Beyond Addiction Episode-5 “Our Program”

In this episode of “Beyond Addiction,” we discuss the components of our non-12 step holistic drug and alcohol treatment program.

“Beyond Addiction” is a podcast dedicated to sharing an innovative perspective on addiction and recovery. In this series, we discuss an innovative, “inside out” approach to recovery.

In Beyond Addiction Episode 5, “Our Program,” we discuss our non-12 step holistic drug and alcohol treatment program. We incorporate a luxury setting, chef-prepared food and outdoor amenities, a medically licensed detox facility, spa and one-on-one, and group therapy, as well as physical and mental health protocols, to create the setting for natural insight to return and become a part of our healthy operating system.

Our Program: THRIVE® Total Health Recovery

Detox

Not everybody who comes in the program needs to be in detox, some get detox at a hospital, and some don’t need it. However, the majority of our guests do require our detox program, which is unique because it’s very private. With only five beds, it’s secluded from the rest of the building, in a separate wing. We have nursing care 24/7, and each bed is a private bedroom with widescreen television and very comfortable accommodations.

We have what’s called a class-2 institutional pharmacy, so we’re able to stock meds. When a person comes in we’ve got everything we need to help immediately, so we don’t have to wait on someone writing a prescription.

It’s a lot of one-on-one care and attention, with each guest monitored on a case-by-case basis to keep our guests comfortable. It’s essential for us to start with loving care before they transfer out of the detoxification wing into the residential side, which is in the same building.

Watch video: Gulf Breeze Recovery’s Dr. David Espenscheid, MD, discusses the emphasis we put on detoxification.

Neurofeedback

The first thing our guests do when they start the residential program is neurofeedback. We incorporate neurofeedback as a part of our holistic treatment program primarily because it works. Clinical studies support neurofeedback for treatment of addiction because it results in a 30% reduction in relapse rates compared to those that did not use neurofeedback. It’s highly effective to train our brain’s reward center to return to healthy brain activity the way it functioned prior to addiction. After repeated sessions, the brain learns to prefer to be calm and at peace. Neurofeedback helps our guests be calmer, less anxious, and helps them sleep better through the night.

Watch Video: Gulf Breeze Recovery’s Neurofeedback Clinician Margaret Carr explains briefly the benefits of Neurofeedback. A more detailed explanation of how it works can be found on our Neurofeedback Wiki.

Mental and Physical Health

We spend a great deal of time in the program providing counseling, and group sessions to develop a baseline of mental health. At the same time, we don’t want to leave the body behind, and it’s an integral part of this holistic treatment model. We have time set aside for physical exercise, and spa therapies that are all medically monitored to accelerate a deeper level of detox. We focus our guest’s attention on the benefits of nutritious meals, and we have individualized nutritional education for our guests.

All these protocols contribute to getting an individual sleeping through the night naturally, without the use of sleep aids.

The goal is to educate our guests about how their thinking plays a role in creating their feelings. The difference between thought and feeling is feelings are felt in the body. When we feel anxiety, it can present as a fluttering in the chest, a tightness in the stomach, different feelings are felt in different places in the body. To become really attuned and aware of how your feelings are being experienced when something is ticking you off, versus how your body feels when it’s healthy, and you’re caring for it.

It’s difficult to ascertain where I am in my feeling state if I don’t know what normal feels like.

We set time aside in the program for guests to focus on their physical body, how do I care for myself, and how do I prioritize my physical health, creating new behaviors, not just saying: “Oh yeah, physical health is important…” We set aside time to make it essential, which sets the stage for our guests to be able to be physically comfortable and receptive to what’s going to happen in the later parts of the program.

Classes

Our guests then go into morning classes where they get into the “meat and potatoes” of the program’s mental health development. Our guests learn how our conditioning towards outside-in thinking became second-nature, how it created the fertile soil for addiction. What we’re trying to do is make the ground fallow for addiction to take hold.

Understanding the inside-out nature of our authentic experience helps eliminate the substitution problem that people often experience when they leave. Many of our guests have left traditional 12 step treatment programs multiple times and relapsed. This is because the soil is still fertile for addiction, so they go from one substance to another. It doesn’t have to be substances; it could be sex, gambling, social media, or whatever. The morning classes are the introduction and reinforcement of the principles of health realization. We help our guests see the true inside-out nature of our reality, to help them see for themselves their innate happiness. A natural baseline of healthy, calm, and peaceful awareness that I have everything right now, even in early stages treatment.

We incorporate EMDR for people who suffered trauma as part of our individualized approach to our guests mental health protocols. We offer yoga, mindfulness, meditation, and therapy practices that help a person quiet their mind. These combine to assist people slow the “hamster wheel” down and get back to a calm state. And, that they can do this on their own at any given time. The whole program is for facilitating you to have your an important self-revealing insight. It is vital that a person sees what is revealed for themselves and that it’s 100% real. So you can never lose it, it’s portable, and you take it with you for the rest of your life. The power of insight is unlimited, there’s always more of the picture to see. Once I see it for myself, it makes sense. It’s much more profound, and there’s just no substitute for developing insight, it’s an invaluable part of the program.

Reflection

During reflection our guests read books about the program or just some quiet time for contemplation between classes to be with themselves because we want to help our guests see that it’s okay to be alone with themselves it’s okay to be bored. We seldom have time to be with ourselves and for some of us, this evokes deep fear that if they get to know what’s there at the core of their being that they’ll find someone that is unworthy and unlikable and lacking in some way, but that is never the truth.

Your Innate Health and Resilience

When you see yourself in your full resilience with all of this innate health and innate value that you were born with they’re pleasantly surprised that what’s underneath all of the drugs and all of the alcohol and all of the acting out and all the behaviors and all the dodging and all the trying to stay busy and all the trying to stay distracted, underneath all of that is a person who is innately healthy. When a person becomes comfortable just being in a space alone with no other distraction, then boredom loses the power as a trigger. You’re comfortable with yourself.

Our guests talk about learning who they are for the first time in a long time, most have never stopped and gotten quiet for long enough to assess: “Who am I.” Just sitting with myself, developing this relationship for the first time, is really beautiful, and part of the recovery process.

This is not a traditional four-week program.

It takes time to get reacquainted with yourself. It’s a process, but it’s so worth it. For just a few more weeks of a person’s time, our guests get a glimpse of who they are and what’s been driving them. This is not a trivial or superficial matter, and it’s life changing.

Watch Video: Anthony, a former graduate of the THRIVE® Total Health Recovery program discusses the length of stay, which is on-average 8-weeks.

Aftercare

The next phase of the program is our aftercare. Our guests work with a therapist to create a blueprint for success with an aftercare counselor for continuing education. There may be a relapse back to the conditioned belief in the outside-in nature of life. It happens gradually, so we want to help gently point a person back to themselves as quickly as possible.

Aftercare includes zoom meetings every Monday and we have a private Facebook page where graduates can post things and get responses. If people are struggling, they can pick the phone up and call us because that’s what we’re here for, aftercare support. We also have a meeting locally every Tuesday and a meditation group every Wednesday in addition to one-on-one meetings with an aftercare counselor. We make it flexible to provide as much support as our graduates need. If they feel like they are on shaky ground, there’s somebody to point them back to themselves.

 

In this episode:
“The Innate Health of the Individual”

In Beyond Addiction Episode 5, “Our Program,” we discuss our non-12 step holistic drug and alcohol treatment program. We incorporate a luxury setting, chef-prepared food and outdoor amenities, a medically licensed detox facility, spa and one-on-one, and group therapy, as well as physical and mental health protocols, to create the setting for natural insight to return and become a part of our healthy operating system.