Inpatient rehabilitation programs should help clients comprehend the full extent of their problems so that they can get ready for long-term recovery. The counselor's long-term goals are to allow the client to learn how to avoid relapse, how to get ready for re-socialization into society, how to begin a new sober lifestyle after reintegrating back into society, and how to determine recovery objectives. Clients can better determine their goals for treatment if the program prepares them with ways to learn about:

1. Their drinking
2. Reducing their regret
3. Reducing the shame caused by their drinking behavior

The program should allow clients to see that their drinking behavior is an actual problem and that because it is such a severe behavior, it is important to stop it. The program should also allow the client to discover that their drinking causes environmental, cognitive, and affective antecedents. The program should offer to teach the clients skills (i.e. problem solving, abstinence, environmental reforming, social-interpersonal abilities, cognitive restructuring, ways that they can effectively reduce drinking urges, and relaxation) that maintain abstinence. It is also important for clients to gather a system of social support in order to strengthen their resolve for abstinence.