Confrontation Vs. Client Centered Treatment in Substance Abuse

Substance abuse comes in many forms, and there are differing views on how to treat the problem.

Substance abuse is a terrifying addiction, both for the person addicted and for his loved ones. Fortunately, there are many effective treatments for addiction. Two approaches to counseling addicts are confrontation and the client-centered approach.

Confrontation

Confrontation is a direct approach to giving patients a wake-up call to their behavior. right direction. image by Valua Vitaly from Fotolia.com

The Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth describes confrontation as "the process by which a therapist provides direct, reality-oriented feedback to a client regarding the client's own thoughts, feelings or behavior." This can vary tremendously from one example to the next in the way in which it is carried out.

Questionable Tool

Confrontation as a therapeutic tool for addiction is a contested tool. you are in big trouble. image by Jake Hellbach from Fotolia.com

Confronting an addict has been a common approach to addiction treatment, but its efficacy has been disputed and implications questioned. Douglas L. Polcin, Ed.D., an instructor in the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley-Extension, maintains that more specific research needs to be done before confrontation as a therapeutic tool is discounted.

Motivation

How an addict views the confronter's motivation is one of the factors that affect the efficacy of the treatment. Confrontation image by Francis Lempérière from Fotolia.com

Douglas L. Polcin, Ed.D., who is also a research psychologist at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics in San Francisco, believes that confronting an addict as a form of treatment can be effective, but that many factors must be carefully handled, such as how the patient views the motivation of the person confronting him.

Client-Centered Approach

Client-centered therapy is based on the belief that the patients have the answers to help themselves. note verte yes image by Guy Pracros from Fotolia.com

The client-centered approach was developed in the 1940s by an American psychologist named Carl Rogers. According to "Psychology Today," the client-centered approach is "based on the empowering idea that the client holds the answers to her problems."

Therapist's Role

The therapist asks helpful questions to allow patients to find their own individual answers that will help them change. question box image by Pete Linforth from Fotolia.com

There is still an essential role for the therapist to play in the client-centered approach. Though the patients may hold the answers for their own recovery, the therapist plays a powerful role in listening and asking questions that can help them reach their own necessary changes.

References

• Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth: Confrontation in Addiction Treatment
• Informa HealthCare: Subtance Use & Misuse
• Psychology Today: Therapeutic Methods