Treatment Philosophy

The foundation of any treatment program is the professional relationship between the counselor and the client. That relationship must be based on acceptance, honesty, and trust. The most powerful tool that counselors have is themselves—in their real, human interactions with the people they serve. Due to the unique relationship in the counseling process, counselors may be the only people in the clients’ lives who can be completely honest with them. In that relationship, clients experience a safe environment where they are free to be honest with themselves and others. Clients are accepted for who they are and where they have been, but they are also held accountable for the choices and decisions that they make.

What separates the treatment process from other human encounters is the unwavering focus on personal change. Regardless of how a client is referred to our agency for services, the ultimate goal is for the client to complete an honest self-assessment and make a decision regarding change in his or her life. We believe that change only happens when people realize that their behavior no longer meets their goals or when the negative consequences of the behavior outweigh the positive results. The treatment process helps clients to identify what their goals are and to evaluate their behavior in light of those goals. Some individuals will change by changing the goals for their lives, while others will change by changing the behaviors that they use to meet their goals. The treatment process also helps clients to recognize and accept both the positive and negative consequences of their behavior and to honestly weigh the positives against the negatives.

Lighthouse Addiction Services believes that treatment should be philosophically consistent and empirically sound. We use a cognitive-behavioral approach to both group and individual counseling sessions. We firmly believe that our actions and our thoughts are choices that we make, and these choices determine the outcome of our lives. We use a variety of counseling interventions that are designed to increase our clients’ understanding of themselves and their motivation for change. All of our psycho-educational group programs utilize standard curricula that are based on the most recent science in the field and aimed at motivating individuals to change. The group programs have a broad focus on skills for improving one’s life as we believe that life skills are most effective in supporting lasting change.