Different Arrangement for Therapy for Alcohol Abuse
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Asks ...
I am drinking too heavily and I believe I would benefit from talking to someone about ways that I might be able to drink less. I am not sure why this is but often my good intentions to drink less get subverted by some process that I don’t really understand that gets me pouring into a glass each night without my even thinking about it too much. In the mornings I feel shame and regret but somehow I just keep repeating this process over and over again. I guess I am an alcoholic but I am reluctant to go to an AA meeting. I live in a fairly small town and I have a position of some importance and it would not be good for people to think of me as a drunk.
Because of my desire for discretion and confidentiality I was thinking that telephone or internet counseling would meet my needs very well. I think that if I could set up a 5 minute conversation for the end of the work day every day then that might be enough to keep me from drinking at night. I know that therapists usually bill for hour long sessions but I was wondering if you had ever heard of an arrangement that was based on very short daily sessions as needed? -
Stephanie Adams Says ...
To answer your last question, I have not heard of that regularly but it might be out there. What I'd be concerned about there would be creating dependency on your therapist, so that talking to him or her was the only way that you could see yourself not drinking. What about weekends? What if the therapist was sick one day? What if the phone connection didn't work? Where would you be then?
A better arrangement for your situation would probably be to make a plan in therapy for ways to change your pattern at the end of the day to strengthen your own resolve to stop drinking. That way you can always be safe, because you can always help yourself. If you live in Texas, I would be happy to help you with that through online counseling. If you're outside of Texas, I'm not able to be your therapist, but I'd be happy to help connect you with someone in your home state. Let me know how I can help!
