Addiction therapy at Here & Now Psychology helps clients look honestly at substance use and behavioral addictions, without shame or judgment. I work with adults across California via telehealth, using an approach rooted in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
Addiction can take the form of almost anything: alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, gambling, gaming, porn, sex, social media, or even screens in general. What they have in common is how completely they take over your life, how they affect your relationships with education, work, friends, and family, and the deep shame and guilt you sometimes feel afterward.
Simply put, addiction is often a very effective way of avoiding things. Getting high, playing a game, or even pulling out your phone can instantly turn off uncomfortable thoughts or feelings about how miserable life feels in the moment. But the same thing that's temporarily keeping those painful thoughts and emotions at bay can also be the thing making you more and more terrified, isolated, ashamed, and hopelessly stuck.
Alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, opiates, or other substances that have moved from occasional to something you are using to the point of causing issues in other areas of your life.
Gambling, gaming, porn, sex, or other behaviors that follow the same compulsive pattern even without a substance involved.
A newer pattern that doesn't always get labeled "addiction," but shows up constantly: reflexively reaching for your phone the moment something uncomfortable arises, or never being present to what's happening in the here and now.
The isolating loop of hiding use from people close to you, and the guilt that builds every time it happens again.
There's no single required goal here. For some people that means quitting completely. For others, it means taking an honest look at their use and how that's affecting the things they really care about, or working toward moderation instead of full abstinence. A lot of people avoid this conversation for years because they're bracing for a lecture, so I try to lead with curiosity, meet people where they are, and collaboratively move forward from there.
Let me say one thing clearly: it doesn't have to be this way. I'm not interested in shaming anyone into a specific outcome, or pretending there's one right way to work through this. What I care about is understanding what your addiction is actually doing for you right now, what it's protecting you from, what it's making bearable, and building something in your life compelling enough that you start making different choices.
People questioning their relationship with a substance or behavior, whether or not they're ready to change it yet. People who've tried to quit through sheer willpower and found it doesn't hold. People carrying more shame about this than they've told anyone, including people close to them. People who want a place to talk about this honestly, without a specific outcome required going in.
Schedule a free 20-minute consultation. No pressure, no commitment. Just a conversation.
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