How Do I Create a Good Relationship With My Counselor?
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Within a treatment program, successful clinicians [should] establish a positive, therapeutic relationship with their patients,” which can help individuals stay in treatment for longer periods of time and achieve better recovery outcomes. A counselor can foster the kind of positive relationship that many individuals require in rehab, but there are also ways in which you as the patient can help facilitate this kind of therapeutic connection.
Featured Rehab Center
Understand Their Purpose
It is important to remember always that your counselor is there to help you. This assertion can be necessary to make in the possible instance that they say something you disagree with or do not like. Ask yourself if what they said may actually be true, whether it felt good to hear or not, and if it may have actually helped you to hear it.
Understanding and remembering that your counselor’s job is to help you is essential to creating a good relationship. Then, even if you may not always see eye-to-eye, the connection between the two of you can remain strong and essentially positive. However, if you start to feel over time that the individual is being decidedly unhelpful to you, there is always the possibility of switching to another counselor.
Be Open and Honest
You need to be open and honest with your counselor in order to establish a positive relationship.
You can’t have a strong relationship with anyone in your life if you are not open and honest about the things you feel and need. This goes doubly for a therapeutic relationship, which is based on your ability to discuss your thoughts and feelings with your counselor and their ability to help you navigate and control them. You need to be communicative and sincere when you speak to your counselor if you are ever going to trust them enough to have a positive relationship.
Be Willing to Change
Many people are uncomfortable with therapy, refuse to make the changes in their life suggested by the counselor, withhold during sessions, and then wonder why they aren’t getting any better. You need to be willing to make changes to your life in order to create the kind of relationship that will foster recovery and sobriety.
Some individuals are very resistant to the therapy at first, which makes it even harder for the counselor to create a good relationship. Others may be willing to create a friendship but do not want to take on any difficult aspects of recovery. It is important to realize that attempting to recover from drug addiction will not be easy and that you will need to make changes to your life that facilitate a drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle. When your counselor suggests changes you can make, like exercises you can try or advice you can follow, be open to it, and this will help create a better relationship between the two of you.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Counseling and other behavioral therapies are the most commonly used forms of treatment,” and having a good relationship with your counselor will usually make the treatment more effective. If you have questions about counseling or want to find a rehab center in your area, call 888-646-0635Who Answers?.
A binge eating disorder is characterized by an excessive and overwhelming desire to eat. This desire causes the individual to eat very large amounts of food and is often paired with a behavior called purging in which the individual eats large amounts and then throws up the food, fasts or takes part in excessive exercising….
Being pregnant is always a little scary, but when you’re addicted to drugs and alcohol and pregnant, it can feel overwhelming. You don’t want to hurt the baby, but there’s so much conflicting information out there, it can be hard to know what to do. With some states now passing laws that allow prosecution of….
When you’re looking to attend a rehab center for drug and alcohol treatment, finding the right one can make all the difference. But how do you know what rehab center will work best for you? Is specialized drug and alcohol treatment what you need? When it comes to rehab, anything that will make you more….
You may be wondering what you can expect if you enlist in counseling at drug rehab centers. What really happens in those therapy sessions and how come some of them are one on one individual sessions with a counselor while others are given in a group format? If you are unsure about the way that….
Heroin is a severely addictive drug that causes dependence and withdrawal symptoms that are extremely intense and difficult to cope with. The dependence that develops as a result of heroin addiction and the fear associated with the painful withdrawal symptoms is ultimately what causes a heroin addict to avoid seeking treatment for heroin addiction at….
When you are about to enter a rehab center, you have a lot on your mind. You have employment issues. Your relationships are compromised. You may have legal problems. You are juggling a number of concerns and it is all you can do just to get into the rehab center and start the process. One….
Suicide exists as one of those topics that continue to fly under the radar in spite of its occurrence in increasing numbers every year. Suicide affects people of all ages, genders and socioeconomic groups and oftentimes happens in the lives of those you’d least suspect. With modern-day society’s fast-paced lifestyles and ever-increasing pressures, what may….
It may be simple to determine if an individual is addicted to drugs or alcohol once they have been using for many years and the addiction has progressed to such an advanced stage that they use daily, suffer withdrawal symptoms when they aren’t using and are clearly in trouble. Unfortunately, by this point addiction has….
If you’ve been to rehab, you know the clichés about rehab romances. You also know what it’s like to be in a mixed treatment center, a rehab that hosts both men and women. For many, these rehabs work just fine. But for some, choosing a gender-specific rehab center can make the difference between a life….
According to Harvard Medical School, body dysmorphic disorder “is no small problem.” It is is a debilitating mental disorder that causes both men and women equally to become preoccupied with “defects” they feel they see in their bodies, faces, and muscular structures, often to the point of causing delusions. While it is “difficult to treat,”….
Calls to any general helpline will be answered or returned by one of the treatment providers listed, each of which is a paid advertiser: Recovery Helpline or Alli Addiction Services.
By calling the helpline you agree to the terms of use. We do not receive any commission or fee that is dependent upon which treatment provider a caller chooses. There is no obligation to enter treatment.
