What Does a Rehab Family Program Offer?
Transforming Recovery: Explore the Vital Role of Rehab Family Programs at Purpose Healing Center.
Looking at Family Involvement in Rehab Programs at Purpose
Watching your loved one struggle with drug and alcohol addiction is torture. You may be plagued with questions about how to help them or feel scared about where their life is going. At the same time, their behaviors might make it hard to maintain a healthy relationship.
Where do you turn for help? And is there any chance to heal that relationship with the person you love?
Healing family relationships has many benefits for addiction. While the recovery process doesn’t look the same for everyone, our rehab family program at Purpose Healing Center involves loved ones in treatment.
This might look like family sessions to discuss repressed emotions, provide education on the treatment process, or discuss the best ways to support individuals struggling with addiction after rehab.
Recovery is a long road and nobody should have to walk it alone, and Purpose is here to support you. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of family-involved treatment and how you can hold your loved one’s hand on the path ahead of them.
The Family Dynamic and Addiction
Addiction has serious consequences for both the person struggling with addiction and the people around them. Family members suffer too, including significant others, children, parents, siblings, and others close to them.
Often, the role that you play with loved ones struggling with substance use disorder depends on how much you support their addiction. They stay close to people who enable their habits while keeping those who urge them to seek help at a distance.
At Purpose, we believe healing addicts and their loved ones is an important part of treatment and recovery. We invite families to participate in our family program whenever possible. By healing the family unit, individuals struggling with addiction gain motivation and support critical to the recovery process.
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The Role of Family Members in Substance Abuse Treatment
The family dynamic in addiction was first explored by psychotherapist Virginia Satir and others in the 1960s and 1970s and adapted by Sharon Wegscheider and Claudia Black a decade later.
There is a lot of overlap between these roles and a family member can assume more than one role. Family counseling helps family members understand these roles and how to heal relationships going forward. Here’s a look at the roles that family members may play.
The Addict
Family members struggling with substance use disorder assume this role, typically after facing difficult emotions or traumatic events. They avoid taking responsibility for addiction, using denial or rationalization when confronted.
The Hero
Heroes strive for success and accomplishment, usually resulting in high anxiety levels and a need for perfection. They represent the best of the family but struggle with communication and asking for help.
The Scapegoat
The family member assuming this role acts out and becomes defiant to get attention, often the polar opposite of the hero. They might act irresponsibly, be chronic underachievers, and use substances to a lesser degree. Usually, the scapegoat of the family does not make healthy choices for their life.
The Lost Child
These family members are often a younger child in the family that feels invisible. They are solitary, asking little of other people in the family. The lost child might also be independent to a fault and their unmet needs lead to low self-confidence.
The Mascot
Mascots are known for their sense of humor, often using it to relieve pain and diffuse tension. They may also seek attention with humor, so the family does not take them seriously. The mascot is often immature and irresponsible.
The Enabler
Enablers try to save loved ones, particularly the addict, from feeling pain or consequences caused by addiction. They might justify or excuse drug or alcohol use, even giving them money. Often, enablers neglect their own needs and have a codependent relationship with the addict.
The Mediator
Mediators try to diffuse anger and displeasure between family members, even though addressing these feelings is a part of healthy communication. They often avoid conflict at all costs, even when their own needs aren’t being met. This makes mediators deeply resentful.
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Family Involvement During Inpatient Treatment
During our residential treatment program, clients stay at our facility. They’ll eat, sleep, and live there for the duration of the program. This time is meant to lay the foundation for recovery, allowing them to focus on developing structure and skills for overcoming addiction.
Family-Based Treatment Programs
At Purpose, we offer an innovative program that involves families during residential rehab. In cases of parents who are separated from their children, visits might help the parent stay focused on their motivation for quitting.
Family sessions also teach parenting skills and strengthen the parent-child relationship.
Therapy and Other Family Services
Family therapy sessions may be scheduled during residential rehab for the immediate family, including parents and siblings. As part of our family program, you’ll develop a better understanding of your loved one’s substance use. Families will also learn how to set healthy boundaries, practice effective communication skills, and conflict resolution.
Among our evidence-based approaches used are multi-dimensional family therapy, psychodrama, family dynamic therapy, among other methodologies used in individual therapy as well, such as CBT, DBT, ACT, and others.
Our staff is also knowledgeable about family programming resources in the area. These resources can be used even after completing substance abuse treatment programs, making it easy to continue healing the family unit.
The Role of the Family After Rehab
For people struggling with substance use, having support and understanding from family members and loved ones promotes lasting recovery. Realistically, it takes time to heal a relationship damaged by addiction. A family program can help.
Attending a family workshop, counseling, or other family programs is a great way to start healing. Therapists provide a safe space to discuss feelings surrounding your loved one’s substance use, how it affects the family, and how family members can support the person struggling.
Benefits of Family Member Involvement During Rehab
When therapists sit down with families as part of the recovery process, there are numerous benefits for the whole family unit. Family services and programs are just one kind of evidence-based treatment program we offer at Purpose.
We help families stay connected through the recovery process, encouraging loved ones to be involved where they can. Call us for more information about our programs today!
Counseling and Mental Health Services
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), there’s a heightened risk of drug and alcohol abuse among family members. When a parent drinks, for example, their child is exposed to an environment that promotes drinking. This is a risk for child welfare.
Research also shows a genetic predisposition for addiction in children of addicts. Parental substance abuse also creates the perfect condition for mental illness, as well as co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Purpose offers dual diagnosis for co-occurring mental illness and addiction across all levels of treatment at our facility.
Family therapy sessions benefit child welfare and reduce the risk of future mental health problems. During these sessions, parents can learn how to better care for children. Therapy also opens the discussion of substance use disorders. Education on addiction is important for breaking the cycle.
Healing Trauma and Family Dynamics
Addiction has serious consequences for families with a loved one in recovery. You may feel sad, resentful, angry, guilty, ashamed, or relieved during the process. These and other feelings are normal. If you aren’t sure how to address them, our family program can help.
Family therapy gives the family unit a chance to address the positive and negative emotions surrounding addiction. Recovery is a process and addressing these emotions is essential for healing and moving forward. Furthermore, it’s essential for healing families so they can provide support going forward.
Providing Support During and After Rehab
It can be hard to know how to support adults in recovery. Healing the family dynamic starts an important conversation about recovery. It also gives loved ones struggling with substance use disorder and the fallout somewhere to turn.
Continued support comes with accountability that helps keep people struggling to resist the temptation to use. They’ll also be able to find support through healthy friends, support groups like Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous, and other support services.
Better Outcomes for Children of Addicts
When parents or caregivers struggle with addiction, it is the children who suffer. Research shows substance use disorders are present in numerous child welfare cases. Those struggling with addiction do not always make good decisions regarding children and their behaviors.
During family services and treatment programs, parents learn skills like how to set expectations, establish behavioral contracts, improve communication techniques, problem-solving, and more. The parent-child relationship can start to heal.
Additionally, by addressing substance use problems, children learn more about overcoming this disorder. It is an important step in breaking addiction cycles common in families.
Get Involved Through Our Family Rehab Programs at Purpose
An addiction treatment program can benefit the whole family. Healing family relationships helps people struggling with addiction find motivation for lasting sobriety. It invites important conversations in families that abuse alcohol or drugs and helps stop repeated patterns.
A family program can also be essential in healing damage done to children of parents in substance use treatment.
Reach out to Purpose Healing Center for more information about our family programming and other treatment options today. Together, we can work with your loved one and encourage better choices, effective communication techniques, healthy coping skills, an improved sense of well-being, and long-term recovery from substance use disorder.
References
- https://www.samhsa.gov/families
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4894838/
- https://eipd.dcs.wisc.edu/non-credit/WI_Voices/SUD-Family/story_content/external_files/SUD-Family-Transcript.pdf
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