Sometimes the person is aware of the trauma they are dealing with, and sometimes they are not aware of how much they are being affected by past events. For this reason we provide a through assessment that takes into account each individual’s personal history, medical history, substance abuse history and family and social history. As we inquire about the events that precede drug or alcohol use episodes, we often uncover a link to past events that can be addressed during treatment. We have many tools to help the person address and “process” traumatic events. Our individual therapy sessions are where a lot of this work gets done, and we utilize cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and other modalities to address past events. We also often utilize family counseling sessions to help the entire support system heal. Our clients also benefit greatly from understanding the phenomenon of trauma and how it affects people. We provide educational activities to help that explain how to recognize when trauma is affecting oneself and what a person can do to manage the symptoms. During the entire process, all of the clinicians in our treatment program (with a high staff to client ratio) will be closely paying attention to the well-being of the individual in treatment and how they are responding to each component of treatment.