A client suffering from an addiction can effectively be treated with any of the following treatment approaches: individual psychotherapy, behavioral therapy, family therapy, and/or biological therapy. The therapies covered in this section are individual therapy and behavioral therapy.

Individual therapy is especially beneficial to addicted clients who have other psychological disorders such as depression. This is because many times these clients have psychological disorders that can be treated effectively with individual therapy. This type of therapy should start with a contracted goal to limit the client's alcohol or substance use. Before the client is finished detoxifying the drugs from his/or her system, the counselor should be merely supportive and directive. Once the client is clean of drugs, the counselor can begin showing the client the troubles that emerge after the anesthetic effects of the drugs begin to disappear.

Behavioral therapy is where the focus of the treatment is placed on altering the existing behavior and actions of the client in order to remove the substance use. The focus is not on understanding why the behavior is there and what causes it, rather the techniques in this therapy focus on crisis intervention, new behavior skills training, training in relapse prevention skills, methods for removing harmful environments that encourage relapse, and abstinence from substances. Techniques that should not be used are counterconditioning and relaxation training.