
Jasmina Knezhevich Tasich MD. PhD.
founder, owner and director of the first private Specialized Psychiatric Clinic in the region: LORIJEN Center.
“Success of our work with addictive patients is based mainly on the patients’ trust. We make efforts
to provoke a long term positive change in the patient’s lifestyle through adopting healthy habits and
life skills, which is not easy at all. We treat them individually and with respect; reframing their
sensitive present and building their better future through focus on their interests and preferences.
Only in this way we can help them resolve their emotional conflicts and unpleasant memories that
lead to the development of addiction. Positive communication with the patient during the treatment
is very important; it creates a relationship that can then last for a very long time,” says Jasmina
Knezhevich Tasich MD, PhD.
Jasmina Knezhevich Tasich MD, PhD, is one of the first experts in the treatment of addiction in Serbia and in the broader region, and a renowned psychiatrist with over 35 years of experience in the field. She is the founder, owner and director of the first private Specialized Psychiatric Clinic in the region: LORIJEN Center.
She is continuously attending the most modern psychotherapeutic education in the USA and Europe.
For many years she was an international member of ASAM, the American Association for Addictive Medicine, and author of researches, books and comprehensive studies.
In addition, she is a psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, group analyst and systems – psychodynamic organizational consultant. Jasmina Knezhevich Tasich instils a thorough and dedicated attitude towards psychotherapy and treatment of addiction in her team, encouraging creativity and expertise in approaching each individual patient and situation.
How did you start your international career, and how did it take 25 years to rank at the top among
psychiatric hospitals on the Balkans and in Europe with LORIJEN Center?
Due to circumstances, I started my career in a newly opened institution for the treatment of addiction, in Belgrade. When I came back from my residency training, I was confronted with an unprecedented expansion of addictions, which spread like wildfire among young people.They
needed help and that’s when I decided to devote my professional life to that. Participation in numerous conferences in Europe and America, together with world-renowned psychiatrists, allowed me to start creating and implementing modern programs for prevention and treatment of
addictions.
LORIJEN Center has been practicing addiction treatments for over 25 years, for all types of addiction, psychiatric disorders and psychological issues. So far, the help of LORIJEN Addiction Center experts has been sought by over 7,500 addicts. The expert team of the LORIJEN Center has successfully been solving problems of substance with drawal: heroin, alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy and other psycho active substances. We have also created very efficient long term recovery programs. In recent years, we have developed very effective programs for the treatment of behavioral addictions suchas gambling and internet addiction.
We are committed to our patients and dedicated to providing complete, top quality service for them and their families. The wide range of methods used allows us not only to meet the needs of every treatment phase but also to tailor the treatment to the specific needs of each individual patient.
In other words we make individualized treatment plans for long-term recovery. At the same time, all phases of treatment are carried out in one place.
Тhe most important thing is to have a patient trust you. Only in this way you can help them resolve their emotional conflicts and unpleasant memories that lead to the development of addiction.
What leads to addiction most often, and what emotions do your patients experience?
In addition to the genetic predisposition for the development of addictions, both to activities and substances, the negative emotions that people have experienced (traumatic experiences) or were deprived of emotions during the development period also contribute to a large extent. Young people who have reduced self-control, are impulsive, constantly in search of sensation, prone to risky behavior, recklessness in decision-making, etc. are especially prone to addictions.
They suffer the most because they can not regulate their own emotions, connect with other people, establish and maintain a sense of self-worth, and take care of themselves. Among the patients we work with, stagnation and regression in emotional development is observed. They lose the capacity to distinguish feelings, to experience them on a psychological level and to name them. Their feelings are often undifferentiated, preverbal, they are experienced bodily.
Their emotions are expressed in extremes, without gradation or nuance. The most common of these emotions are very intense anger, shame and feelings of abandonment, rejection, hurt and loneliness. Psychoanalysts believe that compulsive drug use is an attempt at self-medication, a defense against these overwhelming, painful and confusing feelings. As long as they are in the possession of the substance they are unable to develop a meaningful relationship with anything or anyone else.
Can you influence patients to more easily make the decision to be treated?
Most patients initially deny the disease and see no need to change anything. When they become aware of the connection between addictive behavior and its severe and numerous consequences, they slowly accept the need for treatment. However, although there is an intention, they are also ambivalent towards the treatment. Without an active support from the therapist, the process can last for years. I start motivational conversations through which I help them see the difference
between their future goals and their life now and to answer thequestion: “Do I want to be the kind of person addiction will make out of me?”.
Only when they become fully aware of the magnitude of their problem, can the patient begin treatment. For that to happen, commitment to the problem, patience and open communication is needed.
How do you communicate with patients in order to solve emotional problems and help them get rid of negative emotions?
In working with my patients, the most important thing for me is to avoid discouragement. They should understand and accept that it is a chronic disease, and that there is a tendency to relapse. Treatment is a complex and long-term process.
Patients should be informed in a way that will develop positive emotions, they will become aware of their problem, and they will make the decision to treat themselves. There are many ups and downs in the treatment process, so you need perseverance and faith that it will work. If relapses occur, it should be used as an opportunity for learning.
The patient’s family is an extremely important factor that influences their motivation to seek treatment. It should be accepted that there is no psychotherapy method or approach that is efficient and completely adequate during the whole process of treatment. That’s why teamwork is so important.
In the first 2 months of the treatment, the intensive contact with the medical team during the day hospital allows them psychological support in the period of the strongest psychological crises.
During this period patients are vulnerable, fragile, confused, in a bad mood.
After that, work is based on enabling the patient to change their lifestyle and adopt healthy habits and life skills, which is not easy at all. Group and individual psychotherapies during later phases of treatment lead to complete psychosocial recovery.
Does your communication with patients continue even when the treatment ends?
Given that addictions are chronic diseases and require long-term treatment, monitoring, cooperation and communication with patients last for years, even decades. It often happens that patients who have been in a stable state of health for many years come for a consultation for marital or child problems. Sometimes they get involved in group therapies with the desire to work on personality development and their own potentials. Sometimes, they just send us an email or a letter to let us know that they are well and what they have achieved in life.
That is why positive communication with the patient during the treatment is very important; it creates a relationship that can then last for a very long time.
What influences the positive experiences of patients the most: the expertise, the conditions offered by the hospital, the attitude of the medical staff or something else?
All factors, without exception, have a great influence. Expertise is very important to guide the treatment correctly, and psychological support largely depends on the training of medical personnel to communicate with the patient. Every one in our hospital has the same attitude towards patients, they accept and support them. We treat each patient with respect, we focus on what is good and valuable in them, everyone in their role takes care of them. Many patients state that the atmosphere in our hospital is significant. They often say that it gives them the feeling and warmth of home, they feel comfortable and pleasant.
In your clinic, you also have a center for psychotherapy. Why do patients usually turn to you?
Working on yourself and developing soft skills is increasingly becoming a way of life, which guarantees success and self-realization. In addition to physical health and appearance, people are becoming aware of the importance of taking care of mental health. Patients come to us to help them with psychological challenges, to improve their well-being. They also want to learn how to live fully and with quality and be satisfied with themselves and the interpersonal relationships they build.