Psychotherapy, or “talk therapy”, is often confused with counseling. These two types of therapies have much in common, but, also have significant differences. When it comes to your addiction recovery, what is psychotherapy and what role does it play?
What Is Counseling?
Addiction counseling takes place between you and a counselor. This type of addiction and mental health treatment focuses on the specific emotional and experiential problems you face. Counseling allows you to address your problems and then identify steps to take to fix your issues. All of your difficulties are worked on as present-day issues, without digging into your past experiences.
Counselors rarely give you advice. Instead, they guide you to find answers on your own. This means they support you in your addiction treatment and to help you reach your goals.
What Is Psychotherapy?
So what is psychotherapy when it comes to addiction treatment? Psychotherapy is similar to counseling, where you talk to a licensed professional. Psychotherapy also takes place in private meetings with an individual therapist. But these meetings usually take place over a longer period than counseling.
Psychotherapy, often called talk therapy, examines your behavioral patterns. It also considers your chronic problems and recurring feelings. With your therapist, you delve into your past to figure out why you experience life the way you do today.
The primary goal of therapy is to fix the issues that led you to addiction. Together, you and your therapist will resolve your past and current triggers of addiction. They also help you use new skills to build the foundation for a better future.
Many people with addiction suffered trauma or abuse at some point in their early years. They may also be self-medicating a mental health disorder. This may be why you abused substances, too. Therapy helps you work through these painful experiences to stop abusing drugs or alcohol and prevent relapse in the future.
Some types of psychotherapy in addiction treatment include:
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy
- Dialectical behavior therapy
- Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT)
- Individual therapy
In combination with these types of therapy, you also go through group therapy, family therapy, and relapse prevention skills development. Combining these experiences with addiction treatment can help lead to a successful recovery.
What Is Psychotherapy Offering Me?
When you seek rehab for yourself, your teen, or a young adult in your life, you have many decisions to make. Luckily, you don’t have to choose between psychotherapy and other types of counseling in rehab. All you need is to find the right addiction treatment programs for your family needs. The rehab provides the addiction treatment therapy best suited for your long-term recovery.
Some questions you can ask yourself before therapy can include:
- What are my most significant problems in life?
- Do I keep experiencing the same types of problems over and over again?
- Are my relationships healthy and happy, or do I suffer problems in my social and family life?
- Do I have past trauma I need to address or do abuses keep me from feeling happy and comfortable in my skin?
Participating in Psychotherapy at Zelus Recovery
Zelus Recovery is here to answer the question “what is psychotherapy?” We offer a number of adolescent and young adult addiction treatment services and behavioral therapy options to help you and your family overcome addiction and other issues.
Our young adult addiction treatment center also provides the following:
- Teen drug and alcohol rehab
- Early intervention
- Mental health treatment
- Intensive outpatient program (IOP)
- Outpatient treatment
- Men’s and women’s rehab program
- Relapse prevention program
Contact Zelus Recovery by calling 208.518.0797 to find the right program and a better tomorrow for your loved one.
