supportive one. We are available to work with family members to examine and adjust their roles.
Often when a drug-dependent person seeks professional help, the family is left to pick up the pieces – a process which will continue long after the addict finishes their recovery program. Family therapy can help families get connected to appropriate supports and do their own healing work, which may have fallen by the wayside when the focus was on the addicted person.
Family therapy can help the whole family move past crisis and into lasting stability.