The traditional form of addiction treatment is centered on the individual. People who are struggling with addiction will attend a personalized addiction treatment program that focuses on personal coping mechanisms, emotional regulation, and replacing negative patterns of behavior with positive ones. While this is all beneficial, it only helps the individual recover.
Oftentimes, patients relapse when they leave the comfort and safety of a treatment facility. While there are several reasons why this happens, one major barrier for sustaining sobriety after treatment is a lack of family involvement in recovery. While some addiction treatment centers include family therapy sessions, the amount of family involvement dwindles over time. Additionally, most of the family counseling provided in traditional rehab settings focuses on showing the patient they have familial support.
While familial support is vital to an individual’s sobriety, the family’s foundation for recovery is of equal importance. When families work together in recovery it increases an individual’s chance of creating a solid foundation of well-rounded and long-term sobriety. In other words, families need a long-term approach to treating the disease of addiction.
Thankfully, this “long-term approach” already exists – and it’s referred to as Structured Family RecoveryⓇ.
Over 80% of the general population attending addiction treatment relapses within the first year. This means that only 20% remain sober. However, doctors and medical professionals who have struggled with addiction have a recovery rate of 80%.
What is the difference? Why are doctors recovering at such a larger rate than the general population? The answer is Structured Family RecoveryⓇ. The physician’s health program utilizes this approach as it’s described in Debra Jay’s book, “It Takes a Family”.
This approach to addiction treatment utilizes eight essential elements of recovery, which include:
By utilizing the eight steps of SFR in traditional treatment settings, recovery rates can rise. Rather than only treating the individual, the whole family completes a structured program of personal and collective growth. This helps to foster healing, communication, emotional intelligence, and mutual respect among the entire family. As a result, a sense of accountability is felt by each family member, encouraging them to better themselves each day. In other words, the family begins to work as a team to recover from addiction, which teaches them to work together in future issues that arise as well.
It is widely accepted that addiction is a family disease, as it affects every member of the family. This means that when an individual attends addiction treatment, their family should also receive treatment to recover from the impact addiction has had on them. While addiction is neither the individual’s nor the family’s fault, each person within a family must make personal changes to support the process of recovery.
SFR is a weekly program that enables recovery, where everyone becomes a part of the solution. Each family member will be asked to focus on himself or herself throughout treatment. This highlights the need for each member of the family to recover personally for the family to heal as a whole.
SFR requires one meeting a week and one phone call per week. To ensure that the entire family can participate in treatment, SFR utilizes a conference calling system. This meeting eliminates the need for office visits and travel, allowing each family member to fully focus on recovering. Each call includes education, discussion, and planning that helps to prevent relapse, create trust, end enabling behaviors, and rebuild healthy relationships within the family.
Michael Herbert, The Recovery Guide, has more than 30 years of experience working closely with individuals and families dealing with addiction and recovery issues. He is a seasoned Coach and can help you and your family establish long-term goals and access the tools you need for continued abstinence and recovery for the entire family. Get in touch with Michael today at 561-221-7677 to schedule an appointment.
