ATMC’s Inpatient Counseling Offers a Variety of Valuable Skills
Offering clients new skills to help with emotional, physical, and psychological issues is an important hallmark of our therapeutic approaches. At ATMC we assist clients by providing skills to change their lenses of perception. Helping clients realize they are the drivers of their own lives can be highly beneficial, helping clients to begin to validate themselves. Our role as therapists is to provide an opportunity for change and to tailor a plan for each client to gain workable personal, social, and life skills. Ultimately, our success is measured when we help clients find the road they are seeking, map the course of their choice, and offer navigation instruments to help them find their way “home.”
Unconditional Positive Regard
The therapists at ATMC employ many different therapeutic modalities. One such approach is termed Unconditional Positive Regard purported by Carl Rogers (1959). This approach embodies the therapists’ aim to help create and sustain an atmosphere of harmony or congruence. Acceptance of a client within the therapeutic relationship is paramount to building trust. Validating clients is the hallmark of our approach.9,14
Behavioral therapies are based on research and are believed to help clients address the root causes of symptoms or discomforts that led to their use of substances in the first place. Behavioral therapy helps clients become empowered and creates a space for them to change various negative patterns that may be associated with medication use and dependence, addiction, lifestyle, or other issues. Behavioral Therapy helps clients discover and re-evaluate their thinking pattern to make better choices. Thus, the client can develop new strategies that allow them to react differently and without relying on drugs or alcohol when faced with fear, anxiety, phobias, and obsessive or compulsive urges.
Inpatient Counseling Services at ATMC
The inpatient counseling services delivered by licensed professionals at ATMC are wide ranging to accommodate the personalized and unique needs of each client. Below is a brief description of these, with additional links provided for more detailed information on each modality.
Inpatient counseling services at ATMC include:
- Humanistic Psychotherapy
- Mindfulness-based Therapies
- EMDR
- CBT
- DBT
- Expressive Art Therapy
- Equine-assisted Therapy
- Somatic Psychotherapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Solutions-Focused Therapy
- Transpersonal Psychology
- Addiction Counseling
Each of the above disciplines is briefly described below, with links to learn more about the processes and aims of each type of therapy. Additional sources of information can be found below this page.
Outline of Therapies Offered
Humanistic Psychotherapy:
Humanistic Psychology has ancient roots. Yet, its development turned a page in the 1950s, away from the prior belief that flaws and imperfections in man are innate, or at least hard to solve. Human flaws could only be “fixed” with the right conditioning or clever enough punishment/reward devices, or by numbing the patient with the right drug. Or, by brilliantly opining on what’s actually wrong with their patient. Now, a brighter light is shining in psychological therapy. The humanistic approach today focuses on free will, self-efficacy, responsibility, and fulfilling one’s maximum potential. These and other basic tenets can provide a refreshingly optimistic pathway to improving one’s mental wellness and health.9,14
Mindfulness-Based Therapy:
Mindfulness-based therapy has many applications such as reducing stress, addiction recovery, changing negative thought and behavior patterns, and much more. It involves gentle methods that bring one’s awareness into the present, such as meditation, breathing exercises, use of sound therapy, and others.6
EMDR:
EMDR stands for “eye movement desensitization reprocessing”. This type of therapy was developed by trauma therapists. The purpose of EMDR therapy is help unburden traumatic memories by the use of specific eye movements. Memories of past trauma can have lingering effects that may trigger nightmares, or other unwanted emotional disturbances in the present. It has been found that EMDR helps with many types of PTSD conditions.7
CBT: Powerful Inpatient Counseling
CBT stands for cognitive behavioral therapy. With a licensed and trained practitioner, a client can experience relief from trauma, bereavement, stress, fear, and other discomforts through this guided form of therapy.1,5
DBT:
DBT or dialectical behavioral therapy is a branch of cognitive behavioral therapy that helps a person who is experiencing unwanted intense emotions find more measured and calm methods to resolve emotional turbulence.1
Expressive Art Therapy:
Art therapy can be an avenue for the expression of someone’s psychology, and a great deal can be learned through the interpretation of one’s art. While artists of all levels of proficiency keenly enjoy practicing their artistry, art therapy is of particular value to the resident who does not articulate themselves well in a traditional talk session. Art enables clients to communicate more effectively about their experiences across a variety of mediums. It can be used in individual sessions or with couples, families, and groups of all ages and with different mental and physical capabilities.15
Equine Assisted Therapy:
At Alternative to Meds Center, we have been utilizing equine-assisted therapy for years. By developing a close relationship with an animal, and more specifically horses, our clients develop more self-awareness and gain confidence in themselves to heal without the additional use of medication, or the proper reduction in medication that is sustainable.2,3
Somatic Inpatient Psychotherapy:
Somatic Psychotherapy helps you reconnect with your body as a source of safety and wisdom, not something to push through or ignore. By gently noticing physical sensations, you can release stored stress and trauma and feel more grounded, calm, and present in everyday life.16
Internal Family Systems (IFS):
Internal Family Systems therapy is not family counseling, but grew out of principles therapists learned from family counseling. lFS helps you understand the different parts of yourself—like the part that feels anxious, the part that’s exhausted, or the part that’s trying to stay in control. Instead of fighting these parts, you learn to listen to them with compassion, creating more inner peace and self-trust.17
Solutions-focused Therapy:
Solution-Focused Therapy is about moving forward, not getting stuck in what’s gone wrong. It helps you identify what’s already working and build on your strengths so you can create real, doable changes that improve your life now.12,18
Transpersonal Psychology:
Transpersonal Psychology supports healing on a deeper level by exploring concepts such as meaning, purpose, and your inner sense of connection and spirituality. This approach can be especially powerful if you feel called to grow beyond old patterns and reconnect with a more authentic version of yourself.19
Inpatient Addiction Counseling at Alternative to Meds Center:
At ATMC we help clients heal and become a better version of themselves through the discovery of new ways to support authentic health, life-style and nutritional strategies, including self-care, self-validation and self-love. There is great benefit in helping a client find forgiveness of self and others; reframe their experiences; and, learn to show their authentic selves through validation of feelings long buried and ignored. Compassion and positive regard play vital roles in building the framework for good rapport in addiction counseling.13
“Disease Model” Takes Away Choice
The “disease model” of addiction treatment came about in the middle of the last century. It was possibly an improvement over no treatment at all, or stigmatizing treatment options. It was at least an attempt to formalize the condition as something other than simply a moral weakness. Some in the addiction treatment sphere have observed it is difficult to actually define either narrowly or broadly, what is meant by the term.4
However, therapists at ATMC do not rely on the “Disease Model” of addiction. It is our philosophy that this model takes away choice, freedom, autonomy, and control. Under the auspices of having a “disease,” clients presenting with mental health issues are simply given a diagnosis and then prescribed medications to change their behavior. A similar diagnostic approach is frequently found in addiction treatment. In effect, this particular form of treatment may leave clients feeling like the victim of a disease, which does little to help them closely observe or take responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Looking for or relying on an antidote that can be found in a pill leaves “the rest of the story” silenced and unheard. A more embracive model of treatment includes a wide range of potential factors that can be addressed, such as biology, psychology, social, environmental, nutritional, and other lifestyle factors in a compassionate and positive framework of therapy.13
Inpatient Counseling — An Important Component at ATMC
ATMC inpatient counseling provides diverse pathways uniquely tailored to each client to reach their recovery goals. Many other services are provided for a wide horizon of treatment options for improved physical and mental well-being. Please call us for more information on how our programs and services may assist you or your loved one to accelerate reaching your health goals.
Fact Checked Alternative to Meds Editorial Team
