Today we’re digging a little bit deeper to talk about the Clinical Aspect of the recovery program at PAC Shores. This part is exciting because we have a unique process integrating many different steps throughout the week.
1.Core Group Therapy
We typically start out the day with a morning meditation, or morning reflection, for about 20-30 minutes, to just sit down and get primed and centered for the day.
And then, we have 4 different therapists that are able to rotate or help each other out to guide the group.
This really is the meat and potatoes of what we do. It’s like group therapy, but this is the time we really dive into starting to expose some of the deeper issues. So we already begin to pull the layers of substance abuse.
Monday through Friday, with these core groups, we go deep and this is the part where almost without fail, every single client says “this is so unique, and this was really the foundation to my entire recovery!” This is really intensive group therapy each day.
2.Accountability Group Therapy
Depending on the day of the week, on a couple of days we do accountability groups. This is where we learn how to confront and collide compassionately. We’re actually addressing our issues, we’re holding up mirrors to each other, we’re looking at our parts in different situations.
First, it builds community, but it also helps reveal blind spots. Things that you might be able to see but other people might not see because of your daily interactions with them.
We also do team building, having fun, and learning how to communicate.
3.Educational: Pharmacology
Two of the other weekdays, we do educational or didactic groups, where we have a nurse who runs the group and teaches the pharmacological aspect of recovery. So you can understand the differences of medications, how they affect the brain, and also how substances work on your brain. We go into the mind and learn how drugs and alcohol affect the mind in certain ways, their side effects, etc.
4.Moving into the Body
We block our weekdays into two halves – the first half of the day is really centered on the emotional, spiritual growth – the core group therapy aspect, and then some educational, accountability aspects, then we take a break for lunch, and when we come back, then the clinical part starts really heavy and gets a little looser towards the end of the day. Once the emotional aspect has been hit, we move more to the body, to tire out the body of learning, whether it’s breathing, meditation, working out, stretching, etc., just to see what would work best for you.
Our goal isn’t for you to come in and fit into a box here. But instead we give you the steps and tools to see what works for you. Some people might say they’re a straight yoga person so they try a few different things and then they’re able to apply the yoga aspect back home. Some people are just more old-school: weights, cardio, etc. It really doesn’t matter. We want you to do what’s going to most resemble what your life looks like and we’re able to apply that here.
How the Daily/Weekly Process works
So that’s an idea of how we start in the morning and go all the way to the end of the day, and by around 6pm you’re going to be tired, but it’s a wonderful feeling of tiredness. It’s not tired like before when you were living in the attic-self way; it’s the tired of living in the recovery-way. It’s like you’re satiated, tired, raw, but at the same time you feel a sense of accomplishment.
We begin the week with intense core and accountability group therapy. And as the week goes into Thursday and Friday, we pull back on the intense activities, and we switch over to do a lot of fun stuff. So we’re still able to hit a lot of core aspects toward the end of the week but not nearly as in-depth. We’re able to use spirituality and other aspects as well. And we use a lot of the time to be able to catch up with a lot of the work. It’s a neat process.
It’s wonderful to see someone come in on day 1, unmanageable, and just looking and saying, “Whatever i indeed to do…”, but at the end of the program the same person would say, “Holy cow, I’m unrecognizable, and i can’t wait to live life again!”
That’s a brief overview of the clinical aspect of the recovery program here at PAC Shores. If you have questions about how we can support you on your journey to recovery, don’t hesitate to reach out: 1-888-435-7750
