Addiction/Substance Use Therapy

Addiction is often misunderstood as a simple lack of willpower or self-control. At Green Counseling, our perspective is that addiction is not just about substance use or compulsive behavior—it’s a response to unmet emotional needs, pain, and trauma. People who struggle with addiction often have underlying wounds—whether from childhood neglect, trauma, or emotional loss—that they have never fully processed or healed. This pain gets buried over time to the point where it's often not even in conscious awareness. In an attempt to cope with these deep, unhealed parts of themselves, they turn to substances, behaviors, or patterns that provide temporary relief.

Addiction serves as a coping mechanism, helping people manage emotional pain or numb feelings they are unable to face. However, this relief is short-lived, and the cycle repeats as the underlying wounds remain unaddressed. The brain becomes rewired by repeated use, creating patterns that feel impossible to break. This is why addiction isn’t just a "bad habit"—it’s a complex response to emotional survival.

Healing from addiction, as Dr. Gabor Maté explains, involves addressing the root causes of the pain and building healthier ways to cope. It’s not just about stopping the addictive behavior but about creating space for deep emotional healing and self-compassion. Through understanding the emotional and neurological roots of addiction, therapy can help you break the cycle and move toward lasting recovery.

At Green Counseling, we have a layered approach to addiction treatment. The image of an iceberg can be helpful here. The top of the iceberg, which is visible and exposed, is the behavior of addiction. This involves all the behaviors someone engages in that maintain the addiction, such as substance use, watching pornography, gambling, lying, and other autopilot behaviors. The underwater part of the iceberg represents all the underlying emotional dynamics that contribute to and perpetuate the drive to engage in addictive behaviors. This includes past trauma, unresolved grief, emotional neglect, chronic pain, and other forms of emotional suffering.  

A layered approach means we will work with you to develop skills to address both layers of the addiction iceberg. We will help you identify and master skills to address the behavior of addiction. This includes promoting mindfulness and self-awareness, building skills to manage cravings/urges, identifying a supportive community, and creating a life conducive to sobriety. Addressing this layer of addiction is important to create stability, improve your quality of life, and promote safety. 

We will also engage the emotional suffering, pain, and trauma that underly your drive to use or engage in addictive behaviors (the underwater layer of the addiction iceberg). We utilize many different approaches to do this, and you can read more about them in the "Trauma Therapy" section of our website.