In addiction rehab, one of the sets of people who are quintessential to recovery are the counselors.
For both substance and behavioral addiction, the role of counseling is pivotal. The inclusion of counseling provides a crucial support system for individuals who are battling various types of addiction problems.
The work of counseling begins with the counselor seeking to establish a relationship with the patients under their care.
Through this, it becomes easy for the counselor to provide resources in from of skills and strategies, support and prejudice-free guidance that patients need to get back on their feet.
Usually, it is very challenging for addicts to seek treatment for addiction. And when they do, they expect a high level of trust from who they open up to. In this case, it is the counselor because he or she is the first point of contact when an individual comes in for rehab.
During this point, it is mandatory for counselors to create a therapeutic alliance between them and their patients.
A therapeutic alliance is defined as the trust that patients feel when they are with their counselors. This allows them to sort out their underlying problems and work together with the counselor efficiently.
With this, the patients know that the counselors have their best interest at heart. This trust takes time to develop, but after few sessions with the counselor, the patient becomes more comfortable to sit and discuss with the counselor.
In addition, the counselor encourages the patient to put in their best so that they can recover. Addiction recovery is pretty difficult and addicted individuals need all the help they can get to put their life back on track.
The counselor implements motivational approaches that would increase the confidence of the patient that would spur them on to pull through with the addiction treatment.
To wrap it up, developing a relapse prevention plan is part of the counseling feature. The counselor understands that there is a tendency for relapse to happen. To prevent this, he creates a relapse prevention plan that would be available right after the completion of addiction treatment at the rehab.