COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy treatment that offers a hands-on, practical approach to problem-solving. We at Scottsdale Providence Recovery Center believe that our thoughts and beliefs shape our behaviors, and by using cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, we can change false beliefs and errors in thinking to positively affect behavior.
More About Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy works by challenging and changing the negative and distorted thoughts and beliefs that are deeply ingrained in us. Clients are encouraged to challenge these beliefs in therapy as part of a comprehensive effort to change their destructive patterns of behavior and achieve health and joy.
To change the thinking patterns that are causing you harm, our therapists might ask you to:
- Examine how your distortions in thinking are creating problems in your life
- Reevaluate if these long-held beliefs are serving you
- Develop problem-solving skills to cope with challenges
- Participate in role-play exercises to prepare for potentially problematic situations
- Develop more confidence is your abilities
- Learn strategies that will help you relax your body and quiet your mind
Cognitive behavioral therapy techniques
CBT is a solutions-oriented mode of treatment. Our counselors work with you to understand your challenges and develop a treatment strategy. The primary focus is on moving forward and developing healthy ways to cope with life.
To do so, our therapists will help you set and reach short-term goals. Then, they will use several CBT techniques that gradually adjust how you think, feel and react to life’s situations.
These CBT techniques include:
- Journaling
- Talking with your therapist and peers
- Brainstorming solutions to problems
- Challenging beliefs that don’t serve you
- Mindfulness, relaxation, deep breathing
- Reading and/or writing assignments
- Saying affirmations
- Visualization
- Reframing negative thoughts
The benefits of CBT
Cognitive behavioral therapy is widely regarded as one of the most successful forms of psychotherapy. Clients at Scottsdale Providence Recovery Center are making real, effective changes in their lives. When used as part of our comprehensive treatment program, clients are enjoying dramatic improvements in their quality of life.
- Better stress management
- Reduced anxiety and depression
- How to reframe the situation at hand and how you interpret and react to it
- Offers healthy alternatives to destructive thinking and behavior, including addiction
Yes. According to the American Psychological Association, cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in treating a range of mental and behavioral disorders, including:
Depression
Anxiety
Substance use problems
Eating disorders
Mental illness
In addition, numerous studies, such as this one reported in ScienceDirect, have concluded that cognitive behavioral therapy actually changes the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for higher-level thinking. This means that CBT might be able to make real, physical changes to the part of our brain that handles emotions and logic.
Finally, the BBC reported, “Of all the talking therapies, CBT has the most clinical evidence to show that it works.” When used as part of a holistic treatment program, CBT can help people find freedom and joy.
Contact us to begin your new life.
Learn more about cognitive behavioral therapy at Scottsdale Providence Recovery Center and how we can help you get on the road to a healthy, joyful life.
DIALECTICAL BEHAVIORAL THERAPY
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a specialized branch of cognitive behavioral therapy that emphasizes regulation of emotions and healthier coping skills. Clients at Scottsdale Providence Recovery Center are realizing tremendous benefits by participating in this type of treatment.
More About Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
Dialectical behavioral therapy was developed in the late 1980s to treat chronically suicidal people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Since then, ample research has demonstrated that DBT is effective in treating a wide range of other disorders, including:
- Substance use
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Bipolar
- PTSD
- Eating disorders
In dialectical behavior therapy, clients learn new skills to manage their emotions and decrease conflict in their relationships. DBT does this by focusing on four key areas:
Mindfulness. Therapists teach mindfulness skills to help clients learn how to take stock of their current situation and be aware of their emotions. When you learn how to be present in the moment and accept what you’re feeling, you can better manage your response to conflict.
Distress tolerance. Learning distress tolerance skills increases a client’s ability to handle negative emotions in a healthy way. When you recognize that you can’t always control a situation—but you can control how you react to it— you are less likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors in an attempt to escape the negativity.
Emotion regulation.
Emotion regulation teaches strategies to manage and change negative emotions that are causing problems. When you can reduce your vulnerability to emotional suffering, you are no longer controlled by your unhealthy responses to such suffering.
Interpersonal effectiveness. Interpersonal effectiveness skills help clients communicate with others in assertive, healthy ways that maintain self-respect and benefit relationships. When you know how to communicate in a thoughtful and deliberate manner, you are less likely to react impulsively to conflict.
Yes, it is. Due to its emphasis on regulating emotions and adopting healthier coping skills, DBT is increasingly being used as part of a comprehensive treatment program for a variety of mental health disorders. Numerous organizations back this up, including:
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration includes DBT on its National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices
The National Center for Biotechnology Information calls it “a well-established treatment for individuals with multiple and severe psychosocial disorders.”
A study published in Psychiatric Times found that DBT significantly decreases suicide attempts, depression and substance use
The benefits of DBT at Scottsdale Providence Recovery Center
Scottsdale Providence incorporates DBT as part of our comprehensive treatment program to help clients struggling with drug addiction, alcoholism, trauma and other mental illness. Our counselors are using DBT to:
Reduce self-harming behavior
Lessen symptoms related to trauma, addiction, depression and anxiety
Build long-lasting and sustainable self-respect
Improve interpersonal relationships with loved ones
Our licensed therapists will work with you to define treatment goals and get you where you need to be. We can help you create a life worth living without engaging in destructive thoughts and behaviors.
Reach out today
Learn more about dialectical behavior therapy at Scottsdale Providence Recovery Center and see how we can help you get on the road to a healthy, joyful life.
ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) – ACT is a form of psychotherapy aimed at helping patients use acceptance as a tool for growth. Instead of avoiding distressing or uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, ACT helps people realize that suppressing, managing or denying difficult emotions usually just creates added pain and difficulty. Instead, ACT therapy encourages clients to meet challenging situations with mindfulness and acceptance, enabling them to find healthy and successful ways to move forward.
ACT is based on the premise that it is both ineffective and counterproductive to avoid or deny painful feelings or experiences, as it ultimately leads to more distress. Instead, ACT utilizes positive alternatives to address thought patterns, such as mindfulness, attention to value systems, and positive action. During an ACT session, clients learn to listen to their internal dialogue—with specific attention to traumatic events, difficult relationships, or other stressors. The client and therapist then determine if any action needs to be taken, or if the situation can be accepted as is, while the client learns to develop healthier behavior patterns that may improve the situation in the longer-term. Once individuals face and accept certain feelings and situations, they are then able to use energy formerly spent on fighting their situations and emotions for better purposes—such as committing to living in accordance with their goals and values. The ultimate goal is to empower people to face life successfully, regardless of their circumstances.
ACT, especially when paired with mindfulness practice, offers clinically effective treatment for a wide range of psychological disorders and conditions, including anxiety, depression, OCD, addiction, and substance use disorder. ACT can help clients develop psychological flexibility, confidence, and increased ease by enabling them to face their problems head-on, rather than avoiding life’s stressors. This empowering approach helps clients accept that their reactions and feelings are valid responses to certain situations, and commit to moving forward in their lives.
MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING
Also known as MI, Motivational Interviewing is a therapeutic technique that focuses on empowering patients to be a part of their own recovery. This therapy can be useful in treating addiction and alcoholism as it gives clear motivation towards helpful behavioral changes even when patient’s are struggling with internal resistance and cravings.
More About Motivational Interviewing
Utilizing Motivational Interviewing, the therapist works to facilitate a willingness to change a behavior by addressing a client’s ambivalence or fear of change.
Although a patient may be in a treatment program, the patient’s fear or old patterns will still be operating. This modality seeks to help calm the internal battle over participating in new recovery behaviors.
Motivational Interviewing is a well-known evidence-based treatment for patients with addiction and substance abuse. It has been shown to be effective for those who have willingly sought treatment, as well as for those sent to treatment for legal reasons or following pressure from loved ones. MI can help an individual uncover the roadblocks to change and find their own inner desire to recover that isn’t prompted by outside pressure, thereby increasing their chances of long-term freedom. MI also appears to be particularly beneficial for treatment of substance use disorders especially when applied in conjunction with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Because it is broadly helpful in increasing motivation for positive behaviors, it has widespread potential for everything from encouraging healthier eating and exercise to the treatment of severe mental illness.
Solution-focused therapy, also known as solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), is an approach that empowers clients to use their innate ability to find solutions to their own problems. Instead of focusing on the origins and history of an issue, this modality takes a goal-oriented approach to problem solving. Instead of diving into the how and why of an issue, SFBT focuses on the present, and finding solutions available in the here and now.
More About Solution Focused Therapy
Solution-focused therapy is based on the premise that people know what is needed to improve their lives at any given time, and with the proper support and guidance, they can be the architects of the best-suited solutions. Rather than intensive work on early life experiences, or the addiction-related problems that brought them to treatment, this modality focuses on how to orchestrate the best possible outcomes in the present moment. This method encourages change and calls on a patient’s inherent capacity rather than focus on the problem itself. It attempts to minimize the overall time spent in therapy, and to reduce a patient’s current suffering by galvanizing their current resources to arrive at answers available to them in the present. SFBT works well on its own, as well in conjunction with other treatment modalities.
Therapists are using SFT to address a wide range of issues, including everyday difficulties, as well as issues such as relapse in addiction, traumatic life events and relationship issues. Because this method is based on the belief that people’s default patterns dictate how they cope, it can be helpful for anyone hoping to implement positive changes in the short-term. Solution-focused therapy can be effective in substance use disorder treatment, especially when used in conjunction with counseling and other evidence-based therapies. It gives clients important insights and skills to improve their resilience and quality of life.
Narrative Therapy is a counseling modality used to help people gain new perspectives on past life events and issues. It aims to give people distance from the stories they have constructed or “narrated” in response to these events, in order to “rewrite” a new narrative that better reflects their identity, goals and ideals. This technique helps clients discover how their internalized reactions may have shaped their identity, take accountability for them and find more empowering narratives in order to move forward positively.
More About Narrative Therapy
Narrative therapy takes the view that events that occur in a person’s life become influential stories that they derive meaning from. These stories will often shape a person’s worldview and their sense of identity. These narratives can influence their perception of subsequent events and ultimately, their decision-making and behaviors. Narrative therapy assumes that stories we tell ourselves can shape our belief systems, and affect how we see ourselves, as well as the conclusions we draw about later experiences and interactions. This modality works by focusing on these stories, particularly the ones that may be problematic and lead to negative behavior and reactions, and thereby helps people find more positive, alternative narratives.
Narrative therapy suggests that we create stories based on our experiences in an attempt to make sense of the things that happen to us. Although some stories will be positive and others negative, each narrative impacts our lives in the past, present, and future. For example, when we prescribe meaning to an event, it will influence our perceptions of ourselves, and can alter our self-esteem, relationships, and capacity in life. In narrative therapy, clients are encouraged to uncover and define who they really are. “Rewriting” personal narratives will help reframe the influence of past stories to influence the future story of their lives. This type of exploration can help patients expand their sense of sense, challenge outdated and negative belief systems, and offer a way to live that reflects a more positive, healthier story.
NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) is a cutting-edge modality for treating attachment, relational and developmental trauma, by working with the attachment patterns that cause life-long physical and mental symptoms and ongoing difficulties in relationships. Most people who struggle with alcohol and drug addiction have a long-history of attachment or developmental trauma. Treating this directly provides the best chance for a patient to thrive in sobriety.
NARM therapy is based on the premise that although what happened in the past is significant, these events are not the core cause of the difficulties we may experience in the present. Rather, the survival strategies that were honed in response to early life events are responsible for distorting present experiences. These survival patterns, having outlived their usefulness, actually lead to disconnection from ourselves and from others. For example, dissociation and isolation are the primary coping mechanisms for dealing with early childhood trauma. Although this may have been a useful strategy at one time, if the pattern continues into adulthood, it leads to serious issues.
Early, unconscious survival skills and patterns of disconnection can deeply affect our sense of self, emotions, physiology, behaviors and relationships. Learning how to work simultaneously with these various aspects of the self can lead to radical shifts and help heal complex trauma. As such, NARM has become a well- regarded component in Trauma-Informed Care and healing the negative effects of adverse childhood experience. NARM is a mindfulness-based clinical treatment that can help people uncover who they truly are beneath their habitual ways of relating to themselves and the world. Healing complex trauma can lead to meaningful transformation that helps people obtain deeper connection and greater wellbeing.
Grief often plays a significant role in the lives of our patients and their loved ones. It is the natural response to a change in routine. Although many associate grief with significant life events such as a death or divorce, grief often accompanies other events—such as changes in lifestyle, loss of an addiction, or the loss of dreams or expectations. Facing and addressing grief through a healthy process is a vital component to a successful recovery plan.
In the process of recovering from a substance abuse issue, grief often emerges as a response to the intense changes taking place in an individual and a family. Years of unresolved grief is also felt and recognized for the first time. Utilizing a process which allows patients to resolve their losses brings understanding and acceptance. This process of grieving helps foster healthy lasting recovery and offers both the patient and their loved ones support.
Because grief is different for everyone, there is no timetable for feelings of pain after loss. In fact, attempts to avoid or suppress grief-related pain tend to prolong the process, and can create additional issues and possible relapse. Prolonged grief, also known as complicated grief, can last months or years and require intensive treatment. Without sufficient help and support, such grief can lead to isolation, disconnection and depression.
For most people, successful readjustment after treatment requires support and learning how to re-engage with life in a positive way without substances. Occupational therapy aids in treatment by helping patients to reestablish roles and identities that are meaningful to them.
More About Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy practitioners are trained to help patients assess everyday routines and examine how they affect their state of health and their ability to carry out what is important to them. OT can help people identify new goals and learn new skills in order to help patients participate in their roles and activities. For example, if being a parent is most important to a client, the occupational therapist may focus on boosting these skills and finding successful ways to re-engage with a new recovery-centered outlook.
More than just useful in helping people learn new life skills, Occupational Therapy prepares clients to reclaim their lives with productive, healthy activities or work. OT bolsters long-term sobriety by encouraging and assisting people to re-engage with activities that are meaningful to them. In this way, they tap into a greater sense of confidence, identity, and sense of purpose in the world.
FAMILY INVOLVED RECOVERY & ALUMNI SERVICES
Regular family therapy sessions are built into our treatment program along with weekly visitation. We offer a monthly Family Meeting support group and a Family Workshop to provide essential tools for improving communication, establishing healthy boundaries and repairing damaged relationships.
Scottsdale Providence maintains a strong network of alumni. Our alumni program includes weekly aftercare groups, regular check-ins, alumni-run support groups, quarterly fellowship events and an annual camping trip.
