Peggy Ferguson
Ph.D., LADC, LMFT
Free
Addiction and Recovery; Restoration of Marital Happiness Expert
Peggy Ferguson Quick Facts
- Main Areas
- Addiction In The Family Context
- Best Sellers
- Yet to be revealed
- Career Focus
- Alcohol/Drug Counselor, Marriage/Family Therapist, Lecturer, Writer/Educator
- Affiliation
- Numerous Professionals Organizations
Peggy Ferguson, Ph.D. , LADC, LMFT, is a Licensed Alcohol/Drug Counselor and Licensed Marital/Family therapist specializing in individual, couples/family psychotherapy and addiction counseling.
With over tweny (20) years experience as a clinician, specializing in chemical dependency and family counseling, I currently serve as a private practitioner working with a broad spectrum of clients. The main focus of my practice is "Addiction in the Family Context".
Among my areas of expertise in substance abuse are evaluation, treatment, and referral for chemical dependency, family dynamics of addiction and recovery, process addictions (including sexual addiction), codependency, adult children of alcoholic issues, co-occurring disorders (mental health problems), and continuing care. Many people with substance abuse disorders also have mental health problems that require a simultaneous treatment focus, that I provide. I often work with family members of chemically dependent people--with, or without the addict.
Areas of treatment with a family focus could include issues regarding pre-marriage, marriage, divorce, and re-marriage.
Treament often requires education and coaching on skill development such as communication and problem solving, anger management, replacement of worry with proactive problem solving, parenting, feelings management, stress management, assertiveness. Other issues commonly dealt with in therapy include step-family problems, infidelity, jealousy, money issues, sexual problems or intimacy issues, and family business issues. Mental health issues often requiring attention and focus during treatment may include depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive behavior, sexual addiction and other process addictions.
Free Articles & Book Excerpts
Premarriage Counseling
http://www.peggyferguson.com/MarriageArticles.en.html/
Could It Be Seasonal Affective Disorder
http://www.peggyferguson.com/AddictionMentalHealth.en.html/
Boundaries As a Recovery Issue
http://www.peggyferguson.com/FamilyDynamicsAddiction.en.html/
Detachment:HowFamilyCa BeOKWhen AddictStillUsing
http://www.peggyferguson.com/FamilyDynamicsAddiction.en.html/
Addicts:Feeling Like You HaveToKeepThemFromUsing
http://www.peggyferguson.com/AddictionMentalHealth.en.html/
WhyDoesA AlcoholicDrinkDespiteProblemsCausedByIt?
http://www.peggyferguson.com/AddictionMentalHealth.en.html/
Common Addiction Myths
http://www.peggyferguson.com/AddictionMentalHealth.en.html/
SexAddiction:ABriefDescription, Part 1
http://www.peggyferguson.com/SexAddiction.en.html/
SexAddiction:Are You A Sex Addict? Part 2
http://www.peggyferguson.com/SexAddiction.en.html/
SexAddiction:AreYuSufferingFromSomeoneElse'sAddiction
http://www.peggyferguson.com/SexAddiction.en.html/
SexAddiction:HelpForTheSexAddict'sSpouse, Part5
http://www.peggyferguson.com/SexAddiction.en.html/
SexAddiction:HelpForTheSexAddict, Part4
http://www.peggyferguson.com/SexAddiction.en.html/
Peggy Ferguson Books
Understanding Cross Addiction To Prevent Relapse
http://www.peggyferguson.com/ServicesProvided.en.html/
Preventing Addiction Relapse in PostSurgeryPai Days
http://www.peggyferguson.com/ServicesProvided.en.html/
The Honey Jar, a couples conversation starter (exercise)
http://www.honeyjarcommunications.com
The Recovering Person's Guide to Surviving and Thriving Through The Holidays
http://www.peggyferguson.com/ServicesProvided.en.html
Articles by this expert
SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.
Article
Our Marriage Is In Trouble But My Spouse Won't Go to Marriage Counseling: 7 Reasons Why Your Spouse May Resist Counseling
The idea of marriage counseling is usually brought up and pursued by one partner, initially. The possibility of marriage counseling is often an ongoing debate or discussion for sometime before couples actually find their way to the counselor's office.
Recently added
Article
Why People Have Marital Affairs
Why, when most people believe in monogamous marriages, and that affairs are "wrong", are so many couples struggling to recover from infidelity? Most people do not intend to have an affair and most couples never would have believed that it would happen to them. Affairs happen in the marriages of all kinds of people. Not bad people. Not people whose marriages are "doomed". The reality is that any marriage could be vulnerable to an affair, given the right conditions. One of the first questions that the partner asks when they learn of the affair is "why?".
Recently added
Article
Marital Counseling: How to Make The Most of the Opportunities of Marriage Counseling
People seek marriage counseling because they need help or are in pain. In any given couple, there is usually one who is more interested in counseling than the other. With a list of complaints, each partner usually feels compelled to make his/her case to the counselor about their spouse being "the problem". Although initially both partners seem to have the agenda of having the counselor straighten out the other, the benefits of marital counseling can quickly guide the cooperative efforts of the partners for the benefit of the relationship.
Recently added
Article
Staying Sober After In-Patient Treatment: Ten Reasons To Follow Through With Continuing Care Even If You Don't Want To
The majority of patients who successfully complete inpatient and have the desire to stay clean and sober relapse in the first year after acute care treatment. Anyone who has been to inpatient treatment has noticed that the among the other patients around them, that there is a large percentage who have been through inpatient treatment before. This is largely because addiction is still being treated as an acute illness rather than the chronic disease that it is.
Recently added
Article
Addiction and Recovery: "Treatment" and "Recovery" Are Not The Same Thing.
"My spouse went to recovery. Now they tell me that he needs to go on to additional counseling. What is that all about?" "Recovery" and "treatment" are not the same thing. Inpatient treatment, detox, or outpatient treatment, in and of itself, is not "recovery". Recovery is generally a return of good health, and a restoration (or acquisition) of effective functioning in one's life, in all areas including relationships, work, and community. Treatment for addiction is not a pill, a therapy, a place, or even a slice of time.
Recently added
Article
Addiction and Recovery: Who Will Enable Your Addicted Loved One When You Quit?
"Enabling" can be described as a behavior pattern of the significant people in the life on an addict or alcoholic. "Enabling" involves rescuing the alcoholic/addict from the negative consequences of his or her behavior. When the addict has those negative consequences of his/her addiction removed, the significant other is, in effect, "enabling" the addict to continue drinking/drugging. The significant other enablers the addict to stay in active addiction. This effect is usually not the intention of the worried and caring family member or friend.
Recently added
Article
Help My Teen: Could Your Child's Problems Be Due to Addiction?
Parents often find themselves in a quandary trying to figure out how to help the adolescent whose behavior, disposition, and mood has changed for the worst. The exact nature of the problem may be eluding them. They use a trial and error problem solving method where they end up trying anything and everything to solve the problem. They try assertive discipline, enrolling their child in extracurricular activities to improve self-confidence or self-esteem, tutors, antidepressants, etc. without really knowing what they are dealing with. They are often operating under faulty suppositions.
Recently added
Article
Addiction Recovery Worksheet For Identifying Healthy Replacements for the Alcohol and Drugs
One of the most important tasks of early recovery from alcohol and other drug addiction is learning to replace the chemical with health living skills. When you have taken the chemical out of your life, it leaves a big gaping hole, where something of substance was. Alcohol or other drugs have served many purposes over the course of addiction. They have played many roles. They had meaningful functions in your life. When the chemical is removed from your behavioral repertoire, how will you deal with stress, an annoying coworker, insomnia, and task overload?
Recently added
Article
Falling Out of Love - Should We Pack It In?
Often when a couple comes in for couple’s counseling, one of the partners is stating that s/he has fallen out of love with the other partner. Sometimes they both feel that way, but usually it is just one spouse verbalizing this. When you are feeling this way, it is common to question whether you ever “really” loved your spouse in the first place. Usually when couples present for counseling with one wanting out of the relationship, there other marital issues that are creating problems in the marriage, that the couple may not be talking about or acknowledging.
Recently added
Article
What To Do Right Now To Keep Your Spouse From Leaving You and To Build A Better Life Together.
What if you were called into your boss's office and told that s/he was thinking about letting you go, that you were not fulfilling your job responsibilities, and that you were holding the company back rather than helping the company grow and prosper? Yes, you might be shocked or stunned. You might also already realize that you have not been working any where near your potential, that you have been somewhat disengaged from the company and just "putting in time" until retirement.
Recently added
Article
Keep Your Parents and Children Out of Your Marriage
Keep your parents and your children out of your marriage. Once they are in there, it's hard to get them out. When you are in conflict with your spouse, it is really tempting to use whoever is handy to vent to, regarding your marriage. And often the people available most available to us are our children and parents. They are typically most often in our presence, and if we don't see them throughout the day, they are often the people we speak to on the phone most often.
Recently added
Article
Everyone Loses When You Give Up on Your Marriage Without Trying to Acquire the Skills You Need To Keep It
There is the "should" that says that you should be able to solve your own problems without help. Here is the rationale: "If your relationship has enough tension and strain that help is needed, the relationship is not going to make it anyway, so why waste time and money with counseling?" The reality is that if you give up on your marriage without first trying to acquire the skills that your need to be happy in it, you lose. Everyone loses.
Recently added
Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Peggy Ferguson
"I perceive substance dependence as a chronic disease, a community health issue, and from a systems perspective, as a family, workplace, and cultural problem. I stress the importance of treating addiction as the chronic, life threatening illness, that it is. Addiction, like other chronic illnesses, requires lifestyle changes, the need to take personal responsibility for recovery, and ongoing or intermittent professional help to prevent relapse, maintain gains, and facilitate unlimited growth."
"Treatment is just as important for family members as it is for the addicted person. Family members can recover, regardless of whether the addict does."
"Although recovery is a goal and a process, it is not a destination. Recovery is a life long process. During this process, you can have a better life than you ever dreamed was possible."
"Abstinence does not equal recovery. Abstinence is the very beginning of recovery."
Contacting Peggy Ferguson
Peggy L. Ferguson, Ph.D., LADC, LMFT
116 W. 7th, Suite 211
Stillwater, OK 74074
405-707-9600
fax 405-707-9601
How to get started
To Find Out More About Me Go To My Website at
and check out my Bio, Articles, Recommended Readings
or send me an email and ask me a question at
or opt-in for my newsletter, to receive updates on newly posted articles, webinars, ebooks, eprograms, mp3 files, and other information products.
You can email me at peggyferguson@peggyferguson.com, peggyferguson@hotmail.com or call me at 405-707-9600.
E-books and The Honey Jar are available at http://www.peggyferguson.com.ServicesProvided.en.html
Other highlights
Please sign up for my newsletter at www.peggyferguson.com/ to receive updates about upcoming articles, webinars, teleseminars, and other informational/educational opportunities.
The Honey Jar is released!!!! Go to http://www.honeyjarcommunications.com to purchase your copy.