Family Therapy in Nashville

Home » Services » Family Therapy

Family Therapy in Nashville

If you are looking for family counseling and addiction therapy programs in Nashville, reach out to Nashville Treatment Solutions (NTS) to ask questions and learn as much as possible about your rehab options. Family services are as fundamental to our addiction therapy options as our evidence-based treatments. Want to talk to a caring staff member? Contact us today. Fill out this online form or call (615) 234-9425

You are not alone. You deserve to get help.

Nashville Treatment Solutions is an industry leader in addiction treatment. Our team of top medical experts specialize in dual diagnosis treatment and are committed to ensuring that each patient is treated as an individual. Call us today, we’re available 24/7.

Tour Our Nashville Rehab Facility

OUR TAILOR-MADE APPROACH

The Effects of Addiction on Family Members

The fall-out of addiction within a family can be great. Poor or circular communication, financial challenges, feelings of loss, grief, fear, and general family chaos will affect everyone in the immediate circle. Below are some concerns for different family roles when someone suffers from a SUD.

Children

About 13% of children live with at least one parent with a substance use disorder. What having a parent who suffers from addiction means to children is that they are missing a critical piece of their safety net. The risks are: Lack of security – a fundamental need, especially for children, Role reversal – the child taking on parenting roles, and Uncertainty – the environment and parent are unpredictable, which is scary.

Parents

When parents have a child who has a substance use disorder, their worry is on hyper drive. Feelings of powerlessness, guilt, and fear are overwhelming, while at the same time, they must safeguard themselves and their child. Some parents struggle to admit to an addiction. They may enable, make excuses, and refuse to see the truth. These parents can’t hold their children accountable, and the child becomes dependent, often on financial support, legal intervention, and image-polishing. Other parents are so afraid they become controlling. Since true control of another’s behavior is impossible, this response distracts from the goal of getting real help.

Siblings

The siblings of people who suffer from addiction are often sidelined as the rest of the family deals with the addicted sister or brother. They feel invisible and are at risk for numerous negative outcomes, such as turning to substance abuse to re-enter the parents’ awareness, taking risks to distract them from what’s happening or out of a feeling of self-hatred, or disappearing, literally and/or figuratively.

Family Therapy Programs in Addiction Rehab

Most reputable addiction rehab facilities offer addiction recovery programs that include family counseling. The proven benefits to the person in rehab and the entire family are significant. Family engagement in family services reduces the risk of relapse and is more likely to inspire the family to do what it takes to support the recovery journey.

What to expect in a family therapy program:

Learning the truth about family dynamics. How do the behavior patterns work within the family unit? Knowing how each person reacts and thinks about the addicted family member as well as each other’s responses to that person helps break dysfunctional behaviors and put an end to overly enabling or overly harsh responses.
Improving communications. Once you understand the family dynamics, it will be easier to see how communications work, from simple two-word throwaway comments to family meetings and conflicts. In family counseling, you can learn healthy communication methods rooted in empathy and love instead of fear and blame.
Establish trust. Chances are trust is eroded if not gone. Trust is an early casualty when someone in the family has a SUD because lying, stealing, outbursts, and dangerous behaviors shatter it. The person with the SUD may not trust the family due to many years of broken connections and unproductive, even harmful, dynamics.
Boundary setting. It is possible to love with all your heart and still create healthy boundaries that make enabling and co-dependency less likely. Boundaries also build trust and help people feel safe.