OUTPATIENT TREATMENT FOR WOMEN WITH ALCOHOL PROBLEMS

ANTI-CRAVING MEDICATIONS AND RELAPSE PREVENTION THERAPY

Scientific Recovery's treatment protocol includes an intake assessment, laboratory tests, medication for alcohol withdrawal and dependence, and nine 90-minute sessions of personalized relapse prevention therapy. At the conclusion of the nine sessions of therapy, continuing care treatment is recommended for most women.

INTAKE

First, you will meet for a 90-minute Intake Assessment.

MEDICATIONS FOR ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE

After your Intake Assessment, you will meet with a licensed physician who is a specialist in addictions and a member of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. The physician conducts an alcohol assessment and a psychiatric evaluation. Medications prescribed for you will be based on the results of these evaluations. If necessary, you will receive prescriptions for medications to relieve symptoms such as anxiety, sleeplessness or depression.

The physician will also prescribe anti-craving medication such as Naltrexone and provide follow-up. Unlike older prescription drugs such as Antabuse® (disulfiram), these new medications have few, if any, unpleasant side effects. Most patients report dramatic reductions in craving within hours of taking their first dose. Naltrexone is neither mood altering nor addictive. Moreover, this anti-craving medication can generally be taken concurrently with medications to treat depression or anxiety, which often occur in tandem with addiction disorders. You will probably find this anti-craving medication helpful for several months.

QUICK START RELAPSE PREVENTION THERAPY

Once you have begun your medications, you are ready for therapy. With the use of effective medications, quitting drinking is no longer the most difficult part of the recovery process. Freed from the cravings, the most challenging part of recovery becomes learning how to be happy in life without the use of alcohol.

Quick Start Relapse Prevention Therapy entails nine private, individualized and educationally focused therapy sessions to begin rebuilding your life and developing long-term strategies to live a comfortable, satisfying life without alcohol. Quick Start Relapse Prevention Therapy sessions support openness and honesty, without fear of criticism, disapproval, or condemnation.

The nine sessions of Quick Start Relapse Prevention Therapy are scheduled over several weeks that follow the initiation of your anti-craving medications. Each of your nine therapy sessions lasts 90 minutes.

Therapy Focus

Quick Start Relapse Prevention Therapy is designed to empower you to recover from problem drinking by building on your intrinsic motivation, providing you with the tools for recovery, and supporting you as you learn to use these tools to accomplish your goals. While motivational, informational, and action-oriented, the therapy is also attentive and responsive to the emotional suffering that brings women into treatment. Drawing from the cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic therapy traditions, the treatment combines and integrates well-established approaches to individual change and development.

The treatment is based on the principles that you are in charge of making the changes you want and that you are intrinsically creative and competent, capable of making these changes. By embracing your personal values, you can identify the recovery goals that are important to you. And, from a menu of change options and methods, you can find and learn to use resourceful approaches to reach your goals.

There is no right way to cope, manage, or heal. For any particular woman, some methods will work better than others. A variety of strategies are offered in the therapy and you can choose what works for you. As well, there is no right way to build a new life. Recovery involves growing into self-respect and pursuing aims that are uniquely yours. The therapy will provide you with a system to create the new life that you want and support you as you pursue your objectives.

A blend of issues and topics forms the content focus of Quick Start Relapse Prevention Therapy. Reading and written exercises are included to enhance the treatment process. The following subjects are the focal points of therapy:

Women and Alcohol
Understanding the Sources of Your Problem Drinking
Stages of Change and Readiness for Recovery
Weighing the Benefits and Costs of Your Drinking
Building Your Confidence for Recovery
Using Your Strengths and Assets
Recognizing and Managing Your Drinking Triggers
Embracing Your Personal Values
Identifying and Pursuing Your Personal Goals
Healing Through Relationships
Healing Through Beliefs
Healing Through Action
Healing Through Feelings
A New Personal Identity: Self-Respect, Well-being, and Dependability

Therapy Goals

Therapy will help you to:

increase your motivation to quit drinking and stay quit
understand the process of change and recovery
address the social-psychological aspects of your drinking
identify and set goals for rebuilding a happy, satisfying life

You will be coached to:

develop a positive, balanced, healthy lifestyle
appreciate the importance of exercise and nutrition in recovery
anticipate problems and plan constructive strategies in advance
manage life's complexities in healthy, sensible ways
embrace helpful approaches to cope with intense emotions
adopt effective methods to handle challenging situations
weigh temporary pleasures versus enduring pleasures
recognize your triggers for drinking
disregard dangerous urges when they arise
avoid replacing one injurious habit with another injurious habit
replace destructive habits with constructive habits

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Quick Start Relapse Prevention Therapy draws on cognitive behavioral therapy, a treatment approach based on the scientific fact that your thoughts—rather than external factors like people, situations, or events—cause you to feel and behave the way you do. With cognitive behavioral therapy, you can learn to manage the thoughts that led to your problem drinking. And, you can develop new thinking and acquire new ways of reacting to life’s highs and lows. Because of its educational focus, cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the quickest and most effective therapies for alcoholism treatment.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Quick Start Relapse Prevention Therapy draws on psychodynamic therapy, also known as insight-oriented therapy. With psychodynamic therapy, you can understand the impact of your personal history on your current life difficulties. Self-understanding fosters freedom to determine your future. Psychodynamic therapy also emphasizes your uniqueness, and stresses the value of the therapeutic relationship in dealing with important recovery concerns.

CONTINUING CARE TREATMENT

Scientific Recovery offers private, individual continuing care treatment to women who have completed Quick Start Relapse Prevention Therapy and to women who have concluded an initial phase of treatment in another outpatient, inpatient, or residential program. Scientific Recovery's continuing care treatment will assist you both to maintain the progress you achieved in your initial phase of treatment and also to address additional issues or concerns that are of importance to you during this phase of your recovery. The goal of Scientific Recovery's continuing care treatment is to help you rebuild and stabilize a fulfilling and enjoyable life without alcohol. A minimum of one year of continuing care treatment is recommended for most women.

Women who participate in Scientific Recovery’s continuing care treatment are able to get help with emerging difficulties that can jeopardize long-term success. These problems may include a wavering commitment to sobriety; difficult episodes of temptation to drink; diminished confidence to maintain progress; and, unreliable or unstable coping responses in situations previously associated with drinking.

Scientific Recovery's continuing care treatment also addresses problems that frequently accompany alcohol dependence—relationship problems, work problems, depression, anxiety, the strain of experiencing intense emotions, and the life crises or trauma that contributed to problem drinking.

In addition, Scientific Recovery’s continuing care treatment works with you to meet the exciting challenge of managing newly found free time. Treatment will help to identify, develop, strengthen, and support your values, skills, interests, and talents to make your sober life far more satisfying and rewarding than drinking. You will be encouraged to explore opportunities for participation in activities that are abstinence-oriented or that preclude drinking. These may include mutual-help groups, community organizations, social events, hobbies, and recreational, leisure, educational, or volunteer activities. You will also be supported to pursue constructive habits such as physical exercise, yoga or meditation; to participate in religious or spiritual programs; and, to develop social supports that will help you cope with stress without drinking. All of these lifestyle changes are effective and enjoyable ways to sustain a satisfying sober life.

COST

Quick Start Relapse Prevention Therapy

The fee for the Intake Assessment and the nine 90-minute sessions of Quick Start Relapse Prevention Therapy is $4400, payable at the time of the Intake Assessment. Physician fees, laboratory expenses, and prescription medications are extra and payable at the time of service.

Continuing Care Treatment

The fee for continuing care treatment is $220 for each 45 minute session.

Scientific Recovery does not accept payment from any health insurance. However, insurance reimbursement may be possible. Should you wish to apply for insurance reimbursement, we will gladly complete any forms that you provide.

"Courage is the power to let go of the familiar." - Raymond Lindquist