Long Term Counselling
Psychological intervention can take a long time. When you or a loved one is going through addiction, it’s natural to wonder how long it will take for the issue to be resolved. If you’re deciding on a specific alcohol rehab program, the duration of the therapy is a common concern, and professionals often estimate years of counselling. Classifications such as short term and long term counselling help you understand the distinction, but it’s very much dependent on the individual. Finding out about long term counselling and the reasons it may be necessary can help when you’re looking at different alcohol rehab programs.
The simplest indicator of whether a person needs long term counselling is the depth of the issue. The “depth” of a psychological issue is difficult to determine, but more all-encompassing issues are generally more deep-seated than minor, situation-specific ones. For example, if a person was abused during childhood and has serious issues with forming relationships with people, they will need significantly more than a few months of therapy to overcome the issue. Likewise, if somebody has mild anxiety issues they won’t require years of therapy.
Alcohol addiction is usually a result of a deep-seated issue. There are some people in alcohol rehab that have developed a habit from casual experimentation and won’t require too much counselling, but it’s not generally the case. People are driven to alcohols because of difficulty socialising, stress, self-destructive tendencies and a wide range of other serious issues. If the problem can be traced back to the person’s childhood and it affects their life in other ways too, then long term counselling is probably necessary.
Counsellors in alcohol rehab centres will assess each patient and often be able to estimate how long treatment will take. It’s important to remember that the length of treatment differs wildly because of individual differences. For example, if one patient doesn’t divulge much to the counsellor at first and another is completely willing to pour everything out straight away, then the latter will likely work through his or her issues sooner. An estimate of the specific length of treatment is by no means reliable, but should give you a rough idea of how long the alcohol rehab program should take.
Long term counselling gives the therapist more time to delve into each client’s addiction and develop a true picture of the issues surrounding it. Getting physically “clean” is one of the main aims of people going to alcohol rehab, but if they don’t tackle the underlying issues then they are likely to relapse. Things like peer pressure, stress, low self esteem and insecurity drive people to alcohols, and those things will be encountered throughout life. To become truly clean, a person has to learn new coping strategies and gain a much deeper understanding of what drives them to alcohols. After long term counselling, even the original triggers for alcohol use shouldn’t cause a relapse.
If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, we provide free advice on the various alcohol rehab facilities available and the different counselling options. Long term counselling is probably necessary if the addiction is serious, because it is a complex issue and often has foundations in childhood. We can point you in the direction of alcohol rehab facilities with counsellors for free, and can even provide one-to-one telephone counselling for a small fee. Going through addiction is tough for everybody concerned, and you shouldn’t do it alone.