Mindful Psychology Associates

Licensed Clinical Psychologists in Evanston, Illinois

Substance Use Disorders

substance abuse therapy

Exploring your relationship with substances can be challenging and overwhelming for a variety of reasons. In some cases, you might be beginning to identify how your substance use is impacting your ability to show up at school, work, and in your relationships in the ways you would like to. Or, you may be exploring how to continue to maintain your sobriety while you navigate mental health symptoms with work, school, relationships, and life demands.

Identifying the ways your substance use is impacting you can be complicated by any current mental health symptoms, the way substance use was modeled for you in your development, and/or any pressure from peers or systems you are a member of that encourage your use. Whether this is the first time you have begun to have curiosity around your substance use or you are years into your sobriety, our goal is to create a safe space and meet you wherever you are at in your recovery journey.

Within therapy, we work to create a nonjudgmental space where you can begin to explore a variety of substance-related concerns, including, but not limited to:

  • Developing curiosity surrounding your use of substances and the impact this has on various areas of your life
  • Identifying triggers for your use, such as specific emotions, thought patterns, people, mental health symptoms, or environments
  • Strengthening healthy coping skills to implement during increased urges to use substances
  • If dual diagnosis is a part of your experience, beginning to tease apart the intersection between substance use and mental health symptoms
  • Exploring the impact of any stigma related to mental health and substance use that you have experienced from your immediate support system and the larger world

At Mindful Psychology Associates, PC, we know that recovery work is complex, whether this is your first step in exploring your substance use or you are deep in your recovery. We are here to help support you through that journey, assist you in developing healthy coping skills for when times are challenging, and work on breaking down stigma in the process.