Couple and family therapy can help to develop motivation to change. Clarify family roles and responsibilities, how to "love well". The addiction can be explored, thus increasing the patient's acceptance, reducing the role of the scapegoat, and moving him/her out of self-pity. Feelings and relational needs can be acknowledged, opening up important resources. Family traumas and injuries can be processed, trust can be restored. A higher level of family functioning can be achieved: livable rules, mutual caring, open communication, acceptable needs and wants - essential to maintain abstinence!

In relapse prevention, the repair of family relationships is also a priority, as old (often destructive) relationship patterns trigger old reactions. We have observed that a very high percentage of relapse is contributed to by stress and/or failure in the relationship - we can help with a specific method that focuses on attachment characteristics (Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, EFT).

Family therapy can be started without the addict being present, and can continue even if the patient is in a rehabilitation institution.

For teenage drug users, family therapy is the primary means of help. Even a dysfunctional, possibly incomplete family is a powerful and indispensable resource! Research shows that patients who receive care with their families stay in treatment longer and relapse less often.