Individual Counseling
Kind Recovery is a boutique therapy practice offering behavioral health services to those struggling with addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders. We offer an ASAM level 1 outpatient program, individual counseling, group counseling, and referrals. We specialize in providing individual counseling and concierge care, meaning we keep our treatment groups small, and our clients receive personalized attention.
The Importance of Individual Counseling
Most practices focus on the question, what are you recovering from? We focus on what are you recovering to? Switching the focus to who you want to become and forming a mental picture of yourself healthy and whole are important steps on the road to recovery.
Our individual counseling services are centered around the individual and their experiences. This is accomplished through regular, thoughtful, one-on-one meetings where we discuss your progress in recovery, obstacles, and opportunities for growth.
We understand you are the expert of your experience and are capable, with compassionate guidance, to manifest your dreams.
While individual counseling is the focal point of Kind Recovery, we also encourage group therapy sessions with others who are on their own path to recovery. Group therapy provides a more intensive opportunity to reduce shame, learn from other’s lived experience, and develop a sense of meaning while helping others. While some individuals may feel like steering clear from group therapy due to anxiety and shame, they quickly see the many benefits when they give it a chance.
The Kind Recovery Difference
Treating others with the utmost respect and kindness is an integral part of our practice. We have developed a shame-free environment which creates a safe space where we are free to be transparent with one another. Our counseling services are based on trauma-informed and evidence-based practices that have helped others in their recovery from various substance use disorders.
Substance use is merely a symptom and not the problem. While other rehab facilities focus on the problem of addiction, our individual counseling specializes in treating the whole person. Many rehab centers are focused purely on the outcome of a substance use disorder. This can lead to an unhealthy mindset of pass or fail in the person struggling with addiction. Our approach is not rooted in systems where the outcome results in potential shame.
Kind Recovery believes you are the expert of your own experiences. There is no one who knows you like you do. Our job is to help you discover your own authentic path to recovery. Recovery is not a switch that we turn on and off, but a path that holds many different emotions and actions on the way to wholeness.
We understand that many substance use disorders and mental health disorders are rooted in traumatic experiences, typically during childhood. Exploring your life experiences is key to understanding how you developed a vulnerability to substance misuse. Healing from those experiences must be a part of your journey in order to achieve lasting results.
Our Individual Counseling Services
Kind Recovery treats substance use and co-occurring mental health and trauma disorders. Our counseling services in Athens, Georgia meet clients where they are. We offer counseling for a range of disorders including substance use, PTSD, complex trauma (C-PTSD), depression, anxiety and more.
Addiction treatment often fails to achieve lasting results because clients and providers only target ending substance use rather than building a life you don't need to escape from. We will identify and address all the biological, psychological, and environmental factors that contribute to your substance use and guide you on a holistic journey to healing.
Substance Use Counseling
According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, over 20 million people in the US had a substance use disorder in 2018. There are many causes for substance use including genetics, environmental factors such as a chaotic home, parental use, peer pressure, and many more. Individuals with a substance use disorder experience intense focus and cravings despite known harmful consequences. This can cause a “rewiring of the brain” which impacts judgement, decision making, learning, memory, and behavior.
We use an evidence-based intervention for substance use disorders called Motivational Interviewing (MI). Motivational interviewing is a treatment modality designed to help clients move through the process of change, rooted in the belief that client’s are capable experts of their experience. People tend to think of change as an on-off switch and our culture constantly promotes this idea. The truth is, change is a process that includes emotional and behavioral states like ambivalence, preparation, action, relapse, and maintenance. Motivational interviewing focuses on increasing a person’s internal motivation to keep moving through these stages of change.
PTSD & Complex Trauma Therapy
PTSD stands for post traumatic stress disorder. According to The Recovery Village around 8 million people in the United States are affected with PTSD every year and 1 in 13 will develop PTSD at some point in their life. PTSD is considered “Big-T Trauma” and is a mental health disorder that triggers nightmares, uncontrollable thoughts, flashbacks, or severe anxiety regarding a traumatic experience the individual has either witnessed or experienced first hand. Learn more about the different types of trauma, including PTSD and the Kind Recovery response.
Kind Recovery treats all types of trauma, from shock trauma that we normally associate with military veterans (PTSD) to the complex trauma that results from exposure to childhood abuse, toxic stress, attachment injuries, and dysfunctional relationships. Learn more about the different types of trauma and our approach to treatment.
Substance Use and Mood Disorders (Depression, Anxiety)
For clients struggling with substance use and co-occurring mood disorders, an evidence-based approach we use is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) which is an evolution of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This treatment focuses on behavior change as the catalyst to recovery and adds Eastern traditions such as mindfulness, acceptance, and meditation practices to enhance traditional CBT. The goal of ACT is to promote psychological flexibility, or the ability to cope healthily, with stressors and is an evidence-based treatment for numerous conditions including substance use, anxiety, and depression.
What You Can Expect From Charlie Shockley, LCSW
Individual Counselor: Charlie Shockley, LCSW
Learn more about Charlie’s experience and qualifications here.
Transparency
I often use mindful attention to my own internal reactions and our way of relating to each other to bring subconscious feelings and processes into conscious awareness. It’s important to me to create a space where people feel they don’t have to hide.
Laughter
Just as negative internal experiences are a normal part of being human, so are the silly parts. I often co-celebrate goofy moments with clients in session. Though our culture may place perfection, control, success, and power on a pedestal; I just don’t believe that’s what we’re wired for. Authentic connection is our real evolutionary advantage and connection demands we set our egos aside.
Goal-Directed
We will identify your goals together and I will help hold you accountable to those goals. I believe the best therapy is specific and intentionally moves towards resolving your suffering. I have a way of being direct without being punitive or shaming. Maybe that’s because there’s truly nothing you can do to shake my faith in you. We are all just humans in our process of change.
A Little Buddhist
I don’t identify as a Buddhist or consider it my religion. I honor all religious and spiritual beliefs and have no intention of altering yours. However, I have found that many Buddhist traditions like mindfulness, meditation, non-attachment, and impermanence are highly effective tools in recovering from substance use.