When does the use of a substance or habit get out of control?
Although this question seems relatively simple, it is not always easy to answer. If you or someone you know has started to think that something might have gotten out of control, you might already have the answer. When the presence of a substance, habit, or behavior begins to affect your work, relationships, and your ability […]
How long does recovery last? What are withdrawal symptoms?
Initially, to answer this question, it is necessary to specify what type of addiction or problematic use we are referring to. That is, whether we are discussing a substance or a behavior. Substance Addiction Recovery If we are talking about a substance, we must first consider its physical withdrawal symptoms. In most cases, these do […]
3 Tactics Gambling Uses to Convince You to Stay in the Game!
Gambling employs various tactics to keep you ‘stuck’ in the game. It relies on thoughts such as chasing losses, magical hopes, and isolation, creating a vicious cycle that makes it difficult to stop. In this article, we will examine the 3 most fundamental ways it affects people’s behavior. 1) The Idea of Chasing Losses While […]
Addiction Recovery and Relapse: Punishment or a Challenge for New Insights?
Often, dominant models of thought in modern psychology adopt a negative—bordering on punitive—stance towards relapse, or the return of problematic substance use or behavior. Narrative therapy approaches this return as an opportunity for further exploration and new insights. According to narrative therapy, the process of recovery constitutes a shift from a familiar part of an […]
Gambling Addiction: A Modern Scourge and Useful Clarifications
What Is Gambling Addiction? Gambling addiction is a serious psychological and social disorder, characterized by an uncontrollable desire and need of the individual to engage in gambling activities, despite the negative consequences these may have on their personal and professional life. This addiction can affect individuals of all ages and social classes and is a […]
Therapeutic work responding to self harm and anxiety
SUMMARY The current work refers to narrative conversations with a young girl responding to self-harm and anxiety. The work has been divided in 6 main parts: 1) externalization-mapping of anxiety, 2) use of metaphor for anxiety, 3) self-harm- absent but implicit and re-authoring, 4) preferred story of identity, 5) feminism- how individualism connects with collectivism […]
Viewing and dealing with trauma from the perspective of narrative therapy
In the current era, amidst increased mobilization and awareness regarding mental health, it is quite common for individuals to approach a psychologist or mental health professional to discuss a traumatic event or incident they have experienced or are still experiencing in their lives, along with its various negative consequences. Most often, they feel that these […]
Addressing Addiction from the Perspective of Narrative Therapy
The term ‘addiction’ is quite broad, and attempts have been made to define it in various ways at different points in recent history and literature. Even today, there are diverse and, to some extent, overlapping definitions mentioned in the relevant literature (EMCDDA, 2013). Some definitions of addiction focus exclusively on substances/drugs, although it is now […]
What is Narrative Therapy
Narrative therapy and Community practice draw their inspiration from the social constructionism movement (Gergen), Postmodern perspectives in philosophy (Foucault, Derrida), developments in cultural anthropology and sociology (Myerhoff, Geertz, Bruner, Goffman), the third wave of feminist theories, among others. It is categorized under collaborative therapies, placing particular emphasis on the egalitarian relationship between therapist and client, […]