Therapeutic communities are about more than substance abuse treatment. They provide the building blocks you need to be successful after your treatment is complete.
Here are 7 ways they make your success possible:
1. Therapeutic Communities Create a Sense of Belonging
When you’re trying to get better, it helps to have a supportive community of people working toward the same goal.
Therapeutic communities are group-based. Much of your personal growth is achieved through peer-to-peer relationships. If you feel accepted in your community, you’re more likely to self-regulate and help those around when they’re struggling. If you feel excluded, the opposite may be true. You could find yourself more isolated, aggressive, and confrontational.
According to the International Journal of Social Psychiatry, promoting a sense of belonging requires four elements:
- Frequency of contact
- Long-term stability
- Positive social contact
- Genuine, mutual concern
2. Community Creates a Sense of Self-Worth
Personal growth and proper living are achieved by peers serving as role models, providing support through interaction, and confronting each other in group sessions. By going through these motions and resolving conflicts, you’ll develop a better understanding of yourself and the root cause of your addiction.
Research shows a direct correlation between having a sense of belonging and improved self-esteem. In other words, you tend to feel better when you know you matter. This is especially evident in peer-to-peer relationships.
As you progress in a therapeutic community from a new member to a mentor-like role, you’ll continue to develop the tools you need to stay sober. You’ll also develop a sense of self-worth by helping lift up your peers as they go through their journey to recovery.
3. Therapeutic Community Treatment Isn’t Just About You
At the Volken Academy, we live by the motto “each one, teach one.”
A community is a group of people who live in the same or share a particular characteristic. Communities are about building connections, sharing, and providing support to increase your chances of success.
In a therapeutic community, you’re not just responsible for your own recovery—you’re responsible for the recovery of your peers, and vice versa. You and your peers are responsible for encouraging one another, being there when you need each other, and helping correct negative behaviors.
The more effective a community is, the stronger it becomes.
4. Therapeutic Communities Help You Achieve Transformational Change
Rehab centers focus mostly on treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. You’re there to get clean, but often the root cause of your addiction goes unaddressed. You’re also not getting the tools you need to handle life outside the treatment center.
In a therapeutic community, getting clean is only the beginning. You’re there to develop the skills you need to:
- Practice self-control
- Maintain a sense of self-worth
- Hold yourself accountable
- Handle criticism
- See obstacles as challenges to overcome
- And much more
Through individual counseling, group sessions, and peer-to-peer sessions, you have to dig deep to get to and treat the real cause of your addiction. You also need time for your brain to heal, because substance abuse has long-term effects.
As you and your peers help each other learn and grow, you also learn how to become responsible, accountable, and patient. Success inside and outside of a therapeutic community requires you to adopt a new lifestyle. Without transformational change, you’re likely to end up relapsing, and sometimes feeling even worse than you did before.
5. Therapeutic Communities Let You Hit the “Pause” Button
You usually can’t achieve the degree of transformational change required in only a couple weeks or months. It’s just not realistic.
Therapeutic communities are long-term facilities. The Volken Academy is a two-year commitment. While that may sound daunting, think of it this way: you get to hit the “pause” button on your life. You’re there to focus on your recovery, and the recovery of your peers.
The outside world will still exist when you’re done, and when you are, you’ll be ready for it!
6. Therapeutic Communities Have a High Success Rate
The US National Institute on Drug Abuse found a correlation between the length of stay in a therapeutic program and sobriety success rates.
On average, short-term rehab programs have a 16% – 20% sobriety success rate, but that percentage increases to 70% when you’re in a long-term program of 90 days or longer. Your chances of staying sober are likely even greater in a two-year therapeutic community.
7. Volken Academy is Cost-Effective
Addictive treatment doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective.
We can’t speak for all therapeutic communities, but our program is one of the most affordable treatment centers around. Our program costs $7,000, which includes a $5,000 one-time in-take fee and a $2,000 incidental fee. That’s less than $10 a day!
To learn more about the amazing benefits of therapeutic communities, contact us or apply today!