Addiction
Supportive and non-judgemental guidance to help you regain your freedom
What is Addiction?
Addiction is a dependence on a substance or behavior that initially brings relief, pleasure, or comfort. This can include alcohol, drugs, or tobacco, but also behaviors such as gambling, work, screen use, or pornography.
Addiction is not just about consumption, it’s about losing freedom in relation to it. The person feels a need that is hard to control, even when it causes negative effects in their personal, social, or professional life.
Addiction often develops gradually. It can become a way to manage emotions, calm inner tension, avoid suffering, or fill a sense of emptiness.
Behind every addiction, there is almost always an attempt to adapt, a way to cope with what feels too difficult to experience or face.
Understanding Addiction Without Judgment
Addiction is not just about willpower. Often, it is a way of coping: easing tension, calming emotions, filling a void, or simply getting through the day. In Gestalt therapy, we focus on understanding what the addiction is regulating or protecting, so you can gradually reclaim more freedom of choice.
the addiction regulates.
The Connection with Gestalt
Gestalt therapy focuses on a person’s lived experience in the present moment. It sees our behaviors, even those that cause suffering, as attempts to adapt to our environment.
From this perspective, addiction is not simply a problem to eliminate, but a strategy that once made sense.
Alcohol, for example, may serve to:
- Calm anxiety.
- Avoid painful emotions.
- Fill a sense of loneliness.
- Create connection or feel freer.
Gestalt therapy seeks to understand what the addiction is regulating or protecting, rather than reducing it to a mere loss of control.
It invites the person to become aware of what is happening within: their sensations, emotions, needs, and the patterns that arise in their relationship with the substance.
Gestalt therapy seeks to understand what the addiction is regulating or protecting, rather than reducing it to a mere loss of control.
It invites the person to become aware of what is happening within: their sensations, emotions, needs, and the patterns that arise in their relationship with the substance.
How Can Gestalt Therapy Help?
Gestalt therapy does not focus solely on stopping the addictive behavior.
Its primary aim is to restore the person’s ability to be in contact with themselves and with others.
Through therapeutic work, a person can gradually:
- Develop greater awareness of their emotions and needs.
- Identify situations or tensions that trigger the urge to use.
- Reconnect with their body and sensations.
- Learn to welcome what they feel without needing to numb it.
This process gradually allows new ways to regulate emotions and meet needs.
Over time, the person regains more inner freedom, and the relationship with the substance can progressively lose its central role.
This process gradually allows new ways to regulate emotions and meet needs.
Over time, the person regains more inner freedom, and the relationship with the substance can progressively lose its central role.
Alcoholism: A Unique Addiction
Alcoholism holds a particular place among addictions. Unlike many other substances, alcohol is deeply embedded in our culture and social interactions.
It goes with celebrations, gatherings, meals, and parties. Drinking is often seen as ordinary, even expected. In this context, it can be difficult to recognize when consumption becomes problematic.
This normalization can make alcoholism less visible and harder to identify, both for the person affected and for those around them.
Alcohol also has a rapid effect on emotions. It can create the sense of relieving anxiety, reducing shame, easing social interactions, or calming inner tension.
It is often this immediate relief that gradually reinforces the dependence.
But behind this temporary calm, the suffering that led to drinking remains, and over time, the relationship with alcohol can take a central place in a person’s life.
Acknowledging this difficulty is often an important step. It requires courage, as alcoholism is still surrounded by judgment and shame.
Yet behind every addiction, there is always a story, an attempt to cope and, most importantly, the possibility of finding other ways to care for oneself.
To explore this further, my podcast “Les détours d’Olivia”, available on all platforms, addresses alcohol addiction and the often underlying depression that comes with it. I discuss alcoholism in both intimate and societal contexts (in French).
What We Can Work on Together
A gradual, respectful approach at your own pace.
Triggers
Emotions and Inner Tension
Put words to what is difficult to feel and explore alternative ways to soothe without numbing yourself.
Needs, Gaps, Relief
Freedom & Choice
Regain freedom in the face of addiction.
Get in touch, and we’ll arrange a time to meet and discuss how I can support you.
Session format
I am available at:
Noisy-le-Sec:
89 rue Jean Jaures 93130 Noisy-le-Sec
RER E : Station Noisy-le-Sec à 3 min
In Paris :
39 boulevard de Magenta 75010 Paris
Jacques Bonsergent metro station (Line 5)
Or via video conference
45-minute session: €70