Have drugs or alcohol taken over your life? Are your relationships and/or work suffering? Do you need help to learn other ways to feel good? You may not want to practice complete abstinence. Instead, let’s talk about how you can get back in control of your life.

I help people using a method called harm reduction. This involves being aware of what triggers excessive drinking for you and taking steps to avoid those triggers.

It’s learning how to enjoy one or two drinks instead of always having five or six. It’s making sure that every time you drink in public, you have a safe way to get home. These are just a few of the things I teach.

Essentially, harm reduction involves bringing mindfulness and planning to your drinking or use of marijuana, rather than an “all or none” approach. The benefits include better health, both mental and physical, and improved relationships with others. You may also find that cutting back helps you sleep more soundly and reduce your weight. Finally, drinking less is way less stressful for your mind and body, because alcohol is a depressant and it puts you at risk for alcohol-related cancers, diabetes and heart disease.

You don’t have to go right to the bottom before you start on new and better path. You can learn to enjoy life without relying on alcohol to solve problems it cannot solve. Feeling in control will help you to feel good about yourself again.  The sooner we help you feel better about yourself, the sooner you’ll experience joy in living. 

If you’d like to cut down on your use of alcohol, stop smoking, eliminate binge eating, or reduce your use of any substance, call me! I have helped others with this issue, and I have techniques that can help you too.