Collateral Damage: Casualties of Alcohol Misuse

This day will focus on the impact  of another person’s alcohol misuse on the client we are coming alongside. This may be a client who is exploring what it was like growing up in a home where one or both parents drank to excess, and how the dynamics in the home were affected by this, how the client may have grown up without the presence of a consistent adult (if both parents were regularly drunk). It might be a client worried about their child who is consuming alcohol in an uncontrolled way. It might be a client discussing their concerns about a partner whose alcohol use has caused them to become unrecognisable and/or abusive. A thread among most of these clients is the feeling of helplessness, powerlessness and a cycle of hope and despair as they see the person they love disappearing to be replaced by someone whose behaviour is erratic and often abusive and/or reckless. How to be open to the full range of feelings, without leaving the client feeling they need to defend their loved one against any perceived judgement from us, at the same time as ensuring that we maintain the blend of the core attitudinal qualities, neither getting lost in empathy, or flooding the client with congruence – that will be our focus during this study day.