Tuesday, Tuesday…
Continuing with last week’s theme on what we’ll actually be doing during the 5 Day portion, Tuesday is when we begin exchanging information.
On Monday you will have completed Dr. Jane Loevinger’s Sentence Completion Test. On Tuesday we open up with a discussion of the results, why they are important, how they relate to your drinking, how they are reflected in our website and newsletter and, hence, your decision to work with us rather than being “worked” by the Steppers.
The SCT also informs us, and you, about how you relate to the world, to others, and, frequently, to alcohol. It provides significant insights into the causes of loneliness and boredom.
Following that discussion, we move along to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and its applicability to anxiety and depression in particular. We also note that CBT isn’t a way of processing events with a “CBT Therapist,” but is rather a skill which you internalize and learn to apply “in the moment” to the events, situations, and problems that afflict all of us.
This is also the day, usually, when we begin looking at topics such as the benefits you get from drinking, the benefits those around you get from your drinking, along with some deprogramming from all of the AA/12 Step mythology that pervades our society and the “Rehab Industry” in all of its guises.
Sound like a lot? Too much?
It would be if this was the sum total of our work with these topics and areas of interest and concern. Happily, it isn’t.
As best as we have been able to discover, we are the only program that does actual follow-up. That’s very important because it means the 5 Day Intensive can be foundation and introduction work to be completed during the 12 weeks of continuing sessions.
No, we don’t fob you off on AA – as if that “worked” – or pronounce you “cured” and cut you adrift.
If you think about it, the time you spend with us, undiluted by groups whose members you have absolutely nothing in common with (other than having been duped by the same marketing department), makes for an excellent therapeutic bond, coaching platform, and well-integrated solution focused outcomes.
And it’s only Tuesday!
We don’t waste a lot of time talking about your drinking history.
That’s right. Unlike the Steppers and their endless drunkalogues, we’re only interested in a brief review of what brings you to us. After that our attention is on where your life is at now and where you want it to be in a year.
No, we’re not going to dig through every “event” in your history looking for “The Cause” – we all have plenty of those.
We are going to look at what coping skills you have and how to enhance them. One of the most common we see is the dichotomy where you are appropriately assertive professionally, but turn into a passive door mat in your personal life.
As noted above, CBT is another skill to be honed and internalized as are the effects of such seemingly mundane components as diet and exercise.
It is accurate to say that we are far more interested in your present circumstances and future preferences than we are in muck raking. You, and we, will have plenty of time to reassess past events, with new perspectives, in the months ahead, if that seems worthwhile.
As noted, we are all about substance, NOT filler. We are interested in helping you free yourself from a difficult problem, not in inducting you into a life diminishing and dangerous cult.
Filler? Groups, 12 Step or otherwise; pseudo-therapies whether equine, ropes, helicopter, wolf-dog, etc; magic whether the beach, vortex, mountain, Minnesota or Malibu.
Substance? CBT, Assertiveness Training, Motivational Enhancement, Diet, Exercise, Medical Support, Education, De-programming, Follow-up. Cost effective in terms of time, money, and confidentiality.
Which door would you prefer?
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