Changes in Professionals’ Attitudes and Approaches to Parents in the Drug and Alcohol Treatment

BACKGROUND Parental involvement with drug and alcohol services remains limited. AIM to illuminate changes in addiction professionals' subjective attitudes and approaches of parents over time in their career. METHODS Overall, twenty seven drug and alcohol professionals participated in the study. RESULTS Themes depicting changes on therapists' attitudes, beliefs and experiences of working with the families of their clients are 'Redefining therapeutic role and expectations', 'Increased understanding and acceptance', 'Finding the right distance in relationships', 'Ability to contain feelings and experiences', 'Being selective in collaborations with professionals', 'Empathy for coworkers and increased collaboration'. Therapists described their interaction with families of their clients in their earlier years of practice as a challenging and often overwhelming experience generating intense anger and frustration which sometimes led to acting outs and tempted them to give up their efforts to build an alliance with family members. Nevertheless, experience, clinical supervision and personal growth contributed in being gradually more capable in managing their emotional reactions, setting limits, having less and more realistic expectations from family members and finally providing the latter with the necessary experience of being understood. CONCLUSIONS Overall, addiction therapists feel unprepared for meeting the challenging experience of collaborating with families in their earlier years of practice requiring educational support and clinical supervision. Further research is required on addiction professionals-parents alliance and countertransference issues.