Essay 3 – Psychodynamic Interventions

Essay #3

Other approaches to treating individuals with addictions and compulsive disorders are psychodynamic interventions (e.g. exploration of trust, identity, attachment, abandonment), coping skills training (useful for patient and family groups and individual interventions), and solution focused brief training. I have scanned chapters from the book, Psychotherapy and Substance Abuse: A Practitioner’s Handbook by Washton (Ed).

Pick one of the approaches and talk about the pros and cons of the approach and find 2 articles and discuss them.  Compare and contrast the approaches if you wish. Often, issues of attachment and abandonment come up in treatment and they can be addressed by a number of approaches, but some psychodynamic exploration is helpful for long term sobriety.