My
addiction counselling is for the ones who fear life and death so much
that they turn to whatever that will bring them relief. And, who
become so sick and tired of being so sick and tired that they really
want to change their life yet have not much confidence in professional
helpers such as psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers. In
other words, men and women who are very much like I am.
Copyright @ Blazenka Kostolna, November 2023
Addiction
and other psychological disorders are fundamentally destructive
answers to the question that is often on the minds of all us: how
should we live our lives? Everybody knows that to reject life is not
a healthy option.
Drugs are not the problem, we are.
More
precisely: our destructive ego that not only is destroying us but
also the ones around us. We can choose to adjust
and redirect our ego so that it will become what it is meant to be: a
life-affirming, constructive force.
My counselling is based on the 12 steps yet it is not the kind of 12-step programme available for free from self-help groups.
What I'm offering is what has helped me: my own version of the 12 steps, my insights into human nature that I do not owe to formal education but to my being around, and open to, people of different geographies and (maybe more importantly) of different social status, and to plenty of very varied books.
So what then is so special about my offer?
I know addiction from personal experience, have participated in 12-step meetings in various cultures (Africa, America, Asia, and Europe) and managed to stay sober for 34 years. In addition, I obtained the Certificate in Drug and Alcohol Studies from Stirling University, Scotland (my individual study project was on whether 12-step programmes work), did a traineeship at the Psychosomatic Clinic Bad Herrenalb (Germany) and got on-site insights into the workings of the Hazelden Treatment Center in Minnesota as well as into privately run facilities in Majorca (Spain), the Algarve (Portugal), Switzerland, Southern England and Northern India.
By the way:
My emphasis is not so much on why you might feel miserable but on how to get better. But aren't the two inextricably linked? No - and that is the good news - they are not.
What I'm offering is what has helped me: my own version of the 12 steps, my insights into human nature that I do not owe to formal education but to my being around, and open to, people of different geographies and (maybe more importantly) of different social status, and to plenty of very varied books.
So what then is so special about my offer?
I know addiction from personal experience, have participated in 12-step meetings in various cultures (Africa, America, Asia, and Europe) and managed to stay sober for 34 years. In addition, I obtained the Certificate in Drug and Alcohol Studies from Stirling University, Scotland (my individual study project was on whether 12-step programmes work), did a traineeship at the Psychosomatic Clinic Bad Herrenalb (Germany) and got on-site insights into the workings of the Hazelden Treatment Center in Minnesota as well as into privately run facilities in Majorca (Spain), the Algarve (Portugal), Switzerland, Southern England and Northern India.
By the way:
My emphasis is not so much on why you might feel miserable but on how to get better. But aren't the two inextricably linked? No - and that is the good news - they are not.
