ABSTRACT
As a therapist working with clients in a residential setting who have co-occurring disorders, the author have found it to be necessary to treat both the mental illness and substance disorder as interrelated issues rather than completely separate conditions. When counseling clients who are dually diagnosed, it is important to develop a correlation between the client's addictions and mental health, and to identify behaviors that affect both. Therapists can apply appropriate interventions to the client's treatment that aims at bringing awareness to the manner in which someone exerts and receives energy through particular behaviors. When dealing with dually diagnosed clients, it is important to help a client gain insight to the correlation between one's mental illness and substance disorder. This exercise can be highly effective in having clients take responsibility for the ways they choose to cope with life. Clients who are open and honest about their behaviors are usually very successful in completing this intervention.
