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We began our
professional treatment of alcoholics and their
families in residential Addiction Counseling
programs in the early 1970's during the birth of the addiction
treatment movement. It was an exciting time. Alcoholics who had heretofore been required to hit "rock bottom" in jails, medical-surgical wards, and state psychiatric hospitals
were now being treated with dignity and respect
in units designed specifically for Counseling on Addiction.
Over the years,
residential Counseling for Addiction would help
to raise the bottom that the substance dependent
person would have to hit. Residential treatment could
educate its patients and their families about the destructive
nature of their substance abuse and introduce
them to sobriety. However, the individual would
only learn to remain sober through the practice
of the 12 Steps in all their affairs and that challenge of "living
sober" would only really begin after discharge.
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Feeling Guide Through A Personal Inventory - 4th
Step Guide
by John & Elaine Leadem
This guide is intended to provide
you with emotional and spiritual support as you progress
through the completion of your 4th Step. The format used
is appropriate for individuals in all 12 Step fellowships
not just those whose focus is counseling on addiction.
Find
this and other books in our Self-Help
Store
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Aftercare
services sprung up to provide additional support to the
newcomer and his/her family as they returned home to the myriad
of problems which all of us face in early recovery.
Although it is right and necessary that the newcomer be the most
important person, few professional resources were available for
those who were no longer struggling to stay away from the first
drink.
Leadem
Counseling & Consulting Services, P.C. was developed with the unmet therapeutic needs of the seasoned
recovering community in mind.
The individual
in need of Counseling for Addiction will face
a great many challenges that can threaten their emotional and
spiritual well being. It can be difficult to acknowledge the severity
of our distress when others expect us to be "more sober"
than we are at the time. We have been trapped in the "wellness
contest" which left us pretending that we were "OK" when we really were not.
We
believe that advent of cyber sexual opportunities on the internet
has catapulted Sexual Addiction into the role
of the fastest growing threat to an individual's physical, emotional,
and spiritual well-being. Counseling on Addiction
must not ignore sexual addiction.
It matters little
whether you are the addicted person or someone
who cares about one. The devastating cost to the human quality
of life has moved sexual addiction
into public attention through the exposition of public figures
but the problem is not one which targets the wealthy or the famous.
The problems associated with sexual addiction
and sexual anorexia will undermine therapy if not addressed. The
threads of the disorder can found in struggling marriages, financial
mismanagement, chaotic families, chronic alcoholism
and drug abuse relapse, and criminal consequences,
to name but a few. Many who have undergone Counseling
for Addiction have had these problems ignored by treatment
professional. It is time to look beyond the single addiction
model of the 70's.
We
acknowledge the adage that "pain is the touchstone of all
spiritual progress" but we want to help our clients to appreciate
that "the misery is optional," and the life was never
intended to be an endurance contest.
If
we can help, please let us know.
Sincerely
Elaine, John, & Shawn Leadem |
