Here at Alpha Healing Center, we strive to ensure that every person we treat has a successful treatment experience. Based on our experiences we have compiled a list of tips that we have found to be very helpful:
Successful Treatment Experience Tips
- Avoid mood-altering substances: While attending Alpha Healing Center, you are expected to avoid using all mood altering substances, and not just your drugs and/or behaviors of addiction.
- Attend regularly: Attend all sessions and activities in order to benefit from the full impact of the treatment experience at Alpha Healing Center. It is critically important for you to complete the entire program and graduate to the next stage in your recovery.
- Permit family participation: Family participation is extremely important. We work closely with your family and expect your immediate family, friends, or caregivers to participate in program events to the extent that you are comfortable. It is important for you to provide consent for your families to participate in your recovery.
- Respect confidentiality and privacy: Confidentiality is a fundamental expectation of guests at Alpha Healing Center. For the staff, protecting your confidentiality is a legal requirement. For guests and their family members, maintaining confidentiality creates a safe environment for healing. You can always share what you are learning about yourself and your experiences with those to whom you are close. However, sharing the identity and/or history of other guests and family members would be a violation of privacy and anonymity.
- Ask for help: Learn to ask for help when needed and do not consider it a weakness. At Alpha Healing Center, we recognize that without the support of others, sustained remission is difficult. If you are unsure about some aspect of the program or if you need help in addressing personal or interpersonal needs please ask our staff for assistance.
- Be honest and open: The addiction process erodes the capacity for honesty. During treatment, it is essential that you practice honesty and openness. Honesty means that you are truthful with the staff and other guests in the program, even if it is difficult. Openness means that you disclose relevant information and share feelings when appropriate. Openness and honesty challenge the shame and guilt inherent in addiction.
- Remain actively involved: Stay involved in all activities at Alpha Healing Center. There will be times that you will have doubts about your choice to participate in therapy. You may conclude that your problem is really not that serious or you may disagree with other guests, or with the program expectations. As you make progress, it is normal to experience “peaks and troughs”. You will eventually get past them. If you are having a difficult time, ask for help.
- Overcome negative thoughts and emotions: During early recovery, it is natural to get overwhelmed with anxiety, suffer from self-doubts or feel helpless when faced with urges to use drugs. The healthy way to overcome such emotional states is to discuss them openly with your therapist, and learn strategies to cope effectively. The ability to share such feelings in a therapeutic setting is empowering and can facilitate recovery.
- Stay committed to recovery: Recovery is a process and the treatment at Alpha Healing Center is a major step forward in your recovery. It is important to put in practice the strategies and tools you learned during your treatment. This means participating in the aftercare plans that will be set up for you at discharge as well as continuing to make healthy decisions regarding your lifestyle.
