Alcohol and Drug Treatment Program

When clients enroll at ARC, treatment planning is personalized to meet their individual needs. Our treatment philosophy is that alcoholism, drug addiction and substance abuse issues have root causes and conditions and that for addiction treatment to be successful, these core issues need to be addressed. Resolution in some cases may come quickly, but more often than not, true resolution takes time.

The purpose of personalized treatment plans is to create a program of recovery that provides a pathway of supportive services during treatment and after, so that personal resolution can be reached. Treatment does not end once a client leaves the center. A program of action is implemented during primary care that continues once transition from rehab takes place.

Detailed individual assessment is initiated upon intake and from this evaluation process, a treatment plan is formulated that takes into account the short and long-term goals that need to take place for sustained addiction recovery to be possible. A multi-disciplinary team of licensed professionals use a variety of methodologies to determine what these goals should be. Individual, family, community, educational and employment considerations are evaluated to create a treatment plan congruent to each clients present and future needs.

Personalized treatment planning prevents clients from having a treatment and aftercare plan that doesn’t fit within their life’s framework or the reality of their obligations to family, work or scholastic endeavors. It creates flexibility so each client can return to independent living with supportive measures in place that ensure participation in life versus having to maintain distance and/or separation from the routine activities of daily living.

ARC Primarily Utilizes Individual Therapy as a Treatment Modality

Our philosophy is that individual addictions need to be treated in individual ways and the Authentic Recovery Center offers a treatment curriculum that primarily utilizes individual therapy as a treatment modality. Offering individualized care allows each clients treatment to be tailored to meet his/her unique needs and serves each client by ensuring that the treatment is conducted in the most effective manner possible.

ARC offers each client a minimum of three to five individual sessions per week. Some of the methodologies we utilize during individual sessions are:    

• Grief Therapy
• Trauma Therapy
• Somatic Therapy
• Reflective Therapy
• Analytical Therapy
• Insight-Based Therapy
• Reason-Based Therapy
• Psychodynamic Therapy
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Individual therapy helps each client to better understand the origins of their condition. For many clients, daily therapy sessions become the cornerstone of their recovery process. During these sessions, the therapist and the client begin the process of identifying and resolving the underlying issues that have contributed to the cycle of addiction. In individual sessions clients are presented with the opportunity to address issues that are often too difficult to process on a group level. The intimate setting of individual therapy is often the format for clients to experience a cathartic shift in consciousness and to begin the process of resolution for issues that have hidden beneath the surface for quite some time.

Individual therapy is a very important factor in helping clients to achieve recovery success. Group therapy is also a useful tool in supporting clients in beginning their road to recovery, but ARC does not apply group modalities as the primary tool for supporting clients and their loved ones. Instead, ARC offers individual therapy as the foundation for our entire treatment curriculum, including the Family Program.

The Origins of Group Therapy and its Role in Traditional Drug Treatment Centers

The clinical technique of formally organized group therapy is said to have been devised by J. H. Pratt in 1905. Pratt was holding general-care instruction classes for recently discharged tuberculosis patients when he noticed the impact of this experience on their emotional states. In 1925 psychoanalyst Trigant Burrow became dissatisfied with individual psychoanalysis, and began experimenting with group techniques. Burrow hoped to decrease the authoritarian position of the therapist, and to more thoroughly examine interpersonal interactions. The application of group therapy methods to prison inmates and discharged mental hospital patients was pioneered by Paul Schilder and Louis Wender in the 1930s. At that time group therapy was found to be particularly useful in the treatment of children and adolescents. The development of group therapy was given impetus during World War II; as a result of the large number of soldiers requiring treatment for what is now know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The conclusion of the war also introduced the American public to a new group modality designed to support alcoholics. This program was centered on a 12-Step process that facilitated a support network for newly sober individuals and provided them with action steps that once taken, would create a new behavioral framework for living life sober.

Over the course of the next 50 years, with the apparent success of this 12-Step program, and the documented success of clinically-based group therapy for the treatment of trauma and social disorders, drug and alcohol treatment centers began to mold the group format into what has become accepted today as a proven treatment method for treating alcoholism, chemical dependency, substance abuse and co-occurring disorders.

However, although the Authentic Recovery Center praises this movement for the success it has achieved, we are willing to point out some of the flaws in the group therapy format when it is utilized as the primary tool for addressing psychologically related issues.

For those that are unwilling to face the truth about the ineffectiveness in utilizing group therapy as a primary treatment modality, here are some pertinent facts about the recovery rates of group related clinical approaches:

• In 1991-1993 a national sample showed that two-thirds of clients admitted to treatment relapsed in under a year. The same study showed that 15% of those who relapsed were already using alcohol and/or drugs at the time they left treatment.

     NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) Research Monograph 72

• In 2003 the NIDA determined that 30 day treatment modalities were approximately 30-35% successful in treating addictions.

    NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) Drug Abuse Outcomes Analysis Study of 2003

The Pros and Cons of Utilizing Group Therapy as the Primary Modality in Treatment

Some of the pros of utilizing group therapy as the primary treatment modality:

1. Group therapy helps to normalize the experiences that are associated with the addictive process. Group therapy helps people to recognize that they are not alone.
2. Group therapy is a useful format for education. Group therapy is a great way to educate individuals about the nature of addictive disease and alcoholism and addiction related topics.
3. Group therapy helps people to engage with each other and helps to foster a sense of connection with a positive peer group.
4. Group therapy can be a tool that is useful in supporting one individual to learn from the experiences of another.

Some of the cons of utilizing group therapy as the primary treatment modality:

1. At times, issues of a personal nature are too difficult to disclose on a group level.
2. Group topics are not always determined by the people attending the group. This can result in treatment that is less effective because the group topics aren’t relevant to everyone’s needs.
3. Group process relies heavily on the individuals attending the group. If you have negative peer influences in group, they can counteract the effectiveness and purpose of the group, which is to introduce each client to a positive peer support network.
4. Group therapy is dependent on the people participating. If the people attending are of different age groups or genders, then the ability for people to relate to each other is compromised by the dissimilarities of the issues that come up. (i.e., young people often have a host of different issues than older people; women have different issues than men, etc.)

So overall, both individual and group therapy play an important role in ensuring a successful outcome for clients undergoing treatment for alcoholism, chemical dependency, substance abuse and co-occurring disorders. However, the Authentic Recovery Center focuses more on individual therapy as the primary treatment modality while utilizing group therapy in predominantly an educational format, for the most part. This treatment approach is not always suitable for everyone, but in our experience, it is usually the most effective way to treat addiction related issues.

If you or someone you know is in need of treatment that does include a personalized treatment approach then call 877 415 HOPE for help today. Our credentialed staff will help you determine what drug rehab options with ARC might be right for you.