ABOUT
Carmen Greiner
MS, MAC, LPC
Lighthouse Counseling of Fredericksburg, PLC, was founded by Carmen E. Greiner, MS, MAC, LPC, a licensed professional counselor practicing in Virginia for over 15 years. The facility is operated as a sole proprietorship and offers counseling for mental health and substance use issues. Ms. Greiner has been Licensed as a Professional Counselor (LPC) since 1998 and certified as a Master Addiction Counselor since 2000.
Ms. Greiner has experience in crisis intervention, case management, outpatient therapy, supervision, program management, training and teaching. She is a specialist in work with individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders and has presented in multiple state wide venues on these topics. For more information, please follow the link to the curriculum vitae.
Curriculum Vitae
Therapeutic Approaches used at
Lighthouse Counseling
Motivational Interviewing and the Stages of Change.
Motivational Interviewing is a directive, client-centered counseling style for eliciting behavior change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence. Compared with nondirective counseling, it is more focused and goal-directed. The examination and resolution of ambivalence is its central purpose, and the couselor is intentionally directive in pursuing this goal.
(http://motivationalinterview.org/clinical/whatismi.html)
Prochaska and Diclemente proposed stages of change and they suggested that ambivalence is a natural part of the change process. The stages of change are:
- Pre-Contemplative – not yet considering change
- Contemplation – considering change but having mixed (ambivalent) feelings
- Preparation – preparing to change
- Action – making the change
- Maintenance – sustaining the change
A goal therefore of this approach to counseling, is to assist clients to explore and resolve those issues that are impeding change by using motivational interviewing approaches.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a therapeutic approach that focuses on changing cognitions (thoughts) which will then result in changes in feelings and behaviors. Specifically, Albert Ellis suggested that after an (A) Action one has a (B) Belief or thought about that action, and then an emotional (C) Consequence (ABC Theory). In order then to change emotions, one then needs to change the thoughts that precede the emotion.
For example, you are waiting in line at the grocery store (the action = A) and you tell yourself things like “I am going to be late for dinner” or “I am wasting my time here when I could be doing something more productive” (the belief = B) then you will most likely feel impatient and anxious (the emotional consequence = C). However, if you change your belief then you would change the emotion. For example you could decide that this is a great opportunity to complete your weekly dinner planning or read that great article on some famous star’s alien baby!!.
National Alliance on Mental Illness
Regarding Addiction as a Brain Disease
While there are many definitions of drug/alcohol addiction the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) defines this way. “Addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain - they change its structure and how it works. These brain changes can be long lasting, and can lead to the harmful behaviors seen in people who abuse substances”.
With this definition in mind, Lighthouse Counseling offers substance abuse treatment that assumes that addiction is a brain disease. Recovery from addiction takes a multi-pronged learning approach including counseling, lifestyle changes, improved coping and stress management, the building of support systems, education about the disease and wellness management. Relapse is not an uncommon occurrence as progressive changes are put in place by the individual. Family involovement in the recovery process, support group meeting attendance, and spiritual supports have been found to be helpful in initiating and maintaining recovery progress. Treatment is therefore a learning process which encourages recovery through lifestyle changes, improved coping/stress management, building support systems and education about the disease. Family involvement, 12 step meeting attendance, and spiritual supports have been found to be helpful in the recovery process.
Lighthouse Counseling ascribes to the notion that not all substance use reaches the level of addiction and therefore abstinence is not the only treatment goal. All persons seeking treatment are fully assessed and appropriate treatment recommendations are made.
http://www.nida.nih.gov/scienceofaddiction/index.html
