Recovery Zones – Effective and Professional Addiction Counselling

At The Cabin, we use an integrative counselling model called ‘Recovery Zones’. Recovery Zones is a method that combines the evidence-based techniques of CBT, but retains the time-tested structure of 12-Step groups and the benefits and support of their fellowships and resources. The program is conducted by Western-trained and licensed professionals with vast experience in addiction treatment.

However, before explaining in more detail what our approach to treatment is, it’s imperative to understand what addiction really is.

What is Addiction?

Addiction is a disorder that causes malfunction of the brain’s reward circuits. Up to 60% of addiction sufferers have probably inherited the disorder genetically (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2010). Other people may have damaged their reward system by overusing it. Consequently, people with this disorder seek to reinforce their blunted reward feelings by seeking out substances or processes that increase pleasurable feelings. Once this happens, someone with a genetic susceptibility to the disorder will have knock on effects, or chemical cascades, to other parts of the brain affecting things like judgement and impulse control. This is why ‘addicts’ or alcoholics can’t control their using.

As a primary disease, addiction is often present in an individual before he or she even begins using drugs, and as a chronic disease it will still be there when they stop. This is why treatment – both medical and psychological – is necessary.

Our Method

At The Cabin we use a model called ‘Recovery Zones’, which is an easy way to combine the best elements of multiple techniques into an integrative approach to addiction treatment.

Active Zone

We place anything which has become compulsive and destructive for us in the Active Zone. Our ideal would then be to abstain from those substances or processes. However, many people move towards this ultimate goal at a different pace and some people need more help than others. Each client is different with regard to how and when they become abstinent, and what abstinence means for them individually.

Danger Zone

The Danger Zone is where we define behaviours that might lead us back to active addiction. These include:

• Triggers – Things that activate us or make us want to behave in an addictive way
• Negative self-talk – Ways we talk negatively to ourselves inside our heads
• Unmanageable feeling states – Unnecessary negative feelings like shame and anger
• Ineffective behaviours – Things we do that are maladaptive (not good for our survival or well-being)

Recovery Zone

The Recovery Zone is comprised of all the things we need to do to achieve health and well-being. Here we learn how to use mindfulness. Mindfulness is a meditation style that originated in South-East Asia but is now very popular around the world in psychological health settings. It has been used widely by health services in the West to treat depression, anxiety and PTSD, and is now gaining ground as an effective treatment for addiction. Mindfulness concentrates on:

• Slowing ourselves down – Becoming more aware of our thoughts and our body movements/ sensations.
• Urge surfing – The ability to see through cravings by assimilating the addictive thought into the meditation practice
• Body scanning (progressive relaxation) – An aspect of mindfulness that supports relaxation and sleep, which aids recovery from addiction

One-on-one Therapy

One-on-one therapy sessions will take place with your dedicated primary therapist, who will remain with you from the beginning to the end of your treatment.

Group Therapy

Group therapy takes place at least once per day, in addition to evening workshops, six days per week.

Group Therapy is utilised in residential rehab because your peer group has a profound effect on your ability to heal, as well as your resilience in long-term recovery. The friends you make in rehab enable you to see the root of your struggles more easily, and the dynamic of working through your issues with others ‘in the same boat’ is proven to be more effective than battling it alone.

Consistent engagement with a group is one of the main differences between residential treatment and community outpatient treatment/counselling.