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My Addiction
“So, the opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it is human connection.”
– Johann Hari
Addiction is defined as a chronic disease that affects the brain’s reward, motivation, and memory functions. Someone with an addiction will crave a substance or persist in various harmful behavioural habits.
Some early warning signs of addiction are:
- Minor physical symptoms such as unexplained weight loss, bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, or dilated pupils.
- Lack of concern for personal hygiene or physical appearance.
- Complete disregard for boundaries or consequences.
- Mood swings.
- Reclusive and / or erratic behaviour.
- Changes in sleep habits.
Recovery from substance abuse and unhealthy, harmful dependence – or in certain cases, a combination of the two – is eminently possible. With the right tools, coping mechanisms, and a positive mental attitude, addiction or dependency can be overcome.
Pulse is proud to offer many treatments and practical tools to assist clients on their recovery journey.
Explore the therapeutic services and resources we offer below:
Therapeutic Services
“Pain in the touchstone of all growth” – Bill Wilson
As a first step in the recovery process, a thorough BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL ASSESSMENT is conducted by Andrew Horne. During this exercise, clients will be assessed on biological, psychological, and social factors that may be contributing to the manifestation of their condition(s).
Following the initial assessment, clients may be referred to a more suitable medical professional based on the client’s best interests and the treatments’ long-term benefits.
Individual counselling
“Nothing worth having, comes easily.”
One of the interventions that Andrew has experienced remarkable success with is the provision of individual counselling sessions to adults, either in person or via virtual counselling.
Clients can rest assured that these sessions provide a safe space to discuss their thoughts and feelings, to share and make sense of – and in some cases, reveal – the experiences which may be causing them emotional distress. No matter the problem in counselling, humans are equipped with the resilience and sense of survival to cope with and overcome these difficulties.
Whilst Pulse has developed the expertise to deal with most areas of trauma and addiction, the areas of specialisation include, but are not limited to:
- Substance abuse and substance use disorders
- Process and behavioural addiction
- Panic and anxiety
- Depression
- Trauma / Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Addiction Couselling
Addiction counselling provides a necessary support system for individuals recovering from drug and alcohol issues, gambling addictions, sex addictions and other addictive behavioural issues.
By establishing a trusting relationship with clients, Andrew strives to provide the support, resources, and judgement-free, gentle guidance they can implement on their road to addiction recovery.
These counselling sessions assist addicts with crisis and long-term addiction management issues, ranging from immediate medical intervention to support them manage their long-term recovery.
Recovery Coaching
“What lies behind us and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
To frame this treatment, a recovery coach is similar to a life coach. However, their main area of focus is to help people who want to recover from substance abuse. Their goal is to GET and KEEP clients sober and avoid relapsing.
A recovery coach offers peer support by providing clients with several tools and resources, such as:
- Explaining the treatment options available
- Helping you create a recovery plan
- Providing resources for addiction recovery
- Facilitating connections with peer recovery support groups
- Promoting, and maintaining accountability
In these sessions (conducted either in-person or via virtual consultations), Andrew encourages clients to embrace the space and opportunity to discuss their thoughts and feelings to unearth and make sense of the issues which may be causing them emotional distress.
In being able to verbalise their feelings and equally feel “heard”, the clients’ healing is significantly impacted with remarkable long-term outcomes.
Family support and guidance
“There are no individuals in the world, only fragments of families” – Carl Whitaker
Treatment of dependency and dual diagnosis is more effective when family and close friends participate in the recovery process. It goes without saying that treatment is approached with the utmost discretion. Family therapy is provided with clients’ express consent only once they feel emotionally and mentally ready.
In-person or remote sessions are provided to create a safe space to enable a calm, constructive family discussion and inform on successful reintegration. Although family attendance at support groups is encouraged, this remains entirely the clients’ choice.
The benefits of family therapy include:
- Establishment and understanding family patterns
- Improving family dynamics and relationships
- Reducing conflict and enhancing communication
- Defining healthy roles and boundaries within the family
Online supervision for addiction counsellors
“Come back to your own gravity center, you are human, treasure your essence.”
As a result of his vast expertise in the recovery, addiction, and trauma space, Andrew has discovered that counsellors themselves experience extraordinarily elevated levels of stress and burnout.
Andrew provides an online forum for counsellors to discuss any issues they may be experiencing. In these sessions, indirect therapy and support are provided, giving counsellors a safe space to express their concerns, assisting with coping mechanisms and providing the necessary resources where possible.
Treatment Programs (Modules)
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending”- C.S. Lewis
Explore our Treatment Programs below
This modality is an in-depth lifesaving and crisis management treatment provided by both Pulse and a preferred treating hospital on an in-and-outpatient basis.
The programme is recommended for individuals suffering from moderate-to-severe substance abuse disorders, substance use disorders that require a medically supervised detox, clients who need hospitalisation with a step-down level of care, and people who have daily responsibilities or jobs they cannot leave.
Clients must realise the dangers associated with detoxing alone. The serious nature of addiction requires specialised medical intervention to achieve and ensure successful long-term recovery.
As a first step in this treatment, patients are assessed and assisted with gaining access to a detox programme. Once the inpatient detox has been completed, Andrew and his network of medical associates provide support and assistance on an outpatient basis, including establishing the foundation of maintaining their recovery, finding a support group and other crisis-driven life choices.
The above processes can be expected to last for between four and six weeks.
The Pulse Intensive Outpatient and Experiential Programmeis an in-depth addiction and co-occurring disorder treatment provided on an outpatient basis.
This programme is recommended for individuals suffering from mild-to-moderate substance abuse disorders or substance use disorders that do not necessarily require a medically supervised detox. It also supports individuals who have already attended inpatient rehabilitation and want a step-down level of care, and clients who have daily responsibilities or jobs they need to maintain.
This modality provides clients with intensive, in-depth, and individual counselling such as the twelve steps of sobriety, establishing support groups and services and providing coping tools such as Neurolinguistic programming (NLP).
This approach is followed for approximately three weeks.
This treatment methodology is an in-depth addiction and co-occurring disorder treatment provided by Andrew and his preferred network of medical professionals on an outpatient basis.
The programme requires clients to be medically treated while completing medically assisted relapse prevention. Clients will receive an Antabuse (or similar) implant through a minor surgical procedure which usually lasts approximately three months.
The treatment provides enforced sobriety, as if clients relapse, they are likely to become violently ill and may even need hospitalisation. We have found this modality to be most effective in circumstances where clients feel incapable of trusting themselves or their actions and provides a demonstrable means of proving to their family members their intentional desire to get and stay clean.
MBRP is a comprehensive addiction and co-occurring disorder treatment provided on an outpatient basis.
This programme is recommended for individuals suffering from mild-to-moderate substance abuse disorders or substance use disorders that do not necessitate a medically supervised detox. It also supports individuals who have already attended inpatient rehabilitation and want a step-down level of care, and people who have daily responsibilities or jobs they are unable to leave for an extended period.
MBRP is an intervention for people recovering from addiction which integrates mindfulness practices and cognitive and behavioural-based relapse prevention techniques, with the goal of equipping clients to avoid a return to substance abuse.
MBRP incorporates therapeutic techniques consistent with cognitive-behavioural relapse prevention while maintaining a primary focus on mindfulness mediation practices. This protocol is conducted over a period of approximately eight weeks, with weekly two-hour group sessions. Each session follows a structured intervention plan that incorporates cognitive skills training such as identifying high-risk situations and coping skills training, approximately 30–45 minutes of meditation practices, and a discussion of the experience.