ADDICTION COUNSELING · INDIVIDUAL THERAPY FOR ADULTS

Addiction Therapy
in North Carolina

Addiction and compulsive behaviors can take many forms—alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography, sexual behavior, relationships, or other patterns that have become difficult to change.

Therapy can help you understand what pulls you toward the behavior, what keeps the pattern going, and what might help you respond differently. You don’t have to wait until things get worse before deciding you want something to change.

Virtual addiction therapy throughout North Carolina · In-person addiction counseling in Burlington, NC coming soon

ADDICTION CAN LOOK DIFFERENT FOR DIFFERENT PEOPLE

Support for substance use and compulsive behaviors.

You may already know what you want help with, or you may simply know that a substance or behavior is taking up more space in your life than you want it to.

Alcohol

Drinking more than you intend, difficulty cutting back, alcohol affecting your relationships or responsibilities, or wondering whether your relationship with alcohol has changed.

Drug use

Cannabis, cocaine, stimulants, opioids, prescription medications, or other drugs—including repeated use despite consequences or difficulty changing the pattern.

Gambling

Sports betting, online gambling, casinos, chasing losses, hiding gambling, financial consequences, or repeatedly trying to stop without being able to maintain the change.

Sexual & relationship patterns

Pornography, compulsive sexual behavior, or recurring sexual and relationship patterns that feel difficult to interrupt or are creating secrecy, shame, conflict, or consequences. Some people use terms such as porn addiction, sex addiction, or sex and love addiction to describe these concerns.

Other compulsive behaviors

Sometimes the concern doesn’t fit neatly into one category. Therapy can help you look at a repeated behavior or urge that feels increasingly difficult to manage and is getting in the way of the life you want.

WHEN SOMETHING KEEPS PULLING YOU BACK

When a substance or behavior is starting to get in the way.

You keep telling yourself you’ll cut back or stop, but the pattern keeps returning.
Cravings or urges can feel difficult to step back from once they start.
You use the substance or behavior to manage stress, loneliness, anxiety, anger, boredom, or other difficult feelings.
It is affecting your relationships, work, finances, health, or responsibilities.
Secrecy, guilt, or shame has become part of the pattern.
You want something to change, even if you aren’t sure yet exactly what that change should look like.

You don’t need a label before you come to therapy.

You may not know whether what you’re experiencing is an addiction, compulsive behavior, problematic use, or simply something you want to change. You and Mike can start by looking at what is happening, how it is affecting your life, and what you would like to be different.

ADDICTION THERAPY WITH MIKE

Practical change
without shame.

Mike Sondericker · LCMHC-A, LCAS-A

My approach to addiction therapy is collaborative, practical, and nonjudgmental. We can be honest about what is happening without reducing you to a diagnosis or assuming that a behavior tells the whole story about who you are.

We may look at what happens before an urge, what the substance or behavior provides in the moment, what makes the pattern harder to interrupt, and what happens afterward. From there, we can work on creating more choice in how you respond.

Depending on your goals, that might include reducing harm, changing a pattern, strengthening motivation, developing ways of responding to cravings, improving accountability, or working toward abstinence. Abstinence is not automatically the goal for every person.

Learn more about Mike

Standard individual therapy sessions are 50–55 minutes. Private-pay rate: $165 per session.

See fees, insurance & session details

UNDERSTANDING CRAVING

A craving is more than a matter of willpower.

Cravings can come with intrusive thoughts, mental images, physical sensations, and a strong pull toward the thing you want.

Research by David Kavanagh, Jon May, and Jackie Andrade found that people who frequently tried to stop alcohol-related thoughts also reported more intrusive craving thoughts. Because the study was correlational, it does not show that trying to suppress a craving causes it to become stronger. But it suggests that fighting the thoughts may sometimes keep you more caught up in them.

In therapy, the goal does not have to be perfect control over every craving. We can work on noticing what is happening, understanding what strengthens the craving, and creating more choice in what you do when it shows up.

Research: Kavanagh, May & Andrade (2009), British Journal of Clinical Psychology .

ADDICTION & RECOVERY

A few numbers worth knowing.

48.4 million

people age 12 or older in the United States had a substance use disorder in the past year in 2024, according to SAMHSA.

74.3%

of U.S. adults who said they had ever experienced a problem with drugs or alcohol considered themselves to be in recovery or to have recovered in 2024.

2.5 million

U.S. adults are estimated to meet criteria for a severe gambling problem in a given year, with millions more experiencing mild or moderate gambling problems.

Sources: SAMHSA 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and National Council on Problem Gambling .

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions about addiction therapy

Do you provide alcohol and drug addiction therapy?

Yes. Mike provides individual psychotherapy for eligible adults in North Carolina who are concerned about alcohol use, cannabis, stimulants, cocaine, opioids, prescription medications, and other substance-use patterns.

Do you provide therapy for gambling addiction?

Yes. Gambling therapy may address sports betting, online gambling, casino gambling, chasing losses, financial consequences, secrecy, cravings or urges, and difficulty reducing or stopping gambling.

Do you work with pornography, sexual behavior, or relationship compulsions?

Yes. Mike works with pornography use, sexual behavior, and recurring sexual or relationship patterns that feel compulsive or are creating distress, secrecy, shame, relationship problems, or other consequences.

People may use terms such as porn addiction, sex addiction, love addiction, relationship addiction, or sex and love addiction to describe these experiences.

Does addiction therapy require abstinence?

Not necessarily. Goals can vary depending on the person, the substance or behavior involved, safety considerations, and what you want to change.

Therapy may involve harm reduction, reducing problematic use, changing compulsive patterns, strengthening motivation, or working toward abstinence when that is your goal or is clinically appropriate.

Can I do addiction therapy online in North Carolina?

Yes. Mike offers virtual addiction therapy to eligible adults located throughout North Carolina. In-person addiction counseling in Burlington, NC is coming soon.

What if I’m not sure whether I have an addiction?

You don’t need to decide whether the word addiction fits before reaching out. You may simply be concerned about your alcohol or drug use, gambling, pornography use, sexual behavior, or another compulsive pattern.

Therapy can begin by looking at what is happening, how it is affecting your life, and what you would like to change.