Top addiction therapists in 94954: Petaluma, CA.

If you are an addict or in a relationship with an addict, you know what an insidious disease this is. Gambling, alcohol, drug, eating disorder, internet, sex, or shopping addiction affects not only the addict, but the addict's family and friends; the grip of addiction is crushing. The manifestation of any addiction is cunning, baffling, and powerful. It feels impossible to live without your drug or behavior of choice and impossible to live with it. If you are the loved one of an addict, you might experience monstrous resentment at them for their behavior. You have probably said or thought, "If they loved me, they would stop." If it were about love, they'd stop. Contact me for a consultation.

Addiction is a mental health condition and I treat addiction by a multi-pronged process predominately from a Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) model. I help my clients understand the reasons they use a substance or engage in an addictive behavior, teach them skills regulate their emotions and tolerance distress that might otherwise lead them to engage in their addiction, and address any underlying issues that contribute to their addiction. I also help clients with with concerns about their substance use or compulsive behavior to avoid developing addictions.

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.