Addiction is a state characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences. 

At Sydney Counselling there is a new approach in the treatment of addiction and we offer you the chance to try something new. 

We treat addiction as a relationship. There are certain emotional, psychological, and behavioural factors which both the person and the substance/ behaviour (stimuli) bring to the interaction. This is why when someone is intoxicated they are "not themself". If they are not themselves then where has their regular "self" gone. 

As long as you have the resources you can form a long or short term love affair with a substance or sexual behaviour, or other forms of addiction, to create that perfect match between yourself and a reliable source of "feeling good"

At Counselling.Sydney we do not attempt to take the addiction away. We believe that if underlying core structures around your sense of self, emotional maturity, attachement style, and other key areas, are developed then your need to be in such an object based relationship will fall away on its own and you may find yourself saying, "I just don't need it any more"

Although this can be complex, the freedom to experiance life outside of dependancy can be profoundly wonderful. 

If you sit for a moment and reflect on your life and want something better for yourself, want to be free from what binds you then make an appointment

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A person addicted to alcohol once said to me,

“I hate drinking but I hate my wife more”

Like with anything, addiction does not just all of a sudden fall out of the sky and hit the person on the head. There are contributing factors, such as, relationships, life events, moving country, internal conflict, in the wrong job; the list goes on. When you are addicted, you are self-medicating.

The addiction is a relationship between yourself and whatever it is you are addicted to. There are a lot of similarities between your relationship with the substance or behaviour (sex) or object, as there are a person to person relationship. To keep it simple, in case you are bored of reading, if we understand the relationship between yourself and the “thing” and modify its core structure then you change the very nature of the relationship. This means we may modify the key elements which bind you to it. Therefore, releasing the bind.

The feeling of drugs emulate the perfect relationship, that feeling when your partner, mother or friend says or does something that makes you feel absolutely warm and valued and all that special stuff. We all crave and “hang out” for these things in our relationships. Sometimes when you struggle with certain issues like worthlessness or unhealthy relationships, we, just like food, become starved of feelings of warmth, value, and connection etc. It is then we find ourselves uncontrollably engaged in a relationship with promiscuous sex or drug addiction or some other form of coping strategy to fill the hunger for genuine human to human connection. If your regular relationships with yourself and others are unsatisfying to a point of emotional and or psychological starvation you establish a new relationship that is reliable and whenever you turn to it it makes you feel good, addiction.

Anyway, I could go on forever because it’s complex and multifaceted but I’ll outline the following key factors.

In my experience my particular approach can assist in the dramatic reduction or elimination of substance abuse. Addiction is a complex process and there are two rules to success

Rules

1. You will relapse time and time again but you must continue. Winning will only come with certain determination and persistence. Just as addiction has grown stronger over time, the skills you develop to move away from it must also.

Take a moment to think how it all started. Generally, if this is your first bought of addictive related issues then you built up to where you are, you started small, and the amount and frequency increased over time. The addiction become worse and worse until you are now where you are. So, recovery follows the same pattern. You start of learning new skills and little bit by little bit your gain more and more strength, the more you work in therapy to reinforce the skills (whilst struggling with a full blown addiction) then slowly but surely you rebuild internal and external structures and one day decide you just don’t need it any more. The reason you once needed it has faded away.

2. Show up to your sessions no matter what. Rain, hail, shine, high or low up or down left or right, SHOW UP.

Approach

A multisystemic approach to addiction.

·        I have to get to know the nature of the addiction. How are you relating to it; how deep is the emotional connection with it; what attachment style do you have with it as an emotional care provider, etc.

·        What are the external contributing factors? What are the stressors, conflicts, relationships, strengths, supports etc?

·        Assessment on the degree of physical dependency and the medical requirements for withdrawal and safety.

·        Fantasy versus reality; where is your conscious mind situated on the spectrum.

·        Any other contributing factors such as environmental, relationships, other forms of mental illness, drugs (comorbidity)

·        Your current stage of change and readiness/ willingness.

Note:  I am not in the business of just suddenly removing the addiction without first replacing it with something else. Just like I wouldn’t go and kick someone’s crutches from underneath them, I would not remove the addiction until the underlying issue is dealt with and supported. However, when it comes time, and you decided to stick through the therapy process, I will assist you to learn how to “hate” the core aspects of the addiction, so even the thought of it repulses you and you  are well equiped to protect your new freedom.