At East Coast Recovery Center, we know that addiction is a disease that infects the entire family, not just an individual. That is why we recommend family therapy for many of our clients, an opportunity to heal relationships, improve communication patterns, and establish a supportive environment for those who are in recovery.
Research has shown that including families into this recovery process through family therapy treatment can increase chances of success during treatment. Families might not understand the link between genetics and alcoholism or how they talk to one another and relapse. But many times families do not know how to support their loved ones. When families are left out of the equation, dysfunction may continue to exist. Teaching families how to solve conflicts and how to positively communicate within their family unit can be a powerful part of recovery.
At East Coast Recovery Center, we provide family therapy and resources like mindfulness to teach families how to be there for their loved ones, how to communicate effectively, and how to build boundaries to work toward healing themselves and each other.
At East Coast Recovery Center we provide flexible full day and partial day outpatient programs. During these settings, family therapy can serve as a bridge between a daily living situation and a recovery program. Family therapy is used to help family members examine the dynamics within their family home and relationships that can either support recovery or accidentally trigger a relapse.
Part of the major benefits people find without patient programs have to do with the ability to return home at night, and during that time frame, practice what was learned during therapy sessions in real time. Family therapy adds a layer to this ability by helping family members all actively address the real time friction that can happen in the home, identifying behaviors like codependency or enabling. Together those who are in recovery and their family members can transform their home into a place of accountability and support.
At East Coast Recovery Center, every client receives an individualized treatment plan tailored to their needs. This means that family therapy sessions can be structured into a recovery plan in order to address individual needs like historical hurdles or scheduling constraints that another family member might have. Our aim is to make sure that this program is accessible to those people our clients want to participate.
During these family therapy sessions, all members have the opportunity to speak, to learn, and to share. Our family therapy sessions are typically very collaborative, mediated by a licensed clinician.
During a standard session, you can expect:
Psychoeducation, where our clinicians help each of your family members better understand addiction as a chronic illness, getting rid of blame and replacing it with understanding
Therapies like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) built into the session to help family members reframe negative thought patterns and behaviors within the family unit
Communication support, where clients and their loved ones can speak openly and freely about their fears, issues, or hopes without it turning into an immediate conflict
Boundary setting, where families learn to implement healthy boundaries that protect everyone’s mental health and avoid enabling
Depending on your customized track—whether you are enrolled in our full Day Treatment or our flexible Partial Day Treatment—family sessions are woven seamlessly into the weekly schedule alongside individual therapy and holistic offerings.
Addiction can significantly affect every family member’s functioning, health, and well-being—both for those with a substance use disorder and for those without. Family issues can influence addiction as much as a supportive family environment can help those in recovery.
Family therapy can have a variety of applications in addiction treatment. Generally, the entire family meets with a therapist, but in atypical cases, each person might meet separately or part of the family might meet. Each session lasts about an hour and varies on the family’s unique needs. For example, an entire session may be dedicated to discussing each person’s issues and concerns, while another meeting may focus on communicating effectively and listening more attentively to avoid misunderstandings.
Family therapy can employ techniques and exercises from cognitive therapy, behavior therapy, interpersonal therapy, or other types of individual therapy. The techniques employed will vary according to the specific difficulties the client or clients have.
Your family therapist will speak with everyone to find out how each person views the difficulties, when they started, and how the family has dealt with them up to now. The next phase will be to create a treatment plan. The objective is to improve family disagreements rather than to assign fault. Family therapy cannot always eradicate problems; it can, however, assist family members in working together in healthier ways to handle them. The number of times you meet with a family therapist and the number of sessions you need will depend on the issues you deal with in therapy.
According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, addiction is a family disease. Addiction affects the entire family system and the individuals that compose it. Family members are under a lot of stress as a result of addiction, which disrupts routines and causes uncomfortable or even frightening experiences. Family members tend to develop unhealthy coping strategies in order to maintain balance in their home. As a result, the family becomes an unhealthy and dysfunctional system, often unwittingly contributing to addiction.
Family therapy sessions will have unique family therapy goals. By establishing family therapy goals, you and your family members may gain several skills that may help to improve a variety of problems. Goals may include:
The objective of family therapy is to work together as a unit to identify and address issues in order to achieve healthy resolutions, rather than pointing fingers and assigning blame.
Family therapy does not have a set timeline, unlike some other modalities. When clients reach out to our team at East Coast Recovery center, we make recommendations for individual care plans but may very well include family therapy.
In some circumstances family therapy might start right away, helping individuals in our outpatient programs rebuild their relationships, improve communication, and build better support systems at home.
In other circumstances, individuals might need to work on themselves a bit first before family therapy is added to their existing treatment plan. We work hard to ensure that clients always get the level of care they need with the modalities that are most supportive for them.
By participating in family therapy with loved ones such as spouses, parents, siblings, children, or even close friends, clients and their family members can go home at the end of each session and practice the skills or lessons learned in real time.
While the average length of time clients stay with our multiple levels of care might be several months, family therapy can take up some or all of that time frame, and it can even extend to traditional outpatient meetings on a weekly basis.
Many people view therapy as too expensive to seek treatment for mental or behavioral health issues. Although the Affordable Care Act and other reforms were meant to improve access to mental and behavioral health services, cost remains a barrier for many. Therapy is frequently available at no charge or for a reduced price, especially if people live in large metropolitan areas or near universities where teaching occurs.
If family therapy is offered through an addiction treatment program, the therapy sessions will be covered under the umbrella cost of the program.
Family therapy can play an important part in substance abuse treatment. In fact, family therapy is a beneficial component of behavioral health treatment, and when combined with individual therapy, can reduce relapse rates, improve medication adherence, reduce mental health symptoms, and alleviate stress. Some of the many benefits include:
When drug abuse is occurring in the home, communication often becomes negative and unproductive. During therapy, family members will learn how to communicate with each other in an effective and positive manner.
When addicts return home after rehab, they need structure and boundaries. Having too much free time may lead to boredom and a higher chance of relapse. Families in therapy learn how to set proper boundaries and enforce them.
When an addict’s family member neglects their own needs in favor of obsessing about the addict, codependency occurs. This leads to even more problems. In family therapy, codependent behaviors are addressed and alternative methods are determined.
Family members either out of compassion or fear remove the consequences of drug and alcohol use from the addict. This makes it simple for the addict to continue using substances without repercussions. Enabling is damaging to the family and is addressed during therapy.
Family therapy is a confidential time to address mental illness, stress, and trauma within the family. By bringing these issues to light, families can move beyond their pasts and become stronger.
Family therapy sessions will have unique family therapy goals. By establishing family therapy goals, you and your family members may gain several skills that may help to improve a variety of problems. The objective of family therapy is to work together as a unit to identify and address issues in order to achieve healthy resolutions, rather than pointing fingers and assigning blame. Other goals may include:
Improving communication
Rebuilding trust
Enhancing self-esteem
Addressing relationship issues
Improving coping skills
Creating a functional home environment
improving the family’s behavioral thinking processes
Resolving past trauma
For many families, the idea of committing to rehab can seem impossible especially when there are other obligations like, school, work, or family. That is why, at East Coast Recovery Center we employ outpatient programs using a structured step-down approach. This ensures that individuals and their families can access the care they need, participating in weekly family therapy sessions, without giving up on other obligations.
Clients can begin in our full Day Treatment program (6 hours a day) and gradually step down to our Partial Day Treatment program. This makes it possible for family members to attend sessions, around other obligations.
From there, we know that continuing to receive support can be a challenge for many even if their families participated in therapy with them. That is why we provide ongoing community engagement and peer support with our aftercare program and alumni services. These, together, help clients and their families continue to pursue long term success.
If you are ready to start family therapy with us, call East Coast Recovery Center at (617) 390-8349.
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