The Importance Of Addiction In Counseling

Addiction. My teenage and adult years were plagued with addiction and poor moral decision making. During this time period, the disease of addiction drove the majority of my decisions. My internal moral compass no longer pointed me in any type of righteous direction. There were several times I was faced with a dilemma of what to do and what not to do. In most instances when actively using, I picked what not do. Without going into extensive details about my past, one of the biggest things I learned from this experience is an empathetic understanding that only someone who has truly been there can understand. Having done things, I would never dream of doing sober-minded, I can understand how an addiction would allow people to make decisions they don’t necessarily want to make. This experience will have a great impact on building a strong therapeutic alliance with recovering addicts in counseling.

Incarceration. Being incarcerated was a window into another world; a world with its own set of morals, ethics, and rules. Below, Jacobs (2014) cites a prisoner’s interpretations of being incarcerated: I remember being there—on the edge of a precipice. You lose all hope. Your inner self changes. You start to think, what does

108). Confidentiality has a dedicated section in the ACA Code of Ethics (2014), and particularly noted in code B.1.c, which reads, “counselors protect the confidential information of prospective and current clients. Counselors disclose information only with appropriate consent or with sound legal or ethical justification,” (p. 7). Rightfully so, confidentiality is a right of all counseling clients and importance is placed on it in professional ethical