There are so may de-addiction programs. The focus is on ing the client to keep away from the alcohol or the drug. Typically, such a program will have individual counseling sessions, group process work, peer support and activity based therapies.

But not all programs include a comprehensive treatment which includes pyschotraumatology as part of a comprehensive treatment program.

Painful memories and triggers need to be dealt with. Not with talk therapy alone.   Sometimes talking alone does not always us move beyond the past. This is because memories are stored in the subconscious brain.

EMDR-Eye Movement De-sensitisation Reprocessing s us desensitize ourselves to these memories and also s with the finding an adaptive resolution to the unresolved pain embedded in the subconscious mind.

This must be a part of the therapy mix along with hypnosis another vital tool for emotional recovery. EMDR can be an intensive therapy and clients should not be exposed to it in the earlier part of therapy.

So, I begin with hypnosis. This s clients enter into a state of deep relaxation, calm and suggestions are given in the state of hypnosis to build confidence, calm and receptivity to treatment that will follow and also build an aversion towards alcohol.

As the client is stabilized with clinical hypnosis and also offered ful resources to gain sufficient strength and support to embark on these issues, we embark on meaning centred and existential issues. EMDR is administered for painful memories to the client move with resolution.

Your brain’s reward and pleasure neurotramsmitter is dopamine. And its function is to store pleasurable memories for perceived rewarding behaviours that are useful for survival.

A dysregulation and malfunction of the brain’s reward system results in addiction. An addict perceives feelings of poor reward and pleasure as a serious threat to life.

This is the reason that impaired reasoning occurs because now the strong memories laid down by the dopamine function is designed to maintain the habit for survival.

When this happens, control, regulation and will power have little or no influence. The brain has now created strong neural pathways and dense circuits re-inforcing addictive behaviours to gratify oneself with this circuit in the brain. This is why the only solution is total abstinence.

This is why, building of new neural pathways, new memories that reward recovery and feeling good rather then using the alcohol or substance creates new connections and adaptive memories.

This is known as neuroplasticity. Everytime you practice the same old thought or habit, your brain takes on that behaviour in auto-pilot mode as it creates denser neural connections in that area regulating reward due to the ritual of that addiction. This then overrides reasoning and judgement.

The goal of therapy is to create alternative rewarding experiences. This then requires total abstinence from the addiction in order to allow this process to happen.

We look at cravings, triggers, dysfunctional emotional responses, the recognition of problems that the addiction creates including relationship issues, impulse, reactivity, impaired judgement, etc.,

Addiction has NO cure but it can be managed just like diabetes. Its starts with becoming aware about this pathological pursuit of pleasure and reward.

Therapies such as mindfulness encourages the addict to tolerate negative emotional states because problems will always exist in our lives. Stress tolerance and judgement is highly diminished in alcoholics as alcohol is a depressant. Mindfulness therapy is a potent tool for increasing and expanding awareness and tolerance of negative experiences.

Mindfulness is about owning each moment, owning your own body and not going on this auto-pilot of reward/pleasure/using loop.

The addict is encouraged to notice, without judgement or reactivity and become one-minded in terms of tasks. To live each day as it comes, observing the senses, not getting caught up in worries or memories, but embracing the here and now.

Unresolved conflicts and traumas, setting boundaries, holistic practices such as meditation, the practice of ‘pratyahara’ withdrawal of senses onto one focused task etc will you ‘rewire’ your brain in a more functional and productive way and practice abstinence.

The application of ‘choiceless awareness’ known as pratyahara in Sanskrit or mindfulness in Buddhism s us to relate to our world with equanimity, being able to ‘sit’ with an emotion without involvement, judgement or reactivity..

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy s us to examine the way we think, and how it affects our feelings and behaviours consequently. This is called the ABC model and s us challenge our thinking.

Marginalizing or trivializing problems, relationships and dysfunctional responses to issues is destructive pattern seen in addicts.

Most addiction recovery programs use the Twelve Steps of Recovery:

1. Addiction is a disease and because reasoning faculties have been overridden, it can never be controlled or cured.
2. A higher power, whether it be therapy process in a group of recovering addicts or a spiritual power must be solicited to guide you when in denial.
3. The surrender of oneself to a higher will then will power. This could be a support group, a god or a spiritual practice.
4. Accept and take ownership of the addiction and its contribution in our feelings of resentment, shame, guilt, fear and how we created these situations.
5. Purging ourselves of toxic feelings, secrets and traumatic memories.
6. Give up aggressive, maladaptive, destructive character traits or being too compliant, over compromising or self-sabotaging.
7. Make sincere and humble efforts to recover such as positive visualizations, prayers, meditation, yogic breathing, choiceless awareness, self-compassion and sharing.
8. Seeking foregiveness, making amends, finding closures for all the events that traumatized others due to our actions or to ourselves. Or forgiving oneself and acknowledging our own goodness and purpose in life.
9. Make direct amends whenever appropriate and possible to correct our relationships with regards to past actions.
10. Continue to keep journals of insights to become aware of our faulty thinking and behaviours and then take corrective actions.
11. Pursue meditation and self-development techniques to achieve equanimity and inner equilibrium.
12. To engage in peer support and create a spiritual awakening.

At Inner Compass we you a comprehensive treatment plan. The practice of meditation, mindfulness,EMDR, activating breath is what makes our program comprehensive and unique in addition to the standard deaddiction protocol that most other programs offer.