When you seek help for recovery from addiction, you need a wide range of therapies and services designed to meet your individual needs. These therapies and other treatments make up your individual treatment plan. In this plan, experiential therapy plays a significant role. It helps you in ways other therapies do not, building upon those other methods' successes for well-rounded healing, including a healthy activities program.
How Can Experiential Therapy Help With Substance Abuse?
Experiential therapy is a type of treatment using expressive tools and activities. This differs from talk therapy, in that you primarily talk or listen during those individual or group counseling sessions. In experiential therapy activities, you participate through actions, role play, arts, crafts, music, animal engagement or recreational activities. In many ways, this therapy feels less like treatment and more like a healthy activities program, exploring your creative, social and physical sides.
All of this recreational activity meets clear goals, however. For example, you may participate in role-playing activities to understand past emotional situations or relationships. This makes your emotions clearer to you than just using words alone. You start identifying closely with your feelings related to success, responsibilities, self-esteem, and disappointments. Your therapist acts as your guide, helping you explore your anger, shame or hurt held deep within yourself.
Like talk therapy, experiential therapy is a category of counseling. It is not one specific therapy. Under the heading of talk therapy are many methods, such as CBT, DBT, psychotherapy, group therapy, EMDR, and other behavioral counseling. In the same way, experiential counseling or therapy is almost unlimited in styles, activities, and tools used to break through to your emotions. Together, these types make up a healthy activities program at Kemah Recovery.
Some of the most popular forms of therapy used as part of your healthy activities program in rehab include:
- Art therapy
- Music therapy
- Meditation therapy
- Yoga therapy
- Writing therapy
- Exercise therapy
How Experiential Therapies Are Used in Rehab
If you enter rehab for addiction, you need a range of therapies, including behavioral, talk and experiential methods. Together this forms your complete program following an individual treatment plan. Your plan places particular emphasis on healthy activities program participation if the rehab understands the importance of healing your entire being.
For healing of your body, mind, and spirit, few methods work as well as experiential ones. These therapies work so well because you do not censor yourself. You focus on the activity, instead of how you think others perceive you.
To the contrary, you spend some time in psychotherapy choosing your words and directing the sessions. You also focus on trying to read into your words. That is human nature. But sometimes too much thought affects your ability to gain the profound results you see in experiential therapies.
This is why experiential therapy plays such an essential role in recovery and long-term wellness. It helps you bring your guard down and do what comes naturally to you. It also puts you in uncomfortable situations or activities, helping you break through your fears, self-perceptions and accepted limitations.
This therapy helps people just like you, those needing help for addiction recovery. But not all rehabs provide a healthy activities program. You need to find a rehab that offers these services, as well as an array of talk therapies and other essential wellness services.
Personalized Experiential Therapy Activities
At Kemah Palms Recovery® near Houston, Texas, you gain individualized treatment that ensures your best possible chance of long-term recovery. This treatment includes an array of therapies and multiple levels of care. Programs and services of Kemah Palms Recovery® include:
- Residential and outpatient rehab programs
- Aftercare program
- Relapse prevention therapy
- Acupuncture, massage, neurofeedback and nutrition therapies
- Healthy activities program and chronic pain management program
When you find yourself ready to break through your addiction and problems leading to your substance abuse, experiential therapy helps you achieve those goals. Call Kemah Palms Recovery® now at 713-568-1210 to learn more about this and other healthy activities programs and methods.