Early recovery can be a time of emotional upheaval for many. Recovering from addiction, like most growth, usually comes with some discomfort. In fact, we often need to deliberately step outside of our comfort zones to achieve that growth.
Luckily recovery is a well-worn path. Millions, if not billions, have gone through the recovery process before, so we know what works. The way to get and stay sober is not a mystery. However, that doesn’t mean it comes easily.
Vital Component of Outpatient Treatment
Therapy is a vital component of outpatient treatment because the best way to heal and grow in early recovery is with direction. Make no mistake, the person in recovery is the one who must do the work. However, the work of recovery is much easier when we have guidance, particularly in the beginning.
Therapy helps the outpatient attendee make sense of their journey. It gives context to their feelings and challenges. It helps channel their attention and energy in the right direction. Part of having an addiction means that our instincts have failed us, and in early recovery, they still may fail us. When facing fear or discomfort, our first impulse is to run, hide or bottle up the emotion. Therapy will instead redirect us in the direction of growth. This means confronting fears but in a thoughtful way. In therapy, we can also do this in a controlled environment with support.
Outpatient Treatment: Why Therapy is So Important?
The support that therapy provides during outpatient treatment makes great progress possible. It would be difficult to achieve this progress otherwise.
A trained therapist can direct a patient towards insights and encourage progress through positive reinforcement. Therapy also includes diagnostic elements that help both patient and therapist identify issues that lie at the core of the disorder. Things such as past trauma, unresolved resentments or unhealthy behavior patterns which may have been with a person for most of their life, can be discussed in therapy. Without therapy, these may remain beneath the surface. These issues may continue to influence the patient’s decision-making or rob them of happiness and peace of mind.
Improving Outpatient Treatment Effectiveness
Therapy makes outpatient treatment more effective by guiding the recovering person’s attention towards the parts of themselves most in need of care and repair.
Group therapy is equally useful. In a group setting, patients begin to discover that they are understood. That others have experienced similar pain. A powerful sense of belonging and interpersonal bond often quickly develop between the members of a therapy group. This not only helps foster a better understanding of recovery and one’s self but also acts as a powerful incentive for trust. People coming from a dysfunctional family or a group of so-called friends who were just using buddies need opportunities to learn how to trust again.
Building Blocks of Recovery
Therapy can be thought of as a building block of recovery. Outpatient treatment is an ideal time to build a foundation for a lifetime of recovery. Therapy serves to help ensure the foundation is strong and level and built upon solid ground.
Patients who attend therapy learn more about themselves and identify their triggers. Being armed with this knowledge will help them to avoid the pitfalls of relapse long after they have graduated from treatment and began to apply the tools of recovery to their everyday lives.
Harmony Healing Center offers multiple levels of care, including outpatient treatment with individual and group therapy.
Are you or a loved one ready for help? Do you want to learn more about the possibilities in recovery? Please give us a call or reach out via our website chat.