INPATIENT TREATMENT

At Cedars we recognize that addiction disorders are treatable illnesses and that with specific care properly applied, abstinence and long-term success can be expected.

Cedars at Cobble Hill is committed to ensuring that each patient receives the best possible treatment for that individual.  This is accomplished through thorough assessment and re-assessment of how the patient is responding to treatment.  We also believe that each individual wants to change and knows how they would like to live their lives.  Those who present as they do not want to change are often frightened of the prospect of entering into rehabilitation.  Motivating patients through the stages of early recovery is a primary responsibility of the staff.  Cedars clinical and support staff will invite each patient to explore how to reach their goals of recovery,  a full recovery, that will include improved self esteem, fulfilling relationships and accomplishing individual goals  This is reached not by confronting the individual, but by inviting them into a process of recovery.  The staff at Cedars believe that this individual approach will lead to what we describe as a full recovery.

INDIVIDUALIZED CARE

"Cedars gave me the tools to stay sober one day at a time and for that I am grateful, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me my life back."

Tracy.G

Our multi-disciplinary treatment program includes:

• Separate residences for men and women
• Medical Detoxification when required
• A comprehensive medical, psychological, emotional and spiritual assessment process.
• Individualized plans to ensure each client is matched to the right treatment. Treatment may include separate treatment streams for clients with co-occurring disorders in order to effectively treat both illnesses
• A length of stay that is determined by measured progress toward patient and staff identified goals
• High staff to patient ratio
• Individual Therapy
• Psychodynamic Group Therapy
• Cognitive behavioural therapy/ Motivational Enhancement Therapy/ Dialectic Behavioural Therapy
• Educational Seminars
• Art Therapy (Recovering Words Workshop)
• Spiritual guidance from our team of chaplains and local First Nations Elders.
• Daily exercise with our physical trainer, yoga sessions and walks on our wooded trails
• An approach to recovery that emphasizes balance. Good nutrition, exercise and mindfulness practices are an essential part of a full recovery.
• Twelve step facilitated therapy supported by on campus twelve step meetings
• An individualized continuing care plan upon completion of inpatient treatment
  

See a sample of our Daily Schedule here

SAMPLE MENU:

Breakfast: Daily Continental (Fresh muffins, Hot Oatmeal, Cereals, Fruit Salad etc.) Sunday Brunches include Eggs Benedict and a specialized menu.

Lunch: Chicken breast atop mixed baby greens, candied walnuts, dried cranberries, julienne carrots, and orange segments, with sliced granny smith apples with a balsamic reduction.

Dinner: Wild Salmon Loin with Beurree Hoisette, herbed risotto and a side of cooked seasonal vegetables.

CO-OCCURRING DISORDERS

An increasing number of people who seek help for addictions also have been diagnosed with a co-existing psychiatric disorder.  These illnesses become inter-related in a complex way.  Both the disorders will need to be treated if the individual is to experience a full, sustainable recovery.  This will be done through assessment and re-assessment by our medical and staff.  Cedars at Cobble Hill has consulting relationships with psychiatrists, psychologists, eating disorder specialists, pain management doctors, PTSD psychologists and providers of spiritual guidance.

RELAPSE PREVENTION PLANNING

In order to create a viable relapse prevention plan, each individual patient must identify high risk situations and create plans for handling those situations, then present their relapse prevention plan to their counsellor and group members for feedback. A relapse prevention plan includes awareness  of personal avoidance and escape strategies, steps for redirecting addictive thoughts, and how to manage emotional distress. It often appears as though a relapse “just happened” when in reality the relapse began long before the compulsive act, in the more subtle change of attitudes and behaviours. The relapse prevention plan helps the patient recognize their personal  symptoms before they lead to a relapse.

CONTINUING CARE

The first 24 months in recovery is a critical time period for someone suffering from an Addiction disorder.  The beginning phase will be done in a residential setting.  This will include medical detoxification and a comprehensive medical, psychological, emotional and spiritual assessment and treatment process.  Following the residential component, the next phase of treatment is 6 months of weekly continuing care meetings in your home community.  What we accomplish in the residential setting is vital to set the foundation of recovery.  However, this can be undone very quickly if this work is not maintained. These continuing care groups will be facilitated by a trained professional for a minimum of 6 months post treatment. The third phase of treatment is continued maintenance of the continuing care plan, while maintaining contact with Cedars and our continuing care team.  Cedars also offers the “Connections Program” for those with 6 or more months of recovery.  This acts as a refresher for those who feel they need some extra support in their early recovery.  This is also open for those in the community who have not attended the Cedars at Cobble Hill residential program.

PSYCHODYNAMIC GROUP THERAPY

At Cedars, group therapy provides a unique opportunity for our patients to interact. These sessions are professionally guided and are an integral part of the therapeutic process. This particular type of therapy is designed to help patients develop interpersonal relationships and identify behaviours within the group. In group therapy emphasis is placed on current, honest feelings. The counsellor's role in group therapy is to guide, model and educate group members in the task of identifying defences in self and others. While individual therapeutic techniques vary, the purpose of all groups is growth through honest sharing and self-discovery.

EDUCATIONAL SEMINARS

Presented by our Executive Director Neal Berger and members of our clinical team, the education series provides fundamental insight into the disease of addiction. Through these seminars our patients learn about the science behind addiction, and the questions of "why" and "how" of addictive behaviours are addressed. Our educational seminar series assists our patients in establishing the necessary tools for recovery, self awareness, and relapse prevention.

COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY/ MOTIVATIONAL THERAPY/ DIALECTIC BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY

At Cedars we offer a non-confrontational, supportive approach to change in addictive behaviours. Patients are encouraged to identify destructive feelings and thoughts that influence negative behaviours, and are given new tools and coping skills for their sustained recovery. These therapeutic approaches encourage and empower the individual to gain insight into their own behaviours and create a conduit for self discovery. Throughout treatment our patients will learn how to respond rather than react to situations and environments that may have previously lead to a relapse.

EQUINE THERAPY

A man kneels beside the fence. He is terrified, not of the small horse on the other side, but of his fear that she won’t like him and will walk away. As he lets go of his tough act and acknowledges how lonely he really is, she comes over and blows on his face with her gentle breath.

On the other side of the barn, a young woman meets a huge horse.  He pulls at her clothing and pushes at her with his nose.  She laughs.  People do what they want with her.  Later, when she is supported to stand her ground with this gentle giant, learning to push him away and create a safe space around her, she cries for all the times that she let her boundaries be violated.  Never again.

Staying in the present moment, emotional honesty, being uncomfortable without panicking, having healthy boundaries; these all support recovery but can be merely words or ideas. Horses teach real lessons that are hard to learn in the classroom.  The field of Equine Facilitated Wellness partners people with horses in safe but powerful experiences.  There is no riding and no one is pushed beyond their comfort level with the horses.

Finely tuned receptors in the horse keep them safe in the wild where they can be preyed upon. Being with horses in an Equine Facilitated Wellness setting can help humans to return to our natural instincts and connection to self, others and nature.  Horses are comfortable with us when we are really ourselves.  No judgement, no criticism; just how we are in the moment.

As people return to Cedars after a day at Generation Farms, they take with them experiences that will continue to support their recovery.

Deborah Marshall MA RCC

ART THERAPY - RECOVERING WORDS WORKSHOP

To write and discover you have words inside you; to see them appear mysteriously on the white page; yours and not yours; words that can reveal yourself to you and help you heal and recover.
This describes the art of poetry and the healing process provided by the Recovering Words poetry workshops. These Recovering Words Workshops are facilitated by Richard Osler (60), a published poet and a poetry workshop and retreat leader with extensive experience. He has worked with more than 1,500 participants over a five year period.

This three hour workshop introduces participants to the healing words of contemporary poets, many, but not all, who have also struggled with serious addictions in their lives. Using the themes and words of these poets as a springboard, participants also write their own poems.
At the heart of these workshops is the mysterious reality that American poet, Jane Hirschfield, captures so clearly:

"The poet, pursuing a vessel to hold something known, finds what the poem may know that the poet as yet does not." A strange paradox in life and poetry.
Gregory Orr, a celebrated American poet in his sixties, was responsible for the death of his younger brother in a hunting accident when he was only twelve years old. He says what saved him in the horrific aftermath of this trauma was "the making of poems."

His experience with the healing power of poetry has been confirmed countless times in Recovering Words workshops. As Orr says "because poems are meanings even the saddest poem I write is proof that I want to survive. And therefore it represents an affirmation of life in all its complexities and contradictions."
When participants in a Recovery Words workshop write their poems and read them out loud to each other they discover they are not alone in the world. The poetry workshop creates another foundation in which individuals may express themselves, and relate to one another.

Orr says that when he reads or hears a poem “I feel a connection to the person who wrote it, knowing that he or she has gone through something similar to what I've experienced, or something I have felt." He adds” the gift of their poem enters deeply into me and helps me live and believe in living."
Over five years the poems written by Recovery Words workshop participants proves again and again that the healing power of poetry cannot be overestimated; they prove that words in the form of poems can give exuberant hope and meaning to the those who write them as well as to those who hear them.

Dead of the Day
Incantations of the afternoon.
Hushed condolences of the wicker creel.
A green punt irons the back of the pond’s dark shirt.
Water so still a thought might break it.
Willows bend down and listen.
Quiet.
The day dries out on a log and sleeps.
Mayflies make a vow of silence, of hunger,
reach for sunlight like a rope.
The heart bells out into ripples
from fish that rise from the dead of the day.
- Richard Osler

BRAINWAVE OPTIMIZATION

Brainwave Optimization (BWO) is a sophisticated technology that can support individuals who need further care beyond a residential treatment program. An advanced form of biofeedback, it makes use of EEG technology to rebalance brain wave activity.

The brain is the control center for the entire body. It controls every cell and organ and the entire nervous system. Traumas, both physical and emotional, can knock normal functions out of balance. Many of us suffer from some measure of brain wave imbalance as a result of trauma. Difficult periods in our life can exacerbate the imbalance, with unpleasant consequences.

We are always affected by the state of balance or imbalance in our brains. When we are under stress this  is exaggerated. The ways we behave are often our body’s way of working to balance brain waves that are out of sync. Behaviors such as addictions, rage, eating disorders and self-harm can be misguided and unhelpful attempts to regain balance. The American Medical Association recently redefined addiction as a chronic brain disorder, which helps reduce the stigma of addiction and support the need for a balanced brain.

Recovery involves choices. Just as treating heart disease there are good and bad choices. BWO does not replace treatment but is a powerful adjunct to other forms of addictions treatment and 12 step programs.

“I would like my insides to match my outsides” said ‘Connie’ before her BWO sessions. She was working hard to change her behavior in group and with her counselor, but still felt unsettled and exhausted from the effort. After completing treatment she started twelve session of BWO. Her comment after was “I feel calm and I am handling the challenges that are happening in my life. People comment that I am really different and less reactive.”

Brainwave Optimization begins with an assessment of the individual’s brain patterns. The assessment is a straightforward process in which sensors are placed on the person’s scalp in a variety of locations to detect the energy patterns of various brain lobes. During the optimization sessions, sensors detect brainwave activity, send it to a computer which then sends the activity back to the person in the form of sound.  This process of self-regulation by the brain allows it to rebalance itself. As the brain “hears” itself it responds by creating new neural networks.
 People have tried for centuries to rebalance their own brain using the mirror of meditation. BWO  supports meditation and takes it a step further to achieve deep relaxation and self-regulation. It is a quiet relaxing process that does not involve active thinking or effort. Frequent results include improved sleep, reductions in anxiety and depression, and improved concentration. It is very good support in addiction and eating disorder recovery, both in early and later stages of treatment. People often remark that they are less reactive to frustrations and that they feel much more like themselves.

If your recovery is challenging you may benefit from Brainwave Optimization. It is offered at the Nanaimo office of Marshall and Associates, the same group that provides the popular Equine Therapy program for Cedars at Generation Farms. www.balanceyourbrain.ca