“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you”. – Deepak Chopra
OUTPATIENT GROUPS
Groups
Groups include Education, Process groups, Relapse Prevention, Assertiveness Training, Anger Management, Nutrition, Stress Management, Self Hypnosis, Life Skills, Sex Education, Family Therapy, 12 step groups, Motivational Enhancement, Social Skills.
Group descriptions:
Motivational Enhancement: Motivational enhancement therapy is a therapeutic approach that helps you understand where you are in your process of wanting change in your addiction and where you want to be. It consists of an initial evaluation that helps you better understand what works for you and what you are willing to do, and helps you determine your plan for change. Sessions then focus on monitoring change, reviewing what strategies worked in maintaining your recovery, and encourages commitment to change using motivational enhancement techniques. It is an effective tool for relapse prevention. It is scientifically linked with positive outcomes in alcohol and marijuana abuse and dependence, and works best in conjunction with other therapies such as 12 step and cognitive behavioral approaches.
More information on MET can be found on the NIH site: www.drugabuse.gov.
Distress Intolerance Groups: Distress intolerance is when you are unable to fully experience negative, unpleasant or adverse feelings, and find yourself desperately seeking escape or comfort for those emotions. People who struggle with addiction tend to be distress intolerant, thus avoid difficult emotions or situations. The goal of these groups is to increase tolerance for unpleasant emotions by gaining understanding to what emotions are, what factors in our lives led us to become stress intolerant, identifying beliefs that keep us intolerant, and then challenging those beliefs. Finally, practicing “facing your feelings” helps build stronger adaptive skills.
Assertiveness Training: Assertiveness training is learning how to know what you believe or feel, and standing up for your needs while respecting the needs of those around you. In this group, you learn the different styles of behavior, such as “passive, passive-aggressive, assertive, aggressive, and avoidant”. You will learn why being assertive is actually just being truthful and respectful at the same time. It is “having integrity”. Learning healthy verbal and non verbal ways of standing up for yourself will help you maintain sobriety and will help in your recovery. Self- awareness and conflict resolution are key factors in this group.
Anger Management: Anger management groups begin by teaching you on what anger is, learning more about what triggers you, and teaching and practicing techniques for diffusing your anger. Some techniques used in anger management include stress reduction, progressive muscle relaxation, cognitive behavioral strategies and assertiveness training. Sometimes, old traumas cause a PTSD (post traumatic stress reaction) like reaction to minor stressors, making you more reactive than others would be. Understanding why you react in certain ways, learning about the brain-body response, and developing new ways of problem solving are key in anger management… and remember, “the more you practice, the better you get” because you are making new, more efficient neuronal pathways in your brain!
Stress Management: Stress management is an integral part of substance abuse treatment because anxiety, ineffective coping, and high dependency needs are all highly correlated with addiction. It involves identifying stressors, learning relaxation and autogenesis (self hypnosis) and helping you find a balance in your life by increasing effective coping skills.
Parenting: Many recovering addicts struggle with parenting. If you have children, you may have a hard time understanding your own values, setting goals for teaching your kids, and identifying what rules are important. Sometimes, being consistent – firm yet kind- is a struggle. Other times, the guilt of having struggled with addiction or simply your own boundary issues keep you from setting healthy limits with your kids. These groups not only help you better understand your role as a parent, but teach effective parenting skills such as boundary setting, communication, how to listen to your child, negotiation and developmental expectations of different age groups.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT): Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is a cognitive behavioral therapy that was designed to treat people with Borderline Personality Disorder. It is also effective in treating substance abuse and other personality disorders, thus is a good therapy modality to be used in conjunction with other treatment approaches. This approach teaches mindfulness, distress intolerance training, and interpersonal effectiveness as well as emotional regulation.
Social Skills for Professionals: Learning how to prepare for and execute an interview is hard. Now that you are in recovery, making a new resume, interviewing and obtaining a new job can be daunting and frustrating. You may not get a job as quickly as you wanted, or might not go back to your level of work and have to rebuild your professional platform. You may not know what to say about your recovery or past history, or may not have the self confidence to interview effectively. In this group, we teach the social skills needed to make a resume, prepare you to go to interviews; physically and emotionally, and help support you through the stress of beginning your new job and routine. Once the job is in place, maintaining a sober social network, problem solving with peers and managing stress and frustration at work is key. Knowing how to say “no” at work related events may also be processed and practiced in this group.
Social Skills for Adolescents/Young Adults: In this stage of life, independence, peer and romantic relationships and self management become key. Because of this, learning how to manage frustration, accepting mistakes while using them to grow and balancing freedom with responsibility is taught. Managing peer pressure and gaining a solid understanding of yourself at this age provides the foundation for future success. We focus on emotional regulation and problem solving as well as ego integration (finding out who you are amidst all the outside influences).
Life Skills for Adolescents/Young Adults: In this group, we teach organizational and study/work skills. We focus on time management, resume building, interviewing skills and oral presentation. We also process and practice skills for independent living such as making budgets, shopping, meal planning, and other life planning and general life organization.
Nutrition/Eating Disorder Support: groups on nutrition not only educate and teach the skills necessary to maintain healthy eating patterns, but also focus on eating disorders, what causes them, what maintains them and how to break the cycle. These groups incorporate self help work and guided groups along with individual therapy as needed to begin to establish healthy eating habits, practice effective strategies for relapse prevention and develop a support network for healthy eating/lifestyle change.
Sex Therapy: Sexual identity, functioning and overall well being is of utmost importance in a well balanced life of sobriety. Many people beginning the recovery process find it difficult to express themselves in a healthy and intimate environment without the use of substances or alcohol. Others find that it is easy to replace their substance addiction with sex addictions. These groups help you better understand your sexuality, the process of intimacy, and help break down the fears and perceptions that keep you in the addictive cycle.
Relaxation Training/Meditation/Autogenesis: In this group, we focus on showing you how to use meditation, breathing and self hypnosis (called autogenesis) to train and heal the mind. When you are mindful you are focused on a single thing or activity, increasing your openness to learn and heal. It is often used for stress management, relaxation, anger management, frustration tolerance, improving distress intolerance, chronic pain, and helping you better understand your emotions. With this improved mind-body connection, you are primed to improve your connection with your spirituality.
Sober Socializing: In this process group, we do different things to help you develop a “sober self” or identity. We may go out to dinner with the group and process cravings and relapse factors, or go to the beach and play volleyball so that you learn how to have fun sober. We help you identify and practice fun activities that keep you balanced and enjoying your life without the use of drugs and alcohol. For many recovering addicts or alcoholics, not knowing what to do for fun is a large reason for relapse. Given this, we tailor this part of the program so that you can begin your life with some sober socializing skills and help you find a sober network.
12 Step Groups: In these groups, we work each step as it pertains to you and your recovery. Here you learn to live through a greater enlightenment, a greater connection to your higher power, and greater understanding of the “12 steps”, which is the treatment program most correlated with success. As a matter of fact, healthy people follow the steps without even knowing it.