Leading northern relationships charity launches new drug and alcohol counselling service

A new counselling service for people in recovery from addiction and their partners and family has been launched by one of the UK’s leading relationships charities.

The service, launched by TLC: Talk, Listen Change, is designed to support people who have already taken practical steps to address drug and alcohol addiction issues and feel they need additional support for continued growth and development.

Working with trained, experienced counsellors, people will be helped to understand and process why their difficulties developed, as well as identify triggers and take positive steps to improve their health and wellbeing and sustain recovery.

The process itself is led by each person attending the counselling service, with sessions tailored to each individual to help support them to rebuild their lives.

Support services are vital to help break the cycles of addiction, especially with some reports stating that almost one in five UK adults are drinking at problematic levels.

Because recovery is different for each person, topics covered will vary across the 10 sessions. Some of the topics that may be included are learning healthy coping strategies, rebuilding relationships that may have been damaged and addressing feelings of loneliness, grief, guilt or shame. As a whole, the counselling also aims to help former addicts build and maintain a strong circle of support to aid their ongoing recovery.

Emma Jones-Holding, Head of Counselling for Talk, Listen, Change said: “We can’t stress enough how important it is for people to have a listening ear when they’re in recovery. This service will help so many people stay on track, take control of their lives, and improve their emotional wellbeing.

“Addiction recovery is one of the most challenging processes for anyone to go through, and requires a strong network of support as well as proven coping strategies to be successful.

“The new service is just another piece of the support system. We want to help people to rebuild their lives, and the impact that counselling can have on the recovery process cannot be overstated.”