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Benefits of Family Therapy in Addiction Treatment

Awakenings Treatment Center offers weekly family therapy sessions in a private, supportive setting. Located in Agoura Hills, CA, we realize that geography may not allow all families to attend. If you live anywhere close to our outpatient drug rehab in Agoura Hills, we highly encourage you to attend our sessions and work on strengthening the family unit.

Addiction is a Family Disease, Therapy Helps

In our experience, we’ve never seen addiction affect only the individual. Every person has someone that loves them – a parent, a spouse, a sibling. It’s true that some people have larger and stronger support systems back home, but no one is ever alone.

Because of the stress that addiction places on a family, it’s not uncommon for people to develop unhealthy coping strategies. Some families are unsure of how to deal with an addiction. There is still a stigma, so many people hide the problem because they are embarrassed. As a result, families live in stress, fear, and disruption. They can become fragile and dysfunctional over time.

Benefits of Family Therapy in Drug Rehab

Family therapy is an excellent tool that is used to support the addiction recovery process. All families have something to learn from family therapy. When this therapy is combined with other treatments, addicts are less stressed and have a lower risk for relapse. They also show reduced psychiatric symptoms and are more willing to take their medications.

The benefits of taking part in family therapy are:

  • Improve communication strategies. When someone in the home is abusing drugs, communication often becomes negative and unproductive. Learn how to communicate with each other in an effective and positive manner.
  • Develop structure and boundaries. Recovering addicts need structure and boundaries when they return from addiction treatment. Too much free time can lead to boredom and an increased risk for relapse. In therapy, families can set healthy boundaries and learn how to enforce them.
  • Address codependent tendencies. Codependency occurs when a family member becomes obsessed with the addict and neglects their own needs. This can lead to more dysfunction. In family therapy, we can address codependent behaviors and develop strategies for dealing with them.
  • Stop enabling behaviors. Enabling happens when the family removes consequences from the addict either out of love or fear. This makes it easy for the addict to continue using drugs and alcohol without penalty. Enabling is unhealthy for the family and should be addressed.
  • Resolve trauma in the family unit. Family therapy is a safe, private time to address stress, mental illness, and trauma in the family. By discussing this, families can put past trauma behind them and move forward as a stronger unit.

Awakenings Treatment Center is proud to offer the Awakenings Family Program as part of our dual diagnosis treatment in Agoura. Offered on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm, this program is 90 minutes long. This is a wonderful opportunity for adult children, parents, spouses, and siblings to come together and promote healing. Call us today at 855-717-3268 to learn more about our comprehensive approach to treatment.