Residential treatment centers like New Directions for Women are frequently considered the best (and sometimes the last) hope for patients who want to treat a substance use disorder.
New Directions for Women’s treatment programs represent the most intensive form of help for those who have chemical dependencies, and they can also help patients with co-occurring emotional or mental issues.
At New Directions for Women, we also help treat our patients’ children and provide family counseling — based on our experience, we consider addiction to be a family disorder. But why is residential treatment, in particular, so powerful?
Let’s look at the reasons.
Why Residential Treatment Works
Addiction treatment and counseling is full of contradictory opinions, but most people agree that residential treatment is one of the most effective.
Residential treatment has a number of advantages.
– Distance from the patient’s previous lifestyle. When someone enrolls themselves in a residential program, they’re putting themselves in a place far away from their home and their current lifestyle.
Even the world’s best addiction counselors would find it very challenging to treat someone if they only meet once every week and are still surrounded by the triggers that resulted in addictive behaviors. In a residential facility, patients are not exposed to those triggers any longer, so they’re free to change their behavior in a peaceful setting. (New Directions for Women is located next to the Newport Beach Back Bay and Nature Preserve.)
– Continuous monitoring. While it can seem like a privacy intrusion, during the initial stages of recovery constant supervision is necessary in case patients start stumbling on their path. This monitoring also helps track their progress and efforts to stay clean and sober.
– Close and intimate support. Probably the most powerful factor allowing the patient to achieve the results she wants is the relationship with her counselor. At a residential facility, this relationship is much closer and more intense.
– The counselors and therapists. Counselors and therapists at residential facilities take a completely different approach in comparison to those who work out of offices and clinics. A counselor and therapist’s mindest is different because this is a residential setting.
At a residential center counselors are able to work with their patients on a round-the-clock basis, if necessary, whereas ordinary therapists only see their patients occasionally. This is not to say normal therapists are not good at what they do, but at a residential facility the therapists are able to get to know their patients far better.
In turn, by knowing their patients better, they’re much better able to bring out the best in them.
– Strong connections with staff. Besides the therapists and counselors, we have staff available 24 hours a day to help with daily activities and needs, and of course there are the other patients as well.
Our women support each other — as you share stories and experiences with them, they in turn share theirs. This results in meaningful friendships and a powerful sense of mutual support.
– In-depth therapies. As a residential facility we can provide a powerful mix of therapies that address the body, mind, and spirit — everything from traditional counseling to experiential and art therapies, which is simply not possible without patients being present every day.
