Alcohol & Substance Use Counselling

Info & Counselling Approach

Can’t stop once you start? Know deep down your not just unwinding anymore, but avoiding or neglecting something deeper and more important through drinking or other substances?

If you need someone to talk to when the party isn’t fun anymore, I’m here

We live in such a funny world. There’s these things to drink and eat that can take our experience to another level, or make us forget about our problems or worries for a day, or just be downright enjoyable depending on what lights you up.

But then we also have these bodies and minds with needs of their own. Needs for balance and rest and honesty and care. And sometimes drinking or whatever else you might turn to unwind after a hard week, or let loose and have a good time, stop being that for us. And that can be hard to come to terms with, let alone figure out or change.

I know this firsthand. I come to my work as a substance use counsellor with as much lived wisdom as clinical training. And I’d like to think talking to someone who knows not only what it’s like to have coped with alcohol for many years, but also to have put drinking firmly in their rear view mirror, could be hopeful and helpful for anyone else struggling to get their self back from the push and pull of things that numb and distract us.

I terms of counselling for substance use concerns and recovery, I use motivational interviewing, narrative and self-compassion focused approaches as well a tools for sustainable habit retraining. I take a trauma informed, and harm reduction stance. This means I don’t see drinking/drug use as a bad habit, personal failing, or sign of weakness. I know it works to mask symptoms of anxiety, help you forget about past hurts, give you a boost of confidence and/or to pull you out of boredom when nothing else seems to. That’s why it has the power it does to take over our life.

I take all of this into consideration in terms of how I work with your substance use needs, and more importantly YOU in counselling. We’ll look at why your relationship with whatever substance you’re struggling with is the way it is, help you stop judging yourself for that, and then figure out what seems like a reasonable next step for you. Getting completely sober or even making any immediate changes doesn’t have to be the goal. Understanding what you really need and who you are apart from your ‘demons’ can be. And getting back on comfortable and dependable terms with yourself, in whatever way that looks like, almost always is.

Small changes over time make all the difference…

…and change is super possible. You also don’t have to figure it all out on your own. I didn’t.