Addiction Therapists in Lawndale, CA.

Addicted to alcohol, marijuana, cocaine? Addicted to sex, the internet, gambling, shopping, food, porn, exercise, money? Or perhaps you have achieved sobriety as a recovering Alcoholic or Drug Addict, you attend AA or NA regularly, and want additional support from a psychologist? I can help. In my Newport Beach Private Practice, I draw on my prior experience as a psychologist at celebrity rehab Morningside Recovery in Newport Beach. My specialties in helping you through recovery are Anxiety Disorders, Bipolar Disorders, Anger Management, and Couples Counseling. Call, click or text (949)791-7127 and get the support you need.

Struggles with addiction and substance abuse can often be accompanied by guilt and shame, and this guilt and shame are typically triggers for continued use/relapse. Use of a strengths-based approach to treating substance abuse can tap an individual's own strengths to gain insight and to increase coping skills. Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Interpersonal Therapy can also prove useful to address unmet needs, feeling "stuck" and challenging irrational thoughts that lead to continued use.

The benefits of Addiction Counseling and Treatment are manifold. Too often individuals are controlled by substances in their life and don't feel free to make their own choices. People can be addicted to everything from drugs, to caffeine, to shopping, to gambling, to alcohol, etc. Addiction counseling is about understanding the need one may feel to be attached to a substance. Counseling focuses on developing other coping skills to manage ones' life without depending on a substance to get through each day.

The long-term goals for working with addiction consists of improving the quality of life for clients by maintaining ongoing abstinence. Therapy assists clients in identifying the negative ways that using has impacted their lives. Treatment consists of educating client's about the disease, decreasing resistance and denial, finding ways to obtain sobriety, identifying triggers for relapse, and finding social and emotional support to overcome their addiction. My approach is to assess the type and severity of the addiction and provide my clients with referrals necessary to help them in the journey for recovery.

Any Unresolved issues from your past can lead to more serious disorders such as an alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction and others. We will go beyond the symptom of the addiction you are experiencing and treat the underlying cause and possible unresolved psychological trauma. This will help you restore your sense of control and reduce the poweful hold that any the addictive behaviors have on you.

I believe that as we grow up we are shaped by our relationships; this starts from the time we are little and continues for the rest of our lives. Through these relationships we are also shaped by society. In being shaped we create various meaning from our experiences as well as receiving and giving instructions on how to live. When we form new relationships of any kind, this gets challenged; coming together and finding a path forward that celebrates all involved is the key to success. Sometimes this gets stalled through unspoken expectations and anticipated or unanticipated pressure related to shame. Lets explore this!

I specialize in helping people who are struggling with addiction. I provide a safe, empathic environment that will enable us to build a trusting relationship that you can come to depend on instead of dependency on a substance. Through our relationship, you can learn to explore your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors so that you can learn how to tolerate and regulate them without a substance.

I prefer to steer well clear of the term "addict." Addict is a word that carries the power to define people in a way that does not reflect their own wishes nor come close to reflecting the totality of their lives. My approach is first to recognize the power, and the allure, of the many substances available for abuse. I will be curious to learn about your journey and relationship with substances, and how you hope to see your relationship in the future.

I strongly believe that the first step in overcoming an addiction is to feel supported in a safe and comforting therapeutic environment. Without trust, it is nearly impossible to address the issues, including shame, that so often accompany substance abuse. My approach is to help my clients learn to identify the thoughts and beliefs (often negative thoughts about themselves and their lives) that lead them to turn to drugs or alcohol. Treatment helps the client unlearn old patterns of behavior and to learn new ways of coping with situations and thoughts that may have led them to use substances in the past.

The hardest part of addiction is often the cycle: the relief, the regret, the promise to stop, and then the return — each loop chipping away at your confidence that anything can change. That cycle isn't a sign of weakness; it's a sign that the real need underneath hasn't yet been met another way. Our work goes after that underlying need. Together we'll explore what draws you back — the feelings you're managing, the emptiness or anxiety the substance fills, the parts of your story that haven't been spoken — so the behavior loses its hold from the inside out. Insight on its own isn't magic, but understanding why you reach for it, paired with real support, is what makes lasting change possible.

I do not work with severe drug and alcohol addiction. I work with clients who are able to function, yet finding it becoming more difficult and needing to stop their behavior before they hit bottom. We use cognitive behaviorial techniques to protect them from acting out and build up a support network. We also begin to explore soothing and coping techniques which are needed and missing.

While most treatment approaches to addiction include 12 step programs, rehabs, and now sober living houses, Grey Matters International, Inc. provides a wildly successful alternative to traditional models of addiction treatment----that keeps the brain in mind. That is, talking to the conscious brain while the primal brain is deciding things even before you are consciously aware? Well, that is the problem to solve in addiction. We have the solution utilizing a new cutting edge neuroscience-centered brain rebalancing system. Contact kevin@kevinflemingphd.com or call 877-606-6161.

The transition to young adulthood can be an intense time where teens may become overwhelmed by new feelings. Self-medication through drugs or alcohol is often an attempt by sensitive young people to regulate or avoid uncomfortable feelings. Since individuals who are at high risk of becoming addicted often feel emotionally disconnected from the people in their life, my work focuses on helping my clients create more meaningful connections with their family. I also work with young adults who have completed rehab and are interested in finishing the emotional growth process that got derailed while they were using drugs as a teenager.