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Individual & Group Counseling
An addiction and mental health counselor is someone who helps people struggling with addiction to substances like opioids, addiction to harmful behaviors like gambling, or mental health challenges. They know a lot about recovery and work with each person to come up with a plan that fits their needs and goals. Here's a look at some of the key roles they play in supporting your recovery:
- Assessment: Our counselors talk with you to understand how you're feeling both mentally and physically, and how serious your addiction is. They help you figure out where you are in readiness to change, check for any other mental health conditions, and look out for any barriers to your recovery path. Our counselors support you in identifying and building on your strengths so that your first step in our program is as positively powerful as possible.
- Safety Planning & Crisis Intervention: When living with addiction or mental health barriers, life can get really tough or dangerous. Our counselors are here to help you develop a safety plan and provide crisis intervention support whenever you need it. Even if our services aren’t the best fit for you, it’s more important to us that you stay alive. We help you develop a personal safety plan that can be adapted to meet your needs for a lifetime, not just while part of our program.
- Treatment Planning: Our counselors work directly with you to create a special plan just for you, which might include things like therapy, medicine, joining support groups, and much more. They work with our entire team to ensure the plan meets your needs.
- Counseling: Our counselors offer one on one talk therapy sessions grounded in trauma-informed care. They also offer group counseling sessions. In a group counseling session, a counselor works with you and up to eleven other peers. Johan Hari says “The opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection.” Group counseling sessions are an opportunity to connect with other people in recovery to build trust and community together.
- Connecting You: Our counselors are a connective bridge between our program and other resources that may support your recovery goals. They are able to refer you to other care organizations and local resources, vetting intentionally along the way so you can rest easy knowing your care is always in the best hands whether with us or one of our partners.
- Teaching: We all need an advocate sometimes, so with your permission, our counselors are also able to talk with your family and friends to help them understand and support you better. They educate your loved ones on how best to help you through your journey. They also set up outreach programs in communities to teach people how to spot, understand, and destigmatize addiction.
- Keeping Track: Writing down your progress is a big part of the job. Everything we document about your recovery path is yours, you have the right to your data and deserve to have your progress preserved and protected. Empower Treatment has a zero tolerance policy for sharing any information about your treatment without your explicit, written permission. Learn more in our Client Rights page. [link]
Our counselors are second-to-none experts in their field. It might feel really hard to admit you need help and to start looking for it, but it's a crucial first step to take. Remember, you're not alone in this. Our entire team is here to help, and our counselors are ready to empower you with a plan that actually works.
