Trauma Therapy For Recovering Alcoholics And Addicts
I have seen and lived addiction from every possible angle: I come from an alcoholic family, I have recovered from my own addictions, and have family and friends who are either dealing with active addiction or who are in recovery. I know the 12 Step recovery model intimately.
I deeply respect and appreciate the 12 Step programs’ profound power to heal and change lives. However, over the last 35 years, I have also seen many sober people hit “a wall” in their recovery journey, unless they do the crucial work of healing childhood and later traumas.
I understand the pain of hyper vigilance, codependency and out of control emotional triggers. There is a way up and out of these seemingly entrenched patterns of thinking and reacting. The approach is compassionate and transformative. I am here to help, if you are ready to take the next step in your recovery.
Therapy for Those Impacted by Addiction (Family and Friends, Adult Children of Alcoholics)
Substance misuse doesn’t just impact those struggling with addiction. People close to a drug or alcohol user may find themselves caught up in the trauma as well; isolation and feelings of desperation are very common. In fact, research very clearly indicates the link between growing up in a household with an alcoholic parent and the potential for
trauma.Partners or adult children of addicts may experience:
- Difficulties with self-esteem
- Problems with setting or maintaining boundaries
- Difficulty maintaining healthy relationships (you might experience codependency, for example)
- Social anxiety or generalized anxiety
- Avoidant behaviour
- Difficulty becoming independent
- Neediness or manipulation in relationships
It is possible to gently and effectively heal the parts of us that can be easily and painfully triggered. There is nothing “bad” about these protective reactions to people, places and things in our environment, but they can show up as extreme thinking and behaviours. These are learned reactions deep within the unconscious (and central nervous system), and they can be explored, validate
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
While doing deep inner work, it is possible to bump up against “stuck” emotional trauma. Using
EMDR, we can process this material, to allow us to open to our inner states without freezing.
When a traumatic or very negative event occurs (early childhood relational trauma or abuse, car accidents, natural disasters, etc.), information processing may be incomplete. If the central nervous system is overwhelmed in the moment, it automatically defends itself by repressing intense emotions. If we are not able to process this material later, or work through it in a safe environment, this “unfinished business” can stay with us for years or a lifetime. Old memories can be triggered and relived over and over, which can be intensely painful, confusing and exhausting. We may become depressed or hopeless.
EMDR’s effectiveness is based on the brain’s ability to relearn and update. We call this “adaptive processing” and it is going on constantly in your life, though you may not be aware of it. EMDR simply facilitates this natural healing process.
.jpg)
