Family Counseling

Over time, family dynamics do change. However, when someone has an addiction or mental health disorder, the family dynamics can take a drastic turn. A person’s family may be enabling them or trying to care for them, only to have things backfire. The good news is that those with mental health disorders or addictions can attend treatment programs. Hopefully, with the help of professionals like those here at Harmony Recovery Center NC, anyone with a mental health disorder or addiction can get the help they need.

One treatment we offer to help our clients with their family issues is family counseling. In these sessions, you and some members of your family can talk to the therapist. You all get the chance to express yourself in a safe space.

Defining Family Counseling

Not sure what family counseling entails? This type of counseling is used in a lot of professional settings. During these sessions, the family members in attendance will learn how to communicate with one another. They will listen to one another and make amends. Your family can work with the therapist to discuss how the addiction impacted them. Hopefully, by listening to each other and having these discussions, you can all benefit from the sessions.

Family Counseling Benefits

Here at Harmony Recovery Center, we want to see you overcome addiction. However, we also want to see you make amends with your family and for them to work on understanding you at the same time. These are just some of the reasons we offer family counseling services. Some of the other benefits of these sessions include:

• Learning how to engage in healthy conversations with your loved ones
• Having your family members learn about your addiction and have them understand how the treatment process works
• Allowing your family members to voice their thoughts and feelings in a safe place
• Giving you and your loved ones support during and after your treatment process
• Easing feelings of resentment, confusion, stress, anger, and fear

As you can tell from this list, there are many reasons why you and your family members may want to attend our family counseling sessions while you are receiving addiction treatment.

How Substance Abuse Impacts Families

There are many ways that substance abuse impacts the structure of families. Some of the ways that this happens include:

• Creating more negative emotions such as anxiety, guilt, anger, embarrassment, and concern
• Safety issues, especially when there are children involved or when the person who is under the influence turns violent
• Communication issues such as arguing, negative interactions, and not listening to one another
• Not taking care of responsibilities such as caring for children, working, paying attention to a spouse, or doing household chores
• Lack of boundaries and structure especially when drinking or using drugs a lot of the time
• Being in denial about the addiction (this can happen with the person who has the addiction and their family members)
• Family members may enable or make excuses for the person who has the addiction

Do you have an addiction? If so, you can reach out to our team to get family counseling and other addiction treatment services. Do you have a family member who struggles with addiction? If so, contact us today to talk about getting them into a treatment program.

Unhealthy Coping with Addictions in Your Family

Unfortunately, there are a lot of families who don’t cope well when someone in their family has an addiction. Some of the ways that your family might be coping with addiction include:

• Codependency
• Enabling
• Lying to other loved ones
• Covering up the addiction

None of these ways of handling addiction within the family are healthy. With our family counseling services, we can teach you and your family members how to better handle the situations you are faced with.

Children and Addiction

If you have children and you struggle with addiction, your kids may develop their own coping skills. Most of the time, the results are chaotic. Some of the ways they may handle the situation include:

• Taking care of you
• Trying to please you in hopes you will stop drinking or using drugs
• Blaming themselves for your behaviors

Many children who have an addicted parent will develop emotional and mental health issues. For this reason, if you have an addiction and you have children, it is important they get the help needed as soon as possible. They are allowed to and should attend therapy. You can enroll in our family counseling services, too.