What is psychotherapy, in the context of addiction? by Leon Chng
By Leon Chng
Counsellor / Fitness Coach
What is psychotherapy, in the context of addiction?
What is Psychotherapy? What has it got to do with me – isn’t it for people with mental illness or complex mental issues like addicts with hardcore addiction issues? Find out how you personally can benefit from psychotherapy with Counsellor, Leon Chng, especially if you are struggling with addiction.
Definition of Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy, also known as talk therapy, is simply, a form of treatment or mental resource empowerment process that professionals such as Psychologist, Counsellor, or Psychotherapist use to assist people who struggle with mental illness, or emotional disorders or simply battling a poor mental health period to try to emerge stronger and, more often than not, emerge even further improved mental resilience.
When both the client and the Psychologist/Counsellor/Psychotherapist invest their mental energy to go through this process properly, such therapy helps facilitate individuals to cope with the effects of mental illness and addiction. It also helps them overcome any emotional challenges they face.
As humans, we all will likely experience the psychological consequences of traumatic events, stress, grief, depression, anxiety, and other difficulties at different intensities and hence place our mental health to be more predisposed to a significantly poor mental health episode or worse, phase and even worse so, contract mental illness. Fortunately, various resources and therapy methods can help one deal with these issues.
Talk therapy is one of the methods that can help people handle their emotions. By discussing their problems with qualified therapists, individuals can start to recover from these issues.
Various therapies fall under the category of psychotherapy. Progressive national-level addiction institutes understood the reality of such that psychotherapies won’t be successful if it’s the same for all clients.
Therefore, effective addiction therapy services meet the needs of the individual. When you’re looking for help to overcome addiction, you should first seek out as much valuable information as possible from the clinic or organisation and the soft skills (psychological or simply well-being). I hope this article will be one such resource for you.
Approaches to psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapies
This approach focuses on changing problematic behaviours, feelings, and thoughts by discovering their unconscious meanings and motivations. Psychoanalytically oriented therapies are characterized by a close working partnership between therapist and patient. Clients learn about themselves by exploring their interactions in the therapeutic relationship. While psychoanalysis is closely identified with Sigmund Freud, it has been extended and modified since his early formulations.
Behaviour therapy
This approach focuses on learning one's role in developing both normal and abnormal behaviours.
Brief history:
Ivan Pavlov made important contributions to behaviour therapy by discovering classical conditioning, or associative learning. Pavlov's famous dogs, for example, began drooling when they heard their dinner bell, because they associated the sound with food.
"Desensitizing" is classical conditioning in action: A therapist might help a client with a phobia through co-creating strategies involving repeated exposure to whatever it is that causes anxiety.
Several variations have developed since behaviour therapy's emergence in the 1950s. One variation is cognitive-behavioural therapy, which focuses on both thoughts and behaviours.
Hence, the emphasis on behavioural activation and taking action as the “key” to permanent positive change to regain control of your living one’s life to the full potential.
Cognitive therapy or CBT
Cognitive therapy emphasizes what people think rather than what they do.
Cognitive therapists believe that it's dysfunctional thinking that leads to dysfunctional emotions or behaviours. By changing their thoughts, people can change how they feel and what they do.
Major figures in cognitive therapy include Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.
Humanistic therapy
This approach emphasizes people's capacity to make rational choices and develop to their maximum potential. Concern and respect for others are also important themes.
Three types of humanistic therapy are especially influential. Client-centred therapy rejects the idea of therapists as authorities on their clients' inner experiences. Instead, therapists help clients change by emphasizing their concern, care and interest.
Gestalt therapy emphasizes what it calls "organismic holism," the importance of being aware of the here and now and accepting responsibility for yourself.
Existential therapy focuses on free will, self-determination and the search for meaning.
Integrative or holistic therapy
Modern era, many therapists don't tie themselves to any one approach. Instead, they blend elements from different approaches and tailor their treatment according to each client's needs.
What are the definitions and accounts of (clinical) addiction(s) requiring psychotherapy?
Some salient (versions) of the definition of clinical addiction are:
Being unable to stop the behaviour of acting out of ingestion of a particular substance or activity even when it affects one’s optimal living and basic well-being.
OR
(Simpler but cognitive centric)
Addiction is when one has a strong physical or psychological need or urge to do something or use something. It is a dependence on a substance or activity even if you know that it causes you harm. It can impact your daily life.
What this information means for you? What is my skin in the game if I feel I am still managing well?
However, managing well unless in most aspects of your well-being, you are flourishing or better if you suspect even ever slightly about whether some of the activities are encroaching or enmeshed into well-being or the important relationships of your life, do know that even things as subtle as workaholism or media consumption such that despite pleas of people who lives or cares for you pointed they do believe that objectively, you (or someone you know) are pointing out (or express fear) that you are languishing in one, some, or worse, many aspects of you living well.
Lastly, even as a “spectating” loved one observing the start (or in the process) of spiral in receiving the minimal desired emotional, mental, or physical support system much less say upkeep of proper emotional, mental or physical intimacy in an OK relationship situation.
Ultimately, you are the expert of your life, do not be mistaken.
A competent clinical therapist no matter how experienced in life or rich in his or her life experience understands that everyone will face issues and trying times in their lives. Coupled with the fact that well-being, the protective factor is not easy to upkeep (holistic and being “fit” in a well-rounded way both mentally and physically), getting addicted to anything is possible. So, rest assured when you read that none of the above psychotherapies even coaching and directive-oriented therapy such as Cognitive or Analytical based therapies implied nor stated the need to judge or assume the client’s life was improperly lived.
Navigating the actual underlying problem takes time. Hence, a need for you to try your very best to be present, practice patience and due regard for the process (as much as you can expect that you will be also given the presence authenticity (of having an interest in how best to navigate the process with you) and positive regard by your psychologist, counsellor, or psychotherapist.
Personal Sharing
What realising and figuring out “We don’t know what we do not know” might look like in a therapeutic dialogue session.
I would like to offer my own true story in the hopes of better illustrating the above point.
During my counselling undergraduate days when I volunteered to offer myself a true issue to be counselled in front of my classmates due to my desire to find closure and empower myself with an ongoing management issue
After telling my story, I’m concerned that I may offer an issue of “making a mountain out of a molehill”. However, my psychoanalytical module lecturer, with his positive regard, simply remained non-directive, probably ignoring how my case seemed so trivial and with his fundamental micro counselling skills of focused presence and curiosity to first ascertain the true issue, simply did the following: Gave me space to share what I have been through, affirmed me to express my feelings and encouraged further layered sharing to beef my story including the context including how the interaction mentioned usually unfolds in my family.
After listening to my lengthy talk, he then still found it in him to substantially stay attuned with me and offload emotions through my cathartic sharing. Last but not least, he aptly observed and picked up my quick fleeting 1 or 2 sighs and earnestly engaged me, clarifying if I reckon the true emotion to grapple with and express it out to feel truly understood (by myself and my loved one for my own sake) is actually at its core, huge disappointment on why my loved one fail to see the hurt it caused or such potential from the remarks made repetitively.
Even when I probed for the next steps, I was asked to first reflect on how I reckon and reflect on the optimal way to express and convey that the remarks can truly cause me profound hurt and so continued to believe and downplay my pleas on the words’ effects on me since my reaction).
Fortunately for me, that was all it took for me to understand what I wished to do with this new salient insight and my loved one even took it well when I communicated the impact during intentionally protected interaction subsequently and managed to turn this confused emotion, I was grappling with into a tool of actionable steps to start a deeper dialogue to connect with this loved one in my family to foster better understanding and positively strengthen our relations.
Back to addictions and perhaps more complex underlying issue(s) that may need to take longer time and intense sessions to uncover, while may not be as straightforward usually, falling back to the basics of first exploring in therapy sessions on beefing up your well-being and positive mind cum body connection.
Physical fitness and well-being coaching and planning trained therapists such as myself can also aid you to further beef your overall well-being to heighten the chance to find that imperative insight as we co-create such talk therapy sessions to explore with my other approaches to facilitate. Though rare, is not scarce and is available here in The Counselling Place.
Conclusion
So, if you are battling addiction or feel you might be prone or too much at risk or simply are someone who would like to learn how to identify and support your loved ones.
In our current VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world diverse internet services platforms and social media prevalent (arguably pervasive) era, social media or online shopping inclination to respond to FOMO (Fear of missing out) on sale to pervasively scrimp on that precious sleep and protected time for fostering stronger happier relationships and interactions, this ambiguity blurs the line of where one is addicted such that we allow such entities (though non-human) activities to be the “third party” enmeshed in the relationships.
Just as health screenings are important as it is better to be safe than sorry to be aware of what we do not know about our health, why not do this “screening” or start the prevention steps by empowering yourself with customised mental health resources of increasing your mindfulness or avail yourself to further resources by embarking on your very own psychotherapy empowerment endeavour journey just as the many people in progressive countries already do to beef up their mental well-being. After all, prevention is better than cure.