Overview of Treatment Approaches to Addictions Counseling
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Commonly used substance use disorder treatment approaches.
Victims of substance abuse require proper strategies to help handle their conditions. The medically proven treatment techniques must be applied depending on the patient. The most common treatment approaches are the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy method, the Solution Focused Brief Therapy method, and the Motivational Interviewing method.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be defined as a psychotherapeutic treatment to therapy where the patient is encouraged to focus on the negative thought patterns that tend to be destructive to them or their way of thinking. Through this, the individual can track their thoughts and avoid or significantly reduce any flawed thinking that might reduce adverse effects (Creswell et al., 2017). Motivational Interviewing is an approach to patient counseling that allows for a patient-centered approach to help strengthen the motivation for change. The third approach to the treatment of substance use disorders is
Solution-focused Brief Therapy. This is a goal-oriented short-term approach to psychotherapy that encourages an individual to focus on the positive aspects of their life and overcome any psychological challenges when dealing with substance abuse.
Treatment Differences
The most effective approaches are cognitive behavioral therapy and solution-focused brief therapy. Although cultivated to produce exemplary results, their strategies are different and deliver results based on the severity of the substance abuse disorder that an individual is faced with. Cognitive-behavioral therapy allows for a professional-based process where the therapist intensively engages an individual in explaining and combing through their negative thoughts to the point that they understand their position and work to eliminate these negative thought processes from their minds (Creswell et al., 2017).
Solution-focused brief therapy is short, precise, and less professional when compared to cognitive behavioral therapy. It is vital to note that this approach allows the therapist to enter the treatment session with an open mindset. He or she encourages their patient to identify the problem, identify the positive thoughts in their minds, the positive opportunities presented to them, and alternative activities they can engage in to evade the temptation of substance abuse (Sanco et al., 2018).
Preferred Method and Rationale
The most preferred method depends on the problem, its severity, and the personality of an individual. The best approach to offer treatment for substance abuse would be Solution-Focused Brief Therapy. This approach focuses on reflecting on yourself and, more so, your life and strategies that would be best fitted for adoption by you. This is opposed to cognitive behavioral therapy, which dives into focusing on your shortcomings and working to avoid them; a strenuous exercise. Referring to the idea of ‘you always get more of what you focus on,
it would be good to use the solution-focused brief therapy as it focuses on the positive and would probably reward one with more positivity (Sanco et al., 2018).
Treatment Professionals
These would be typical psychological therapists, behavioral therapists, and rehabilitation therapists. Technically, any nurse, doctor, or mental health personnel would be a great person to deal with on these approaches within their profession of practice.
References
Creswell, C., Violato, M., Fairbanks, H., White, E., Parkinson, M., Abitabile, G., … & Cooper, P. J. (2017). Clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of brief guided parent-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy and solution-focused brief therapy for treatment of childhood anxiety disorders: a randomized controlled trial. The Lancet Psychiatry, 4(7), 529-539.