Online Alcoholism & Addiction Counselling

There’s a campaign being run in the UK right now to improve access to talking therapies (like counselling, psychologists etc.). At the moment, waiting lists for NHS funded help can be up to 18 months. This is just not acceptable.

The government is holding a funding review very shortly - so a group of UK charities (including the Mental Health Foundation, Mind, and the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health) have organised an online petition asking for more funding to be made available for this area.

If you’re a UK resident then please sign it now at www.weneedtotalk.org.uk/petition.asp

Update - This petition has now been presented to the government.

The UK National Health Service has officially recognised the effectiveness of online therapy.

Cognitive Therapy is now being offered via private chatroom as part of the NHS services, in an attempt to provide for people who find it difficult to come to a clinic for conventional counselling.

An online chatroom can be used as a private space where a person can get support and therapeutic help from a professional. This is especially useful for people with alcohol or addiction problems, who may be too embarrassed to see a therapist or counsellor face to face. You don’t have to take time to get to someone’s clinic, they can come to you via your computer.

In all other respects, the nature of online therapy or counselling is the same - the same techniques are used, the same issues dealt with. If you’re not sure how this would actually help, read more about how online therapy works.

The cognitive therapy approach to addiction counselling is not concerned with analysing your childhood, or finding out if you have an ‘addictive personality‘, nor does it force you into a one-size-fits-all step by step solution, like Alcoholics Anonymous does.

An alcohol problem is not just a habitual behaviour, but also a habitual way of thinking. So the cognitive approach to counselling offers you a way of understanding how your thoughts influence your feelings, and how both of these might cause your problems. You can begin to see what the individual elements are which make up your addiction.

Once you’re more informed about yourself (rather than just acting on auto-pilot - the ‘habit’), then you can make changes in the way you think about your life, about yourself, about alcohol. But only the changes that you choose to make, you will not be instructed what to change, because at the end of the day you know yourself better than any counsellor or therapist does.

Of course there are some techniques and tricks which have been found to help - ways of changing your habits, and you may be given some suggestions if you ask for them. But counselling is about helping you to redevelop your strengths so you can solve your own problems. It’s not about being given a set of answers, it’s about discovering your own.

You will probably want to make changes to your behaviour too - modifications to your lifestyle so that you can deal with anxiety, ease your depression, or cope with stress a bit more easily. So that you can relax without a drink, so you can find healthier, more productive ways to spend your time.

As a combined approach, counselling and cognitive therapy cover the internal aspects of your addiction and will help you to change your behaviour too.

Get in touch with us now.