TRAUMA-INFORMED COUNSELLING AND DRUG ADDICTION

Abstract

Globally, it is not uncommon to hear that an individual who has suffered a traumatic experience now struggles with addiction. Too often, trauma leads to alcoholism or drug abuse. This paper focuses on trauma-informed counselling and drug addiction. Trauma-informed counselling involves the counsellor applying some useful skills and professional qualities, such as empathic skill, opening
skill, nonjudgmental and steadiness to assist the individual understand the happening and help them reduce the causes of the trauma to avoid reoccurrence. Thus, some of the types include complex trauma, chronic trauma and secondary trauma, among others. The therapeutic measures used by counsellors in handling trauma discussed in the paper include cognitive behavioural therapy,
exposure therapy and group therapy. The types of drugs commonly used include depressants, narcotics, cocaine and nicotine. The roles of counselling focused on healing the clients and their nervous system by helping them learn how to respond to current events in a manner that is not conditional, and to help clients learn the origin of the problem and adopt strategies that can assist them in changing their current behaviour. The paper recommended that counsellors should have knowledge of diversity of skills, techniques and therapies on how people differently react to traumatic events, and that the counsellors should put to practice ethics of their profession and qualities in handling traumatized clients for proper counselling.