In this modern-day of drug and alcohol addiction treatment, the recovery community relies on a different approach. In the past, the community delivered addiction treatment services with a rather generic method. However, when the success statistics kept coming back at unacceptable levels, the addiction community changed its collective ideologies towards holistic treatment such as our rehab program in Palm Springs, California.
Today, most of the top addiction treatment facilities offer evidence-based modalities as well as holistic therapy. At Phoenix Rising Recovery Center in Palm Springs, the results from our holistic treatment center have been surprisingly effective. Holistic, natural recovery approaches introduce new ways to solve old problems.
Holistic methods also strive to bring healthy thoughts and practices to replace old, unhealthy habits. When used with addiction therapy and support groups, holistic therapies are an effective aid to fight addiction and reinforce recovery. A successful recovery from drug and alcohol disorders depends heavily on the connections between body, mind, and spirit.
What is Holistic Treatment?
During the 20th century, health care was medically divided. There was 1 type of treatment to fix several symptoms. Issues having to do with the mind were usually treated with talk therapy. Issues of the body were treated with drugs and surgeries. Therefore, the body and mind were viewed as separate systems.
The 1970s brought the realization that treating only one type of addiction symptoms really only managed some of the addiction issues. Thus, this method didn’t always help people improve their overall quality of life. The first national conference on holistic healing began a movement for alternative forms of care in the field of medicine and among therapists. This was the beginning in the surge of holistic psychotherapy.
Holistic psychotherapy is an approach that focuses on the relationship between body, mind, and spirit. It attempts to understand and look at the way issues in one part of a person’s life can lead to problems in another. Individuals who follow holistic therapy for addiction may become more tuned into their entire selves. This, in turn, can promote a greater acceptance of the self.
Holistic Therapy Program at Our California Addiction Treatment Center
The addiction treatment community focused on the well-being of its patients in hopes of improving their success rates. It’s a concept the “cookie-cutter” approach to treatment was ignoring. Over the years, the aforementioned combination of evidence-based modalities and holistic therapy options began gaining popularity because of its results.
The value behind holistic therapy is that it can involve many options. Again, the idea behind using these options is to address other aspects of the patient’s personal well-being. Previously, relapsing became a familiar pattern because there was a hidden factor addiction therapy wasn’t addressing. That hidden factor had to do with patients still not knowing how to care for their bodies and minds after leaving traditional forms of treatment.
By adding holistic therapy into the addiction treatment equation, patients are now learning how to take care of not only their minds and bodies, but also their souls on their own. This is the case long after they cease taking prescription medications and after treatment is over.
Holistic treatment can take on many forms. Within our Palm Springs, California drug rehab center, we try to keep our holistic addiction treatment program fun as well as useful. That way our patients are motivated to continue incorporating these holistic forms of therapy in their everyday life back at home.
The list of available holistic treatment options that we offer at our Palm Springs drug rehab includes:
Individual Therapy
Individual therapy is a cooperative process that’s between just the client and their therapist. During individual therapy, a trained therapist can help them reveal the underlying causes of their thoughts and behaviors and help them make positive changes to their lifestyle. Many individuals contain depression, bipolar disorder, or some other mental health disorder along with addictions. This is referred to as a dual diagnosis or a comorbid condition.
Both conditions within a dual diagnosis need to be treated at the same time. Some people find it helpful to take part in individual and group therapy while dealing with substance use and dual diagnosis disorders.
Group Therapy
People usually prefer group therapy over individual therapy. Group therapy usually consists of 5 to 15 group members and one or more therapists. During group therapy sessions at our holistic treatment center in Palm Springs, California, they are likely to be challenged. At the same time, their peers in the group can support them.
People will find that group therapy helps them put their own problems into perspective. By listening to others regularly, they are more able to speak about their problems. This helps them realize they are not the only person with addiction issues. Similarly, watching how other people in the group handle addiction problems and make changes in their lives helps them learn a new plan of action for themselves.
Family Therapy
We know the whole family suffers whenever a family member struggles with a serious ongoing substance use disorder. The family balance shifts as each member adjusts to fit the situation. When a family member has an active addiction, other members of the family becomes overly responsible and controlling.
Family therapy helps family members improve communication and resolve conflicts. Family therapy looks closely at family relationships. This form of therapy also aims to understand the experiences of the spouse and all the family members. As a result, family relationships are clear and close. The repair of family relationships is encouraged.
Family therapy is one of the cornerstones of lasting recovery. After leaving a treatment facility, the family and loved ones are all a person has to keep them accountable. If they don’t have a family support system, they are more susceptible to relapse.
EMDR Therapy
EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) is a form of psychotherapy. It helps identify and focus on emotionally or psychologically distressing past experiences while the client follows an object with their eyes. The goal of EMDR therapy is to help them heal from the symptoms and distress caused by disturbing life experiences. It desensitizes the body to those experiences and memories.
Studies have shown that through EMDR therapy, they can get the benefits of psychotherapy that used to take years, in a relatively short time. In the past, severe emotional pain took a long time to heal. However, EMDR therapy has shown that the mind can heal from psychological trauma in a similar way to the way the body heals from physical trauma.
Behavioral Therapies
Behavioral therapies focus on thought patterns and behaviors. By using behavioral therapies, a person can begin to understand how their negative thoughts and attitudes can directly affect their behavior.
The 2 common behavioral therapies are:
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)–CBT teaches individuals how to change their negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors into positive ones.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)–DBT teaches individuals how to accept their negative thoughts and feelings so they don’t control them and make them exhibit negative behaviors.
Experiential Therapy
Experiential therapy is a therapeutic method that uses expressive tools and activities to re-enact and re-experience emotional situations from recent and past relationships. Patients of experiential therapy at our Palm Springs-based holistic treatment center focus on activities such as:
- Roleplaying
- Props
- Arts and crafts
- Music
- Animal care
- Various forms of recreation
Through experiential therapy activities, patients begin to identify emotions associated with success, responsibility, self-esteem, and disappointment. With the supervision of a trained experiential therapist, patients also begin to explore and release their negative feelings of anger, hurt, or shame as they are related to their past experiences.
Note, that each of these options involves some form of relaxation and self-introspection. That’s exactly what people in recovery need—a way to focus on something other than their problems and addiction triggers. A way to really learn about themselves, their minds, bodies, and spirits so that they can learn how to better their entire well-being.
Additional Types of Holistic Therapy at Our Rehab Program in California
There are various types of holistic therapy at our Palm Springs holistic treatment center. This is partly because holistic therapies for addiction are alternative forms of therapy. They treat individuals mentally, physically, and spiritually so they can more easily cope with their addiction triggers.
Physical Therapy
Physical types of holistic therapy for addiction help restore the body to physical health after abusing it for so long through the misuse of substances. Because the mind, body, and soul are connected, physical types of holistic therapy can also help improve the overall well-being of individuals in addiction rehab. This, in turn, makes coping with addiction triggers easier.
Common physical types of holistic therapy include:
1. Cardio Exercise
Any form of cardio exercise can act as a holistic activity. This is because performing cardio exercises helps improve the physical health of patients by helping them lose weight and remove toxins from the body through sweating.
Cardio exercise even helps the brain release endorphins that help people in addiction treatment and recovery stay in a good mood. This, in turn, helps keep people in addiction treatment and recovery motivated to maintain their sobriety. This is especially true since receiving endorphins through cardio exercise can replace the euphoric sensation that individuals often turn to substance use to feel.
2. Yoga
Yoga is another physical form of holistic therapy. This is because yoga uses strength and flexibility-building techniques to help improve people’s health as they become one with their bodies.
3. Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a physical form of holistic therapy because it uses needles to hit certain pressure points that help release stress and tension in the body. By releasing stress and tension in the body, acupuncture also helps release stress and tension in the mind as well as the soul. This makes sustaining sobriety less stressful.
4. Art Therapy
Creating artwork is a physical type of holistic therapy. This is because creating artwork requires individuals to actively move their bodies to participate. Art therapy can also act as a form of holistic therapy for addiction because it can help people put together what they think and feel. This is because people can more easily recognize and express their feelings through artwork.
5. Music Therapy
Music therapy is the practice of playing, writing, singing, and creating music. Similar to art therapy, music therapy can be considered physical therapy because it requires individuals to actively move their bodies to create, play, write, or sing music. Also, similar to art therapy, music therapy can help addiction treatment and recovery patients express themselves and get in touch with their emotions. This can help people in addiction treatment and recovery find their identities.
Mental Therapy
Mental types of holistic therapy for addiction include practices that help calm the brain down. By calming the brain down, mental types of holistic therapy for addiction help keep people balanced and focused as they encounter addiction triggers.
Common types of holistic mental therapy for addiction include:
1. Breathing Exercises
Breathing exercises are a great type of mental holistic therapy. This is because breathing exercises help individuals calm down and slow the panicked thoughts that are rushing through their brains. It helps people better cope with addiction triggers. Breathing exercises even help people cope with mental disorders that can trigger the desire to use substances, such as anxiety.
2. Meditation
A very popular form of holistic therapy for addiction is meditation. This is because meditation helps people slow down their thoughts and focus. Meditation helping people focus is particularly helpful in addiction treatment and recovery. It helps people better focus on maintaining sobriety when in the face of addiction triggers.
3. Time in Nature
Spending time in nature can act as a mental type of addiction therapy because it provides little to no distractions. Therefore, people can often think deeply while in nature. This can help people become one with their minds. Because human beings are also a species in the world, spending time in nature can also help people in addiction treatment and recovery become one with their bodies and souls. Improving one’s well-being by being in touch with one’s body, mind, and soul only makes coping with addiction triggers that much easier.
Spiritual Therapy
To really prevent themselves from relapsing, individuals need to improve the well-being of their souls. There is no deeper way to ensure that a person will be motivated and healthy enough to maintain sobriety long-term. Individuals can improve the well-being of their souls through spiritual types of holistic therapy.
One common spiritual type of holistic therapy is the following:
- Prayer
Having some sort of higher power to turn to when in need of hope, motivation, or inspiration is very useful when in recovery from addiction. That’s why 12-Step programs are based on the principle of belief in a higher power. A way to spiritually connect with a higher power is to pray.
The Real Benefits of Holistic Therapy
As we indicated above, addiction treatment needs to exceed the bounds of the addiction itself. Therefore, it needs to delve into the client’s psyche.
There’s very little value in proclaiming a patient to be in recovery, only to see that patient relapse because they can’t cope without using drugs and alcohol. Holistic measures allow individuals to positively cope. They end up being the life or coping skills that can help keep people in addiction recovery in a balanced and healthy place. This reduces their chances of relapsing.
In the holistic therapy program at our Palm Springs treatment center here at Phoenix Rising Recovery, we work with our patients to recognize the issues that are driving their desires to misuse substances. Once our patients understand what is causing them to want to misuse substances, they need a way to deal with those negative thoughts.
More times than not, holistic activities like yoga and equine therapy give addiction treatment patients a great source of relaxation. It’s especially interesting to see the effects holistic activities have on people that are usually high-strung. Even when such high-strung individuals attend holistic activities, they suddenly have this aura of serenity that surrounds them. This aura of serenity that holistic therapy creates around individuals makes relapse for them less likely.
Join Our Holistic Addiction Treatment Program in California
From the desert of our Palm Springs holistic treatment center, Phoenix Rising Recovery provides a variety of addiction treatment resources for people of all ages. Our primary focus is on providing our patients with a modern approach to treatment. If your prior efforts at using traditional forms of addiction treatment have resulted in relapse, it might be time to try something different. The team at Phoenix Rising Recovery Center in California suggests incorporating holistic therapy options into your addiction treatment program.
Contact us today to get started on your recovery journey.