Addictions and Substance Abuse Counseling

Once the assessment and treatment planning phase are complete and diagnosis is established, the individual treatment begins. Clinician and client discuss how often the individual sessions will take place. Usually at the beginning of treatment, the individual sessions are more frequent due to the acuity of the problem, but as clients stabilize and gain knowledge and effective coping skills, the frequency can be reduced. The sessions are usually 50 minutes in length. Part of the session deals with discussing issues or barriers that clients experience in the process of recovery and the other part of the session deals with introduction of new information and material that clients can use to better cope with life.