Common Questions About Therapy, Addiction and More

How can I tell if I need psychotherapy or counseling?
Does it matter what type of therapist I go to?
What is chemical dependency?
What is the most enjoyable part of being a therapist?
What is self-harm? Is it treatable?
What is mindfulness? How does it help with depression, anxiety, addiction or other issues?

How can I tell if I need psychotherapy or counseling?
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If you are feeling tired, depressed, ill-tempered or anxious about parts of your life, you will probably benefit from therapy. If your fear, anxiety or addictions are interfering with your life, it is likely you need therapy. Other indicators include trouble sleeping or eating. If you have the desire to hurt yourself, or are engaging in some type of self-harm, you need therapy as soon as possible. Those with disorders such as PTSD are often surprised by how therapy can help them live a better life day to day, and in a relatively short amount of time.

Does it matter what type of therapist I go to?
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Research shows that it is not the theoretical orientation of the therapist that matters as much as the warmth and the quality of the patient-therapist relationship in terms of patient and therapy outcome. Your best bet is to find a therapist you like, and can personally relate to and find a connection with. I tend to draw from a variety of types of therapy in my practice, depending on the patient and their needs, including mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), cognitive-behavioral therapy, and psychoanalytic therapy modalities.

What is chemical dependency?
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The chronic use of chemical substances in which the individual has developed a tolerance (when an individual needs more of the substance to get the same effect) and experiences withdrawal symptoms (physical symptoms manifested by the body needing the substance to feel normal again). A chemically dependent person is unable to stop drinking or taking a particular mood-altering chemical despite serious health, economic, legal, spiritual, vocational and social consequences.

The term "Chemical Dependency" is often used interchangeably with the terms: chemically dependent, chemical dependence, alcoholism, addiction, substance abuse, substance dependence, drug habit, and drug addiction.

What is the most enjoyable part of being a therapist?
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I love talking with people for a living and being able to help imrpove their lives. People let you into their hearts and minds, and what you find there is always touching and fascinating. Some might be surprised to learn that you also get to learn a lot about yourself while counseling others.

What is self-harm? Is it treatable?
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Self-harm is deliberate infliction of tissue damage or alteration to oneself. Self-harm is not done with suicidal intent, but is severe enough to cause physical injury. Cutting, burning, head-banging, and severe scratching are examples of self-harm, which is also referred to as self-injury, deliberate self-harm, parasuicidal behavior, or self-mutilation.

Brian Edwards, MFT is a certified Seeking Safety clinician. Seeking Safety is a present-focused therapy to help people attain safety from substance abuse, symptoms of PTSD, and self-harm.

The key principles of Seeking Safety are:

1) Safety as the overarching goal (helping clients attain safety in their relationships, thinking, behavior, and emotions).
2) Integrated treatment (working on both PTSD and substance abuse at the same time)
3) A focus on ideals to counteract the loss of ideals in both PTSD and substance abuse
4) Four content areas: cognitive, behavioral, interpersonal, case management
5) Attention to clinician processes (helping clinicians work on countertransference, self-care, and other issues)

Source: SeekingSafety.org

What is mindfulness? How does it help with depression, anxiety, addiction and other issues?
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Mindfulness is a learned skill that involves becoming completely in touch with and aware of the present moment, as well as taking a non-evaluative and non-judgmental approach to your inner experience. The term originates from Eastern spiritual and religious traditions like Zen Buddhism, however, mindfulness can have many benefits for people suffering from difficulties such as chemical dependency, anxiety and depression. Some of the ways it helps include:

• When one feels depressed, they lose touch with what is going on around them. As if they were stuck with tunnel vision, they may not know how they got depressed, or how to escape the bad feelings they are experiencing. Many turn to drugs or other unhealthyor abusive outlets to escape these types of uncomfortable feelings. Mindfulness can help them see the patterns of the mind, and can help them see the bigger picture, so they stop feeling trapped and helpless.
  
  
• Low mood cand depression also tends to make people focus on the past or worry about the future. Mindfulness helps to halt the escalation of these negative thoughts and teaches them how to focus on the present moment.
  
  
• Often, people who have experienced depression or anxiety before become very fearful of experiencing those feelings again. Mindfulness aleviates this fear by developing their willingness to experience emotions and their capacity to manage painful or uncomforable emotions. This, in turn, builds confidence, as they are no longer in fear of their moods or battling them, but instead, can view them from a different perspective.