INDIVIDUALS | COUPLES | RELATIONSHIPS

Substance Use and Recovery

Support for the individual or the couple relationship.

Alcohol and drug problems can gradually affect emotional connection, trust, communication and stability in a relationship. Whether you’re concerned about your own patterns or your partner’s use, therapy can help you understand what is happening and create a path forwards.

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INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT

Understand your relationship with substances

Substance use does not always fit neatly into categories of “addicted” or “not addicted.” You may simply be questioning how much you drink or use, noticing consequences you do not like, or finding that substances have become a way of coping with stress, emotions, relationships or difficult experiences.

✓ Explore your patterns of alcohol or drug use without judgment
✓ Understand triggers and the role substances are serving
✓ Clarify your own reasons for making a change
✓ Develop alternative ways of coping with stress and emotions
✓ Set realistic goals around reducing or stopping substance use
✓ Strengthen motivation and create strategies for maintaining change
✓ Address underlying relationship, emotional or behavioural patterns

COUPLES SUPPORT

When substance use has affected the relationship

Substance use rarely happens in isolation. Over time, a couple may find themselves caught in cycles of worry, monitoring, defensiveness, arguments, broken agreements or emotional distance. There may also be hurt surrounding dishonesty, unpredictability, missed responsibilities or breaches of trust.

✓ Create clearer agreements and boundaries around substance use
✓ Rebuild trust after broken promises or secrecy
✓ Improve communication about difficult or emotionally charged topics
✓ Understand the impact substance use has had on each partner
✓ Reduce cycles of monitoring, defensiveness and conflict
✓ Increase accountability while maintaining compassion
✓ Rebuild emotional connection and partnership
✓ Create a relationship that supports ongoing recovery and change

RECOVERY IS ALSO RELATIONAL

Healing the individual and the relationship

Reducing or stopping substance use can be an important step, but it does not automatically repair everything that happened within the relationship.

One partner may be working hard to change while the other is still carrying fear, anger or uncertainty. The person in recovery may feel discouraged that their efforts are not yet translating into greater trust.

Both experiences can exist at the same time.

Therapy can help couples understand this transition and begin rebuilding a relationship where recovery, accountability, trust and connection can develop together.

READY TO START?

You don’t have to wait for things to get worse.

Whether you are questioning your own substance use, working toward recovery, or trying to repair the impact substance use has had on your relationship, therapy can provide a place to understand what is happening and identify the next steps forward.

Individual and couples therapy available virtually across Ontario.

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