After doing the work necessary to start a meaningful recovery from drug addiction, the client has cleared a significant hurdle. However, they are far from being out of the woods. If everyone is being honest, then the individual would realize every day for the rest of their life is going to be a challenge. The challenge is going to come in the form of maintaining sobriety in the face of adversity. For that very reason, relapse prevention programs have become a big part of the addiction treatment process.
What is a Relapse Prevention Program?
As the client works through their issues to identify triggers and temptations, they are also setting the groundwork for solution building. Solution building is the development of life or coping skills the client can use as a defense mechanism against relapses. A relapse prevention program, more specifically, Relapse Prevention Therapy (RPT), is a very specific type of coping skill program.
At our Destinations for Teens facilities, we offer relapse prevention programs during treatment and relapse prevention alumni programs. Our alumni program is like a refresher course our alumni can use to make sure they have the tools they will need to stay on the path of recovery.
For the most part, we use RPT programs we have built around evidence-based treatment modalities. What we strive to do is teach our young clients how to benefit from Cognitive-behavioral and Dialectical Behavior therapies. The premise of these behavioral models is a client who can recognize and understand that certain oncoming behaviors will have the ability to modify subsequent behaviors. Think about that for a moment. We train clients to identify their triggers early enough that they can change how they react to them. If they can do that, then they will find ways to avoid bad behaviors, abusing substances, and replace them with more positive reactions.
Specific Ways a Relapse Prevention Alumni Program Helps Clients
So far, we have talked about relapse prevention programs and evidence-based therapy in a very general sense. For better understanding, we would like to delve a bit more into the specific ways a relapse prevention alumni program can help our clients.
Pretty much every day for the rest of their lives, clients are going to encounter temptations and the challenge of triggers. It can be nothing more than a rough day at work or sudden illness in the family. RPT teaches clients how to increase their awareness with any deviation from standard feelings. Specifically, here are some of the ways RPT equips people with the ability to prevent their own relapses:
- They get training on identifying high-risk situations
- Instruction on how to minimize the effects of negative feelings
- Ability to recognize which trigger is under siege and which coping skills they can employ to combat the trigger
- They learn how to make lifestyle changes that change how triggers affect them
- Learn to process problems in a logical manner instead of reacting with instinct
If clients get adequate training in relapse prevention methods, then there’s a real chance they can avoid relapses.
What We do at Destinations for Teens
At our Woodland Hills facility, we use a wide range of addiction treatment options. The premise of our approach to treatment is each client has specific needs. By employing multiple treatment programs, we feel we have the ability to develop the right treatment program in every case. To that end, here’s a partial list of the treatment options we maintain:- Inpatient, outpatient, IOP, and PHP
- Dual diagnosis (have track of mental health as primary)
- The aforementioned evidence-based therapy modalities
- Holistic options like art therapy, yoga, and music therapy
- Family counseling