Addiction & Dual Diagnosis Treatment in New Jersey

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a form of talk therapy that helps people identify unhealthy patterns and behaviors and exchange them for healthier ones.

People can become consumed by regretting or reliving past circumstances, but CBT challenges them to be in the present. Sometimes, our circumstances cannot be changed, but our mindset can be.

This mindful approach invites the person to disrupt a negative thought feedback loop. CBT is associated with rapid results. Some of these results include emotional control, more positive coping skills, and a positive thought balance. CBT aims to facilitate your thought pattern and/or behavior change.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

DBT is also a form of talk therapy that helps nudge people towards uncritical self-acceptance.

Some people obsess over criticizing themselves. Negative thoughts multiply until the person is ensnared by their own self-hatred. Suffering through this cycle long enough leaves them unable to self-manage their own emotions or self-monitor troublesome behavior.

The goal of DBT is compassionate self-acceptance. Here, you learn the tools to self-manage your own emotions and practice neutral or positive awareness.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is a therapy that desensitizes a person’s brain to the effects of traumatic memories.

When the brain experiences a traumatic event, it creates neural pathways with accompanying symptoms like anxiety, stress, or depression. Every time the memory is accessed, the brain will revert to the original neural pathway (like a shortcut) and the accompanying symptoms.

EMDR uses audiovisual stimuli to reprogram the sufferer’s brain to create new, desired pathways rather than negative ones. The goal is to adjust your autonomic responses, and EMDR has seen much success in treating people with traumatic experiences.

Experiential Therapy

Experiential Therapy is an active addiction therapy that involves physical activities.

People experience many different emotions when in recovery; sometimes, it’s difficult to focus on all of them. Experiential therapy helps people by letting them engage in a familiar activity. Whether that activity is playing with animals, going on a hike, riding a horse, or painting a landscape, they are supposed to bring peace to the addiction sufferer.

The goal of experiential therapy is to help you safely navigate challenging emotions, memories, and experiences so you can focus on your recovery.

Family Therapy

Family therapy focuses on improving interfamilial relationships to avoid relapse triggers during addiction recovery.

Calcified family dynamics such as explosive (or silent) conflict resolution, emotional distance, bad coping mechanisms, grief, and trauma can be reckoned with in a safe space where the therapist clarifies and illuminates the family’s challenges.

The goal is to improve relationships inside the family to avoid relapse for the addiction sufferer.

Internal Family System (IFS)

IFS therapy is explorative psychotherapy that explores and accepts many different aspects of a person’s personality. The collection of these personality parts is called a “family.” These inner parts are normal to have, yet sometimes, people try to ignore or deflect them. Some of these have names like the “inner child” or the “emotional bully.”

The goal of IFS therapy is to move you toward gentle acceptance of your different parts.

Motivational Interviewing

Motivational interviewing is a psychotherapy that motivates people to change stagnant, unhealthy behaviors.

Sometimes, people need a nudge to move beyond their stagnant mental state into proactive decision-making that promotes health and wellness. They may only be partially aware of the negative effects of their addiction. Successful participants are fully aware of the negative consequences by the end.

The goal of motivational interviewing is for you to take back control of your life and begin practicing healthy behaviors.

Psychodrama

Psychodrama is a role-playing therapy that helps people process difficult memories or emotions.

It qualifies as individual addiction treatment, but it’s always performed in the context of a wider group. Participants will re-enact a story from their own lives, and the others in the group will assume the role of auxiliary characters. They can gain clarity in their own experiences and help others gain clarity in theirs.

The goal of psychodrama is to bring difficult emotions to the surface in a non-threatening, simulated environment.