Residential Addiction Treatment

Despite popular belief, addiction is not a moral failure or character weakness. It is actually a solution to a problem. People in pain, perhaps because of traumatic experiences in the past, use a substance or behavior to make the pain go away because they don't know what else to do.

This coping mechanism works for a time but eventually turns out to be an ineffective solution because, of course, the real problem still exists and addiction develops, becoming a problem in itself. Treatment involves helping people gain insight into themselves in order to better manage their emotions, identify and alter dysfunctional beliefs and patterns of irrational thought, and discover those things that provide a true sense of meaning, purpose and connection in their lives. We use a variety of approaches to achieve these goals including large and small group processing, discussion groups, lectures, experiential activities, and one on one counselling.

Our residential program uses a client centred approach that allows us to assess each clients' needs. This means that we treat each client according to their individual challenges. We are seeing more and more people with two or more disorders. These people often present with chronic addiction as well as a psychiatric illness and often medical problems. Treating this population is challenging and requires an integration of services. We have partnered with a local psychiatrist and work well with other agencies dealing with mental health. Through these partnerships we are delivering treatment to a very challenging segment of the population.