Working with a patient who wants to be diagnosed with alcohol addiction and get possible help, such as: addiction therapy, requires focusing special attention on the consciousness and identity that the Patient has. Establishing a therapeutic bond with the Patient is an absolute condition for any further therapeutic work in the field of diagnosing addiction and its effective treatment.
The author of the article – Sławomir Poniatowski – works with addicts in individual therapy and at the Camel Addiction Treatment Centre in Iława.
First meeting of the Patient with the Therapist
Patients who first contact a given therapist tend to confabulate, hide emotions, feelings and reasons for considering therapy or talk excessively about everything that seems important to them. The key task of the therapist is to properly assess the awareness that the Patient has regarding their mental and physical health, which will allow for obtaining the knowledge necessary to make a preliminary diagnosis of the Patient's addiction.
The first conversation with the Patient includes, among other things, standard questions that allow for the identification of a possible alcohol addiction concerning: the amount, frequency, concentration and type of substances consumed and the observed damage and losses incurred as a result of consumption. In the first contact with the therapist, patients often focus on the direct causes (events, conflicts, traumatic experiences) that led to the meeting, which made the Patient start to wonder about their identity. It is extremely important that the therapist allows the Patient to tell what directly prompted them to make the decision regarding the meeting.
The fact that a Patient addicted to alcohol becomes aware of his or her health condition is a necessary condition for further therapeutic work.
Therapeutic bond is created when the patient entrusts the therapist with their problem, shares information about what is important to them, what they feel and think about themselves. In the first contact with the patient, it is also necessary to assess what knowledge the patient has about the addiction itself, whether they have undergone treatment in the past and with what results, how they evaluate the previous contact with the therapist and what expectations they have from the current meeting.
Beginning of therapeutic work with an addicted person
To sum up – the first meeting of the Patient with the Therapist should allow for a preliminary diagnosis of the Patient’s addiction and further work with the Patient, the form of this work, the type of recommended therapy, and often also the determination of other forms of assistance. My personal experience indicates that the first stage of work with the Patient, which is a necessary beginning of therapeutic work, is to determine the Patient’s awareness. Gaining awareness of the Patient’s health condition by an alcohol-dependent Patient is a necessary condition for further therapeutic work.
mgr Sławomir Poniatowski
Addiction and co-dependency treatment therapist
He works at Camel Addiction Treatment Center in Iława
www.osrodekcamel.pl
Sławomir Poniatowski is a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, completed in 1998 with the defense of his master's thesis at the Department of Labor Law. The author's professional work was concentrated in Social Welfare Centers, including the District Crisis Intervention Center in Sochaczew, the Municipal Social Welfare Center in Sochaczew, the District Family Assistance Center in Malbork and other Centers, where the author's tasks included, among others, participation in proceedings involving alcohol addicts, editing strategies and programs for counteracting alcohol addiction and counteracting domestic violence. In 2016, he started running a business under the name of Legal Advisor's Office, which he currently runs as a crisis intervention point. Mr. Sławomir works with addicts in individual therapy and at the Camel Addiction Treatment Center in Iława.
He also runs a blog for addicts and co-dependents: crisisinterventionlawyertherapist.blogspot.com
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