Substance Use Disorder Treatment
For Families in Pennsylvania
The weekly online Family Program is a clinician-led education and support series designed to help families understand substance use disorder, strengthen communication, and build practical skills that support long-term recovery.
Treatment outcomes improve significantly when the entire family is engaged in the recovery process. The weekly online Family Program is designed to bring full family recovery to you and your loved ones. It is open to all families, not just the families of people who are participating in our substance use disorder treatment program.
The Family Program is an ongoing six-week series of educational programming coupled with participants sharing thoughts, ideas, strategies, and connections, all designed to help make full family recovery possible. ETHOS Treatment remains committed to aiding in mental health recovery for adolescents and adults through comprehensive family support programs.
The program is led by Pat Brown, LCSW, a licensed clinician, and is a charged event through insurance. Learn more about the program facilitator, Pat Brown, and view accepted insurance plans.
Join the online family program video call or call 267.669.0300 and ask to join the Family Program.
What Topics Are Covered
Each Week in the Family Program?
| Week | Activities |
|---|---|
| WEEK ONE | Working with Active Addiction: How to support the person we love, not the addiction. Learn practical anxiety management strategies for families. Develop communication skills that reduce conflict while maintaining connection. |
| WEEK TWO | Recovering Together: Stages of family recovery. Understanding each stage of addiction recovery. Explore what family recovery looks like and how different family members may progress at different paces. |
| WEEK THREE | Guilt and Shame for the Addicted Person and Family System: Identifying these attributes and working through solutions. Address the emotional burden families carry. Develop shame resilience practices that promote healing. |
| WEEK FOUR | 12 Steps: What are the 12-steps? How support groups work for loved ones. How support groups can work for families. Learn about the 12 steps of AA as a recovery framework. Discover how family members can benefit from parallel support groups like Al-Anon. |
| WEEK FIVE | Family Roles in Addiction and Recovery: How addiction disrupts wellness in the family. Identifying past roles and future opportunities. Understand how family roles shift during addiction and recovery. Practice developing healthier relationship patterns. |
| WEEK SIX | Full-Family Healing: Bringing new practices to light throughout the family. Integrate new skills and create a sustainable plan for ongoing family recovery. Develop behavioral health maintenance strategies. |
What Behavioral Health
Skills Do Families Learn?
Family participation in recovery significantly improves outcomes because it addresses the family system, not just individual substance use. In substance use disorder treatment in Pennsylvania, the family program includes a combination of education, guided discussion, and practical skills practice designed to strengthen behavioral health and resilience.
Skills families practice in the program include:
- Communication Techniques: Learn methods that reduce conflict and build mutual understanding within the family.
- Boundary-Setting Strategies: Practice setting limits that support a loved one’s recovery without enabling harmful behaviors.
- Anxiety Management: Acquire practical tools to manage stress during high-pressure situations.
- Emotion Regulation Skills: Develop techniques for the entire family to manage difficult emotions effectively.
- Relapse Warning Sign Recognition: Learn to identify early warning signs and create appropriate response plans.
This evidence-based approach helps families develop the tools needed to create a supportive home environment. The approach promotes lasting recovery and improved mental health for everyone.
How Do Families Stay Safe
During Withdrawal and Detox?
Understanding the medical aspects of recovery helps families provide appropriate support and recognize when professional intervention is needed. While the family program focuses on education and emotional support, families benefit from understanding basic safety information.
Alcohol withdrawal symptoms that require emergency medical attention include:
- Confusion or disorientation
- Seizures or convulsions
- Hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that aren’t there)
- Severe agitation or tremors
- High fever or profuse sweating
- Chest pain or difficulty breathing
Important: This information is educational only and not medical advice. If someone is experiencing dangerous withdrawal symptoms, call 911 immediately. Alcohol withdrawal can be life-threatening and requires professional medical supervision.
What Family Dynamics Change
During Addiction Recovery?
Addiction affects the entire family system, often creating unhealthy patterns that can persist even after treatment begins. Understanding these dynamics is essential for family recovery and helps create a foundation for lasting change.
Codependency is a pattern where family members’ self-worth and behavior become organized around managing another person’s substance use or emotions. This often develops as a way to cope with the unpredictability of addiction. However, it can inadvertently reinforce unhealthy patterns.
Common signs of codependency include:
- Making excuses or covering up for a loved one’s behavior
- Feeling responsible for their emotions or choices
- Difficulty saying “no” or setting limits
- Neglecting personal needs to focus on theirs
- Feeling anxious or guilty when not helping
Healthy boundaries families can practice:
- “I love you, but I won’t give you money when you’re using substances.”
- “I’m here to support your recovery, but I can’t control your choices.”
- “I need to take care of my own mental health, too.”
The family program helps identify these patterns with compassion. Families develop healthier ways to support their loved ones while maintaining their own well-being.
How Can Families Support
Long-Term Recovery?
Families play a crucial role in creating an environment that supports sustained recovery and mental health. The family program teaches practical strategies that families can implement at home to maintain progress made during treatment sessions.
Key support strategies include:
- Consistent Communication: Regular family meetings to discuss progress, challenges, and goals
- Environmental Changes: Creating a home environment that reduces triggers and promotes wellness
- Crisis Planning: Developing clear plans for managing potential relapse situations
- Self-Care Practices: Ensuring all family members maintain their own mental health and well-being
Navigating a loved one’s recovery is a journey families do not have to take alone. If your family is affected by substance use or mental health concerns, support is available. Contact our team to learn more about the family program.
Family Recovery FAQs:
12 Steps, Interventions, and Transitional Support
An intervention is a planned conversation focused on encouraging a loved one to accept help for their substance use or mental health concerns. Many families benefit from professional guidance to improve safety, reduce conflict, and clarify treatment options.
The 12 steps of AA are a set of principles that support sobriety and personal growth through spiritual and emotional development. Families often benefit from learning how recovery programs work and exploring parallel support, such as family-focused recovery groups like Al-Anon.
DBT therapy (dialectical behavior therapy) teaches emotion regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness. Family programs may use DBT-informed skills like validation and calm limit-setting to reduce escalating conflict and improve communication.
Common signs of depression include persistent low mood, loss of interest in activities, sleep or appetite changes, fatigue, trouble concentrating, and feelings of hopelessness lasting most days for two weeks or more. If suicidal thoughts appear, seek professional help immediately.
A halfway house is a structured, sober living environment that helps people transition from intensive treatment to independent living. Families can support recovery by participating in planning conversations, understanding house rules and expectations, and maintaining appropriate boundaries during this transition phase.
Family programs teach anxiety management strategies such as paced breathing, grounding techniques, and communication tools that reduce uncertainty and conflict. Families learn to focus on controllable steps like boundaries, safety planning, and accessing support resources.
Alcohol withdrawal can be life-threatening. Emergency signs include seizures, hallucinations, confusion, severe agitation, high fever, or uncontrolled vomiting. Call 911 if these symptoms occur, as medical supervision is essential for safe withdrawal management.
Intrusive thoughts are unwanted, distressing thoughts that can occur during stress or early recovery and do not reflect a person’s true intentions. If these thoughts become overwhelming or include self-harm, seeking professional support is recommended.
MD, Alex Moxam is a graduate of Sidney Kimmel Medical College and completed his adult psychiatry residency at the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequently, he pursued a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania.
Using a holistic approach and emphasizing shared decision-making, Dr. Moxam engages with clients to initiate and optimize medication regimens. His goal is to decrease problematic symptoms and enhance the overall quality of life for those under his care. Dr. Moxam’s expertise spans both adult and child psychiatry, reflecting his commitment to providing personalized and effective care.
