People use substances for reasons.
The reasons matter.
After gently – but directly – identifying the reasons, research offers clear options for next steps.
I offer research-informed counseling, support, and case management services for people with substance use concerns.
Effective counseling for substance use concerns includes:
- Collaborative, co-creation of goals based on your wants, needs, and objectives, from reducing use (harm reduction) to ending use (abstinence).
- Customized schedule of individual and/or group sessions to help you efficiently achieve desired outcomes.
- A humane approach to substance use informed by professional training, personal experience, and continuous learning.
- Research-informed, between-session exercises to help you continue to work on what’s important to you.
- Counseling modalities suggested by research as effective for addiction treatment, summarized in the Surgeon General’s report, Facing Addiction in America, released in November, 2016, and as indicated in subsequent, current research.
- A distillation of the research suggesting what is helpful to most people, most of the time. Here is an overview of my approach. I have also created a brief guide to evidence-informed treatment for substance use disorders and a brief guide for clinicians caring for those with alcohol use disorder.
Individuals may have:
- tried to cut down and been unable to do so.
- been asked by their children, partners, parents, and loved ones to cut down.
- been asked by loved ones, employers, and/or medical professionals to seek counseling.
- been mandated to substance use treatment by the criminal justice system for traffic violations, public intoxication, and/or other violations.
- been mandated to negative urine drug screens by employers, the legal system, child protective services, and/or treatment programs.
- tried intensive outpatient treatment (IOP), rehab, and/or 12-step recovery but continue to have concerns.
- become aware that substance use began after, or was exacerbated by, trauma.
- been diagnosed with serious mental illnesses, including major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and/or personality disorders, and have concurrent substance use issues.
- a need for restorative therapy after enduring confrontation, punishment, shaming, shunning, and the “tough love” methods that we now know from research do not help most people with substance use issues.
- status in their professional, business, or social situations and who need discrete, confidential, private sessions with no notification of third party payers, employers, or others unless directly requested by the client. For Virginia residents, if office visits are undesirable, all sessions can be held via telehealth.
“Love, evidence & respect.”
– Maia Szalavitz’s answer via Twitter to the question, “What fights addiction?”
If what I’m offering speaks to you, I am here to help. If you are a resident of Virginia and would like to become a client, please contact me to request an appointment. I very much look forward to working with you.
When comparing substance use disorder treatment providers, I invite you to compare outcome data. Here’s ours:
- Outcome data, October 1, 2018 – October 1, 2019
- We were unable to track outcomes 2020-2022 because of the pandemic.
“I was in hell,” she said. “And I made a vow: when I get out, I’m going to come back and get others out of here.”
– Marsha Linehan, Ph.D., founder of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), quoted in the New York Times
To request an appointment for individual, partner, or group counseling, please learn more about appointments and fees, then contact me. I will send information via email on how to register as a new client through the client portal.
Last revised 11/21/22
