Supportive expressive therapy is a little-used alcohol addiction treatment method that relies wholly on counseling and guiding the patient to recover from an alcohol habit and live with sobriety. This method works very well on patients who are not into a very severe addiction.
If there are signs of severe addiction, then entering into the therapy may cause withdrawal symptoms, for which the therapy would then be supplemented with an alcohol rehab treatment program.The main principle of the supportive expressive therapy is to make the patient talk. This is a very important part in the treatment of alcoholism. Most patients are reluctant to talk, due to which other people cannot understand their emotions or their needs. As a result, these people have to face through several depressing conditions in life which pushes them further into their alcohol addiction. But in this therapy, the person is encouraged to give a voice to his or her feelings and emotions, so that concerned people can understand what is lacking in the person’s life and make amends.
Conversation with an expert therapist will also make the patient realize the futility and the danger of being in the alcohol abuse. Subsequently, the patient will build a desire to combat the addiction within himself or herself. The patient will probe methods to keep away from the addiction, like staying away from high risk environments, for example.
Supportive expressive therapy works excellently because it makes the patient realize about the potential harm that the alcohol addiction can cause. It goes a long way in bringing the patient permanently back to sober living.