Addiction Therapists in Harrison, NJ.

I help my clients become aware of how they protect against their feelings. These are called addictions We can use anything as an addiction if our intention is to avoid our feelings or to use something to make us feel worthy. I can help you manage the loneliness, helplessness and heartbreak that you may be avoiding with your addictions. Once you know you can handle your feelings then you no longer have to protect against them and can let go of your addiction.

You went after work to hang out with friends. You had some drinks or you got high. Everything was fine in the beginning until you noticed that just stopping was no longer easy. I believe that people can reduce or completely stop. The choice is yours to make. There are consequences to working me; you may decide you don't need to be high or drunk to enjoy yourself.

Overall, I treat addiction much like I would treat any other crisis. I would do addiction assessment to make sure I'm the right person to treat you. I'd identify triggers, what makes you more likely to repeat the addictive behavior. I can work with substance use and sex addiction. My general belief is that addiction is a way that people avoid dealing with other people and their problems. It can be a learned behavior. In order to stop doing the offensive behavior, it is important to focus on what you do want to do. This is the process of recovery, and I will do my best to facilitate this.

Addiction can be a powerful driver of actions and thoughts that can disrupt your life and those of your loved ones. As a therapist that specializes in work with couples but also works with individuals, my goal is to help you understand the roots and triggers of your addiction so that I can give you the tools to adjust and modify your behavior. When you're ready to become the best possible version of yourself, let's talk.

This is an area of treatment where I have seen many miracles. Successfully moving beyond substance dependence and abuse is not a matter of will power and character. Paradoxically, being strong willed and independent can work against recovery; addictions are very 'sticky' and five decades of research and experience confirms that attempting to keep them in check without help does not work. Twelve step programs (AA, NA, CA, etc) are the ‘gold standard’ of recovery, and are tried and true methods of achieving lasting abstinence. I possess a strong 12 Step program background, but know that not everybody can walk into a meeting and feel at home. Come for a consultation and see what is possible.

I will help you find freedom from your compulsive and addictive behaviors. Leveraging a solutions-focused approach via an 8-session curriculum to help men understand and overcome sex and porn addiction, or compulsive sexual behavior disorder. We will discuss problem definition, solution creation via the miracle exercise, understanding control through understanding internal/external variable assessment, brain mapping, identity, sustainable sobriety, defense mechanisms and ultimately determining what fix your compulsive behavior is delivering.

There are all kinds of addictions, from substance abuse to internet pornography. In each case, the bottom line is that a person is dealing with feelings of depression, anger or anxiety in a destructive way. They drink, gamble or look at pornography whenever they feel stress, but do not face the feelings that are causing the stress and work through them. I encourage addicts to make use of 12-step programs in combination with psychotherapy. When they stop denying and commit themselves to both, they quickly make progress.

The purpose of Addiction Counseling is to help the client identify for him or herself if there is an addiction present. If this is the case, a variety of cognitive behavioral techniques are utilized as well as mindfulness exercises to help with focusing and how to cope with difficult emotions in healthy ways to become abstinent. In addition, there is a focus on stengths, and what the client has done in the past to abstain from using the substance of choice. Thus, the client can try and implement at least some of these techniques again and stay away from triggers and past negative behaviors that led to relapse. There is also focus on self-esteem building and how to prevent relapse in the future once the client is abstinent.

I began my career working outpatient with alcoholics, addicts, and their families. Though I believe that the 12 steps offer a full and complete basis for recovery, I also acknowledge that the help of a professional can be beneficial as well, particularly in early recovery or at later stages when life gets very "real". In early recovery, the information can be overwhelming, and having a professional to help sort things out is super helpful. In later recovery, we often develop some unrealistic expectations that need to be right-sized.