Areas addressed: Communication Skills - Psychodynamic Therapy

1. Therapeutic Communication Skills

It is often difficult for addicts and alcoholics to admit to their problems and to talk about them. When confronted with a situation that requires them to talk honestly about their lives, they typically will clam up, become angry, lie to their friends and family, or simply leave. Communication IS life. The only people who do not need to communicate effectively are those who are dead. The ability to communicate forms the basis of every relationship one will ever have. It is also very true that, unless a person can talk about his past mistakes, he is doomed to repeat them.

This section increases the addict's ability to face up to his problems and talk freely about them.

2. Objective Exercises

This is a form of psychodynamic therapy unique to the Narconon program. The purpose is to unstick the addict's attention from events and traumas which can cause him to be obsessed with the past. Drugs are a type of painkiller. They make one numb to the present, to the realities of life. An addict becomes unable, because of his drug abuse, to be comfortable with the everyday emotions and experiences of life. He then tends to withdraw from the present. Since the present is unbearable, he tends to dwell on past sorrows and upsets, or to live in a fantasy world of the future. Because he is not living in the here and now, he sacrifices the ability to control his life. He cannot achieve future goals, have stable relationships, or deal with responsibility.