An exploration of Focusing-oriented Therapy for Addictions
This study aims to provide the first systematic explication of focusing-oriented therapy for clients with addiction. It begins with basic principles from the Philosophy of the Implicit – experience, interaction, focaling and carrying forward - outlining their significance in psychopathology and therapy. General focusingoriented therapy is examined in terms of five client tasks and four therapist responses. A focusing-oriented view of addiction is then developed in terms of phenomena that, socially and personally, deal with unacceptable experience through ‘process-skipping, ‘flailing’ and the use of a ‘carapace.’ Three core tasks of focusing-oriented therapy for recovery are proposed. These help a client stand aside from the addictive carapace, carry forward underlying existential dilemmas and discover a new way of being-in-the-world. Five further recovery ‘avenues’ are identified using experiential aspects of mainstream treatments for addiction and experiential recovery tasks are suggested for them. These understandings of addiction and focusing-oriented therapy for recovery are illustrated in two substantial case studies of therapy in a mainstream drug and alcohol treatment agency. Proposals are made suggesting a greater significance for experiential therapy in addiction treatment.
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