Addiction Counselling

Addiction counselling in Brussels

The environment in which addiction develops is rarely incidental to its content. Brussels, for many of the people who work there, is an environment of high pressure, long hours, a culture of drinks at the end of a session or the end of the working day, and a level of professional visibility that makes it extremely difficult to acknowledge that something has gone past the point of ordinary use. The line between a culture that normalises drinking and an individual whose relationship with alcohol has changed in ways that are concerning is easy to miss, until it is not.

This practice offers English-language addiction counselling to people in Brussels. The work is individual, depth-oriented, and conducted in complete confidence.

The approach

Dr Jacquet has specialised in addiction for over 25 years. The clinical approach here is integrative and Jungian, work that treats addiction not as a failure of discipline but as a response to something that has not been adequately addressed. What the substance or behaviour provides (what state it relieves, what it is substituting for, what it would mean to give it up) is the starting point for understanding what needs to change.

Where unprocessed trauma underlies the dependency, EMDR may be incorporated. Philippe is an EMDR practitioner with over 20 years of experience, and trauma is more commonly a factor in addiction than most clinical settings acknowledge.

What is treated

The practice works with alcohol and drug addiction, cocaine and stimulant dependency, gambling, sex and pornography addiction, and other behavioural compulsions. Where addiction co-occurs with depression, anxiety, eating disorders or trauma, those presentations are addressed together rather than separately.

Confidentiality

All sessions are conducted under absolute confidentiality. In the specific professional context of Brussels (where institutional, diplomatic and corporate careers depend on reputation) this is not a procedural formality. Nothing is shared with any employer, institution or third party without explicit consent.

Addiction in the Brussels bubble

The professional culture around the institutions, the receptions, the travel, the long negotiating cycles, normalises patterns of drinking and stimulant use that can quietly cross the line while careers continue to flourish. The practice has long experience with exactly this presentation: high-functioning professionals whose dependency is invisible at work. Sessions are available in English and French, with complete discretion, in person in Brussels or by secure video, which many institutional clients prefer.