Recovery in Action:
Experiential Methods to Help Clients Stay Sober

by Regina Sewell Ph.D/MEd, LMHC, PCC, CP

Many of our clients have worked on mustering up the courage or the will to get sober.  These are important steps.  But the real issue with addiction isn’t getting sober, it’s staying sober and staying sober requires different skills.  The old patterns don’t disappear.  They have been hard-wired into the brain like ruts on an old dirt road.  Add to this, long-term sobriety can seem hard, boring, empty or even impossible.  The people, places, things, attitudes and shortcomings that made it hard to get sober will still be there ready to help them slide right back into those old ruts.  In order to stay sober, clients must create new heathy patterns – new ruts – and work to get those patterns hard-wired into their brains.

Just as we can’t MAKE our clients get sober, we can’t make them stay sober. Motivational Interviewing, in conjunction with the Stages of Change, provide a framework to help clients find their intrinsic motivation to maintain the changes they’ve begun to make or have already made.  Experiential techniques and structures rooted in psychodrama, sociodrama and sociometry help clients get out of their heads and into their bodies.  This cuts through rationalization, denial, justification and other defenses that make that slide back into old habits and
patterns so compelling.  On the psychodrama stage, clients can bring their resources and obstacles to life and hear messages that inspire them to stay sober.  For example, helping clients map out their resources allows them to feel grounded in their strength and take in the love, reassurance and encouragement their support people offer.   Having clients step into a scene in a sober future can provide a memory of hope to hold onto in moments when sobriety feels hard.  In a different way, putting a “temptation scene” into action allows a client who feels
the tug to stop by the liquor store on the way home to explore the urge, engage with the old tapes or stories that drive it and play it forward to see the likely long-term consequences.  Bringing their sober resources into the “temptation scene” can help clients challenge those old tapes.  This can provide a mental map that can help clients continue to steer into their newer, healthier sober ruts.

Interactive and experiential structures in to help clients identify their obstacles to staying sober, resources to help them maintain sobriety and experiential techniques to help them practice making healthy choices.

Regina Sewell, PhD/ MEd, LMHC, PCC, CP is certified by the American Board of Examiners as Certified Practitioner of Psychodrama. She is on the faculty on the Hudson Valley Psychodrama Institute. In her private practice, Regina specializes in co-dependency, addictions, LGBT issues and stress management.