Our Treatment Therapies
Recovery from substance use disorder requires constant support, both through the immediate challenges of denial and acceptance and the long-term challenges you will need to prepare for.
By treating the whole person and all issues contributing to SUD, holistic treatment programs at Avise Wellness Collective have a much higher rate of success. Without this diverse focus on all components of wellness, individuals are forced to adjust their habits without the necessary tools to deal with their causes. While moving just one piece of the puzzle won’t solve SUD, a comprehensive approach will.
We take pride in providing these therapies and education opportunities at Avise Wellness Collective.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR is an evidence-based treatment developed for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety-based mental health disorders. A great deal of how humans process trauma resides directly in the limbic system, and people often arrive at emotions before knowing why they are feeling a given way. That comes from a similar neurological place as other reflexive reactions humans have to the surrounding world. The brain reacts to trauma as it would a predator or other dangerous scenario that requires instant action. Unfortunately, in the case of mental health, most people rarely need such a reaction in their daily lives, so living in a persistent state of fight or flight can be extremely taxing in itself.
EMDR initiates a process of digesting traumatic and triggering stimuli while training the nervous system to do something completely benign that also requires a significant fraction of a patient’s attention. In many cases, this involves working through trauma with a trained EMDR therapist while moving the eyes, tapping, or making sounds in a specific, requested fashion. This helps to teach the nervous system that it’s okay to engage with traumatic topics but also that it must de-escalate and control the responses to them. If done correctly and concurrently with other therapies, EMDR can achieve rapid results. This makes it an incredibly useful tool for mental health issues that may trigger substance use, as well as for approaching substance use directly.
Couples and Family Therapy
Family is an incredibly powerful force in our lives. When a family works together to support people through times of crisis and makes an effort to understand the perspective of all other members, it can be an incredible gift to everyone involved. On the other hand, when a family is experiencing significant strife or discord, it can be a painful impediment to any progress or even a source of trauma.
Many people avoid engaging with their families during the height of substance use disorders because of feelings of shame, past trauma, or damage that has been done to the relationship in the course of the disorder. In doing so, people sometimes deny themselves significant opportunities for the healing and support that come with enriching and mending relationships with others.
Avise Wellness Collective offers couples and family counseling to assist with the process of re-establishing open and honest communication with the people closest to you. With a counselor in the room to help facilitate communication, couples and families can start to move from a place of conflict to a place of honest and open communication. Knowing there is someone unbiased in the room whose job is to help everyone achieve healthier relationships with themselves and each other can transform the tone of conversations from accusation to honesty.
12-Step and Alternative Self-Help Education
12-step groups have been in existence for nearly one hundred years and provide peer support alongside a structured model for individual recovery. Regular meetings with other people struggling with substance use disorders can help you realize you are not alone, and establishing a mentoring relationship can provide you with the peer guidance you need to continue seeking recovery. These programs can be the shift you need to make the necessary emotional, spiritual, and behavioral changes necessary to cease substance use and re-enter your life.
Outside of traditional 12-step programs, you’ll also have access to extensive education regarding SUD. Learning more about the mechanisms that make this disorder so difficult to combat alone can help you develop the proper coping skills you’ll need after treatment concludes. We provide individual and group education sessions so you can learn more about SUD, recovery, therapies, and the resources available as you heal.
Life Beyond Treatment
Our duty to our patients doesn’t end after daily treatment concludes. Success in treatment and in life means more than not using substances; it means thriving in the broader world beyond our doors. To this end, we do our best at Avise Wellness Collective to ensure that every person who comes to our doors gets connected with services to help them do just that.
Life Skills Development
Returning to the professional or academic world with all its attendant obligations can be daunting, especially if your substance use disorder prevented you from developing skills to deal with that world in the first place. At Avise Wellness Collective, we work to support our alumni as they transition back to this world by giving them resources to develop their financial, scholastic, and professional independence.
We also offer help with planning and organizing your life beyond the professional, with everything from getting the appointments that you need to help organizing, shopping, and preparing food for yourself. Whatever your need, we will do our best to help you resolve it, both during your treatment and after you have left a formal program.
Relapse Support
While SUD and many mental health conditions cannot be cured, they can be managed. This means that recovery is a lifelong journey that must be addressed one day at a time. With a journey of this nature, it is important to know that relapse can happen.
Relapse prevention and support can help people in recovery re-enter the world equipped with tools in place to manage stress and triggers. In addition, creating a relapse prevention plan can help ensure all involved can recognize the signs of relapse, prevent relapse, and deal effectively with relapse should it occur. Elements of relapse support and prevention include:
- Community. People in recovery need to find a new place to fit in and a new sense of community. We teach you how to find this in a healthy manner.
- Support. Whether family, friends, or peers you’ve met in treatment, you need a support system to help keep you accountable.
- Purpose. It’s important to have a sense of purpose in your life to continue on the path of sobriety. This may take the form of a career, education, or other means, and we can help you begin to establish these components to bolster recovery.
- Therapy. Therapy doesn’t end when treatment does; most people need continued therapy as recovery continues. This can help you mitigate stress and process feelings when you rejoin the world outside of rehabilitation.
Beginning Your Recovery Journey
If you or a loved one is looking for addiction recovery programs in PA, Avise Wellness Collective is here to help. We are waiting to open a conversation with you about what you want the next steps in your journey to look like and what you need in order to succeed.
Recovery is difficult, but there is no reason for you to go it alone and unarmored. Reaching out can get you the resources you need to negotiate withdrawal, rebuild your mental health, and construct a community and lifestyle that will support you into your future.
