The personality and social development of a client in a therapeutic community

This diploma work consists of theoretical and empirical parts. The theoretical part deals with drug addiction and describes the options of its treatment with a special regard to psychotherapeutical approach which are commonly used when working with drug addicts. Later on, I summarize current knowledge of a therapeutic community as one of the most effective methods of treatment and social rehabilitation of drug addicts. Therapeutic community is a specific form of group therapy exploiting social learning, democratic decision making and therapeutic potential of the clients themselves. The therapeutical process is aimed at personal and social development of each individual which should lead to a complex change of his/her lifestyle. These goals can be reached by means of various instruments including structured programmes, regime and community activities. The practical part of this work describes the empirical research which examined the clients' perception of their personal and social development in TC as well as the views and opinions of their therapeuts