How We Work
One way or another Recovery Direct is committed to change. If there is something that needs revision we revise it and improve. Our mandate is simply this: We have 28 days to fix a human beings lifetime of personal trauma. It is an impossible task, but we are going to give it our best shot.You don't even have a 12 step programme.
Yes we do have a 12 step programme; It's called the 12 step programme, it's absolutely free, anyone can join and you can continue with it for the rest of your life. We just don't call it ours and nor do we try to pass off 12 step modality as a "treatment" model. The 12 Step community is completely independent which is why they dissociate from "rehab centres". Taking the 12 Step model into a treatment centre avoids the critical thinking required to help individual patients through their immediate personal life issues.
We know that there are some successes from "12 steps" or "Minnesota model" in the "traditional rehab centres".
We have studied the big book and the Minnesota model for many years, it is the topic of many internal conversations and we are deeply aware of the key aspects that make the model work and not work and are mindful of how we interpret it.
For Recovery Direct to devalue or discount the spiritual recovery model completely would be narrowminded and thus we simply say, that 12 step is best aligned to aftercare, not personal care or effective treatment.
Recovery Direct hosts individualised care programme which means that if a patient wishes to follow a 12 step programme while in treatment at our centre, we adapt our therapy to facilitate and include their 12 step meetings and provide them with the informational support to maximise their 12 step experiences - in the rooms outside of the centre.
The evidence-based treatment means we simply work on facts of up to date methods that have proven to work and not on theological belief systems. This does annoy many people that have successfully followed the 12 Step treatment model as it contravenes their personal "belief systems" which is why we receive inflammatory emails from individuals that are unable to maintain mindful control of what triggers them. Simply put, just because the 12 step model may have worked for you is not an indication that the model works for everyone. In fact, the evidence suggests that the 12 step model does NOT work in the vast majority of cases. In the cases where it has worked, we find personal psychology underpins their successful abstinence, interpreted via a rehab counsellor or an aware sponsor or friend.
That said, we also are in the constant revision of our treatment programme always adjusting and adapting to what works. We at Recovery Direct see no evidence to support the full or partial adoption of the 12 step programme as a practice of effective addiction treatment in any rehab centre.
Yes, there are MANY hyper-intelligent individuals following completely valid interpretations of 12 step methodology that could absolutely align with our clinical programmes and they do argue perfectly valid reasonings for using the 12 step methodology in treatment. However, weighing up the risk of association and misinterpretation of the 12 steps in their originally presented format does not warrant the adoption of the practice.
Our task/function or approach is geared to restoring the human being that is admitted into our centre.
There is a point where our critical thought leads to conclusions and actions and while we may unpopular Recovery Direct must draw a line in the sand somewhere.
Recovery Direct will never adopt a system that is constructed on personally punitive approaches. We reject the routine iconification of substances in shrouded in cycles of self-defeating and self-perpetuated rhetoric.
Recovery Direct will not devalue and reduce the human experience endless reminders of past suffering. We are here to address the problems and move on with our lives.
Redundant labels like "addicts, alcoholics and abusers" dehumanise people with language tha plays into the erosion of self-worth, self-esteem and personal growth from addiction. Too many elements of the 12 step model feed into counterintuitive practices that serve no form of valid examination or resolution to the causes of peoples suffering.
simply to validate your limited understanding of the addiction process.
Conversely, all the evidence in modern addiction treatment aligns with our model of personal trauma resolution through talk therapy and interrelated trauma treatment practices that are unique to each patient.
If you can find a better, faster, more progressive way of doing what we set out to do in 28 days. Then we sure as hell want to know about it. Our challenge to the community is to find a programme that does this better than us.