Addictions counselling
Understanding the patterns that keep pulling you back.
Are you looking for hope of recovery and a way forward from an addiction? At New Hope Counselling Centre, we take a whole-person approach to understanding the patterns that keep you feeling stuck.
Together, we can explore the behaviour, the feelings connected with it and the effect it is having on your health, relationships and everyday life.
Looking at the whole person
Addiction can affect many areas of life. Our approach looks at the wider picture, including the experiences, needs and patterns that may be connected with the behaviour.
Depending on your situation, counselling may include:
- Finding a more balanced lifestyle and setting healthy boundaries
- Exploring the place of nutrition, movement and day-to-day routines in your wellbeing
- Working through trauma and other painful experiences
- Understanding cravings, triggers and repeated patterns
- Developing calming and stress-release practices
- Considering spiritual practices, such as meditation, when relevant to you
- Individual counselling and the role of family support
- Exploring the Feeling-State Addiction Protocol (FSAP)
Our aim is to understand the issues beneath the behaviour as well as its effects in the present. Your participation, choices and willingness to work on change are an important part of the process.
Concerns we can explore
People seek help for substance use and for behaviours that feel repetitive, difficult to control or costly in their lives. Concerns we can explore include:
- Alcohol and drugs
- Shopping and spending
- Pornography and sexual behaviour
- Gambling
- Eating and food-related concerns
- Internet use
- Work
- Romantic relationship patterns
These concerns are not all the same. Talking about what is happening for you is a starting point for considering the help that fits your needs.
Understanding the pattern
A behaviour may become connected with a feeling a person wants to experience again: being loved, accepted, powerful, successful or part of a group. A person may seek the feeling even when the behaviour brings regret or harm afterward.
For example, gambling may become linked with the feeling of being a winner, or drinking with a sense of belonging. A smell, sound, place, thought or memory may then bring that connection to mind and prompt an urge to repeat the behaviour.
The feeling-state perspective
The Feeling-State Theory of Addictions describes a connection between a desired feeling and a behaviour. This is one way of exploring a person’s experience rather than a single explanation for every addiction.
In counselling, we can look at the cycle: what triggers the urge, what feeling is being sought, what happens during the behaviour and what follows afterward.
FSAP and related concerns
FSAP stands for Feeling-State Addiction Protocol. Its focus is the link between a desired feeling and a repeated behaviour. The work involves identifying the particular feeling and behaviour involved and addressing that connection.
It is also important to look at other concerns in a person’s life, including trauma, anxiety and attention difficulties. Our goal is to understand the whole picture and consider what support is needed.
The appropriate approach and pace depend on your circumstances. Counselling begins with understanding your needs rather than promising a particular outcome.
Questions about alcohol use
The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) explores patterns of alcohol use. The following questions can help you prepare for a conversation with a qualified health professional. They do not diagnose addiction.
- How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?
- How many alcoholic drinks do you have on a typical day when you are drinking?
- How often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion?
- How often during the past year have you found that you drank more or for a longer time than you intended?
- How often during the past year have you failed to do what was normally expected of you because of your drinking?
- How often during the past year have you had a drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session?
- How often during the past year have you felt guilty or remorseful after drinking?
- How often during the past year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because of your drinking?
- Have you or anyone else been injured as a result of your drinking?
- Has a relative, friend, doctor or health care worker been concerned about your drinking, or suggested that you cut down?
If you are concerned about any of your answers, bring them to a conversation with a health professional. You do not need a particular score to ask for help.
