Alcohol and drug addiction counselling is an important part of many treatment programs in rehab centres across the world. There are many different counselling approaches and frameworks. Counselling is usually conducted within the auspices of the mental health model of addiction. Addiction is seen as an illness that can be treated through a combination of techniques and strategies. Counsellors in a residential treatment programs will usually have a “favourite” style of counselling but be aware of other frameworks and paradigms. This helps them to adapt their technique to suit the individual and not become bound in rigid methodolatry. A drug addiction rehab may employ counsellors from different frameworks in an effort to broaden the skill set of its team.

Relapse Prevention counselling is a cognitive-behavioural therapy used in addiction treatment centers. It was originally developed for the treatment of problem drinking but was later adapted for cocaine addicts. Cognitive-behavioural strategies are based on the theory that learning processes play a critical role in the development of maladaptive behavioural patterns. Individuals learn to identify and correct problematic behaviors. Relapse prevention encompasses several cognitive-behavioural strategies that facilitate abstinence as well as provide help for people who experience relapse.

The relapse prevention approach to the treatment of cocaine addiction consists of a collection of strategies intended to enhance self-control. Specific techniques include exploring the positive and negative consequences of continued use, self-monitoring to recognise drug cravings early on and to identify high-risk situations for use and developing strategies for coping with and avoiding high-risk situations and the desire to use.

A central element of this treatment is anticipating the problems patients are likely to meet and helping them develop effective coping strategies. Research indicates that the skills individuals learn through relapse prevention therapy remain after the completion of treatment. In one study, most people receiving this cognitive-behavioural approach maintained the gains they made in treatment throughout the year following treatment.

The Matrix Model of drug addiction counselling is being promoted to drug rehab clinics in South Africa as a viable treatment paradigm. It provides a systematic framework for engaging stimulant abusers in treatment and helping them achieve abstinence. Patients learn about issues critical to addiction and relapse, receive direction and support from a trained therapist, become familiar with self-help programs and are monitored for drug use by urine testing. The program includes education for family members affected by the addiction. The therapist functions simultaneously as teacher and coach, creating a positive, encouraging relationship with the patient and using that relationship to reinforce positive behaviour change. The interaction between the therapist and the patient is realistic and direct but not confrontational or parental. Therapists are trained to conduct treatment sessions in a way that promotes the patient’s self-esteem, dignity and self-worth. A positive relationship between patient and therapist is a critical element for patient retention.

Treatment materials proposed for addiction rehabilitation (rehab) programs draw heavily on other tested treatment approaches. Thus, this approach includes elements pertaining to the areas of relapse prevention, family and group therapies, drug education and self-help participation. Detailed treatment manuals contain work sheets for individual sessions; other components include family educational groups, early recovery skills groups, relapse prevention groups, conjoint sessions, urine tests, 12-step programs, relapse analysis and social support groups.

A number of projects have demonstrated that participants treated in an addictions treatment clinic with the Matrix model demonstrate statistically significant reductions in drug and alcohol use, improvements in psychological indicators and reduced risky sexual behaviors associated with HIV transmission. These reports, along with evidence suggesting comparable treatment response for methamphetamine users and cocaine users and demonstrated efficacy in enhancing naltrexone treatment of opiate addicts, provide a body of empirical support for the use of the model. Supportive-Expressive Psychotherapy is a time-limited, focused psychotherapy that has been adapted for heroin- and cocaine-addicted individuals. The therapy has two main components:

• Supportive techniques to help patients feel comfortable in discussing their personal experiences.
• Expressive techniques to help patients identify and work through interpersonal relationship issues.

Special attention is paid to the role of drugs in relation to problem feelings and behaviors and how problems may be solved without recourse to drugs. The efficacy of individual supportive-expressive psychotherapy has been tested with patients in methadone maintenance treatment who had psychiatric problems. In a comparison with patients receiving only drug counselling, both groups fared similarly with regard to opiate use but the supportive-expressive psychotherapy group had lower cocaine use and required less methadone. Also, the patients who received supportive-expressive psychotherapy main-tained many of the gains they had made. In an earlier study, supportive-expressive psychotherapy, when added to drug counselling, improved outcomes for opiate addicts in metha-done treatment with moderately severe psychiatric problems.

Individualised Drug Counselling focuses directly on reducing or stopping the addict’s illicit drug use. It also addresses related areas of impaired functionins such as employment status, illegal activity, family/social relation as well as the content and structure of the patient’s recovery program. Through its emphasis on short-term behavioural goals, individualised drug counselling helps the patient develop coping strategies and tools for abstaining from drug use and then maintaining abstinence. The addiction counsellor encourages 12-step participation and makes referrals for needed supplemental medical, psychiatric, employment and other services. Individuals are encouraged to attend sessions at the drug rehab clinic one or two times per week.

In a study that compared opiate addicts receiving only methadone to those receiving methadone coupled with counselling, individuals who received only methadone showed minimal improvement in reducing opiate use. The addition of counselling produced significantly more improvement. The addition of onsite medical/psychiatric, employment and family services further improved outcomes. In another study with cocaine addicts, individualised drug counselling, together with group drug counselling, was quite effective in reducing cocaine use. Thus, it appears that this approach has great utility with both heroin and cocaine addicts in outpatient treatment.

Motivational Enhancement Therapy is a client-centered counselling approach for initiating behaviour change by helping clients to resolve ambivalence about engaging in treatment and stopping drug use. This approach employs strategies to evoke rapid and internally motivated change in the client rather than guiding the client stepwise through the recovery process. This therapy consists of an initial assessment battery session, followed by two to four individual treatment sessions with a therapist. The first treatment session focuses on providing feedback generated from the initial assessment battery to stimulate discussion regarding personal substance use and to elicit self-motivational statements.

Motivational interviewing principles are used to strengthen motivation and build a plan for change. Coping strategies for high-risk situations are suggested and discussed with the client. In subsequent sessions, the therapist monitors change, reviews cessation strategies being used and continues to encourage commitment to change or sustained abstinence. Clients are sometimes encouraged to bring a significant other to sessions. This approach has been used successfully with alcoholics and with marijuana-dependent individuals. Behavioural Therapy for Adolescents incorporates the principle that unwanted behaviour can be changed by clear demonstration of the desired behaviour and consistent reward of incremental steps toward achieving it while in a drug rehab addiction treatment program. Therapeutic activities include fulfilling specific assignments, rehearsing desired behaviors and recording and reviewing progress with praise and privileges given for meeting assigned goals. Urine samples are collected regularly to monitor drug use while in residential addiction treatment. The therapy aims to equip the patient to gain three types of control:

• Stimulus Control helps patients avoid situations associated with drug use and learn to spend more time in activities incompatible with drug use.
• Urge Control helps patients recognise and change thoughts, feelings and plans that lead to drug use.
• Social Control involves family members and other people important in helping patients avoid drugs. A parent or significant other attends treatment sessions when possible and assists with therapy assignments and reinforcing desired behavior.

According to research studies, this therapy helps adolescents become drug free and increases their ability to remain drug free after treatment ends. Adolescents also show improvement in several other areas employment/school attendance, family relationships, depression, institutionalization and alcohol use. Such favorable results are attributed largely to including family members in therapy and rewarding drug abstinence as verified by urinalysis.

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