Treating Alcoholism With Dignity and Compassion

Each woman who seeks treatment for alcohol abuse or addiction requires much more than education about her disease and instruction about the process of recovery.

• She requires constant attention to her health and to any complications from alcoholism.
• She needs emotional support as she develops awareness of how her disease has impacted her life and her loved ones.
• She requires compassion, understanding and recovery coaching from staff that recognize the crucial step she has taken by seeking to overcome alcoholism at a residential treatment center.

At Timberline Knolls, our integrated team of psychiatrists, internal medicine physicians,nurses and therapists are not only experts in alcohol abuse and addiction treatment. They possess a comprehensive understanding of other psychiatric, psychological and medical conditions that contribute to dependence on alcohol and other drugs. They assess each woman's entire history of substance abuse, as well as symptoms of pain, anxiety and depression. They may uncover related addictions, such as prescription drug dependence or eating disorders that may have originated prior to her alcohol abuse or from her efforts to conceal alcohol abuse and manage its symptoms.

Our alcoholism and substance abuse treatment team also digs deeper than many drug rehab centers into the underlying causes and conditions of the entire addictive disease process. As a result, they often identify co-occurring psychiatric conditions or other addictive disorders. If unaddressed or under-addressed, co-occurring disorders frequently lie at the root of repeated relapses.

Each woman or girl who seeks help at Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center will take ownership of her individualized alcohol abuse treatment program. Our rigorous, medically-informed approach to treatment and recovery succeeds where other alcohol rehab programs may have failed. It helps women and their families gain confidence in a hopeful future.

What Makes Our Alcoholism Treatment Plans Successful?

The most successful approaches to substance abuse treatment and recovery consider all available information about a resident, and leverage the experience of our entire staff to customize each woman's treatment program. This collaborative approach is one of the distinguishing elements of alcohol abuse and addiction treatment at a leading rehab center like Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center. It's also one of the reasons why so many leading outpatient alcohol and drug abuse addiction specialists refer to us their patients who need more intensive treatment, or who have struggled to sustain recovery in an outpatient setting.

Before Admission

Assessment of a woman's treatment needs begins early on in our admissions review process. We ask both the woman and her family to provide information about her alcohol abuse symptoms, challenges in work or school, and issues with friends or family. We also request her permission to communicate with previous addiction treatment providers to gather additional information about medical history, psychiatric history, past substance abuse treatment progress, and stumbling blocks to achieving or maintaining recovery from dependence on alcohol.

Thorough Intake Assessment

Once she is admitted, each woman undergoes a comprehensive medical and psychiatric assessment. She is then assigned a substance abuse treatment team with several key members whom she will meet individually after she settles in on campus:

• Primary therapist
• Family therapist
• Psychiatrist (MD)
• Internal medicine physician (MD)
• Addiction specialist
• Registered dietician (RD)

Each treatment team member provides an assessment within the woman's first days at Timberline Knolls. The findings are integrated and reviewed with our entire clinical staff, including other therapists and psychiatrists. As a result, our full knowledge about successful alcohol abuse and addiction treatment is integrated into each woman's treatment plan.

Taking Ownership of Treatment

We believe it is critical for each woman to take ownership of her treatment and recovery from the outset. Once her alcoholism treatment plan is formulated, our team's recommendations are shared with the woman in her first care conference, which will include her primary therapist, family therapist, psychiatrist, discharge planner, nursing staff and lodge staff. This cooperative approach gives her input into the goals for her treatment and allows her to choose several elective elements of her program. She will be asked to sign off on her treatment objectives and the progression of her treatment plan for alcohol abuse or addiction, and any co-occurring disorders. This conference also sets stage for ongoing collaboration between the woman and her treatment team throughout her stay in residential treatment.

Looking Forward to Recovery

Following the initial care conference, the treatment team will meet weekly throughout the resident's stay. Members also consult each other informally as often as needed to monitor her progress and to make sure her recovery needs are being fully supported. If new symptoms appear, a woman may also undergo additional psychological testing or medical evaluation to ensure her alcoholism treatment considers all relevant aspects of her health.

Additionally, women with other medical symptoms or complications from alcohol abuse or addiction may be referred to consulting healthcare providers such as a neurologist, orthopedic surgeon, cardiologist, gynecologist, dentist, or gastroenterologist.

What Will You Experience At Our Alcohol Treatment Center?

A woman's experience at Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center may differ dramatically from other drug and alcohol rehab facilities or substance abuse treatment programs she has attended in the past. That is by design.

Comprehensive, Integrated Alcoholism Treatment and Recovery

There is no cure for alcoholism.

Every woman recovering from alcoholism must develop tools she can trust to live successfully in recovery when she experiences feelings that trigger thoughts of returning to alcohol abuse. We work with our residents help them learn to recognize emotional changes and identify the conscious choices they are making throughout their day. Our caring staff provides ongoing compassion and understanding as women learn to use new tools in situations where they would have previously turned alcohol. As they gain confidence in their ability to make positive, healthy choices, women experience improved self-esteem and body acceptance, reduced stress and anxiety, healing of trauma, and increased self-awareness.

Comprehensive and individualized alcohol abuse and addiction treatment plans use approaches proven to help women learn to constructively experience their emotions and develop the tools to recover from alcoholism. Specific examples include:

• one-on-one therapy sessions
• expressive and experiential therapy
• education about disease processes and recovery
• meal support and regular consultation with dietary staff
• group sessions to teach and practice behavior modification and emotion management
• family therapy (including family participation)
• twelve-step facilitation
• onsite and offsite twelve-step meetings
• weekly psychiatric consultation
• trauma awareness and recovery
• educational services for school-age women

Expressive Therapy Provides A Productive Outlet for Complex Emotions

Expressive therapy has been clinically proven to promote healing and recovery, in addition to providing a needed creative outlet for women during alcoholism treatment and beyond. Our expressive therapy program includes a variety of outlets a woman can select based on her personal interests:

• art therapy in a historical art studio that supports painting, sculpture and other media
• equine assisted psychotherapy
• dance/movement therapy
• empowerment group (experiential trauma recovery)
• self-defense in our on-site fitness facility
• outdoor recreation such as volleyball, basketball, soccer, badminton or gardening on our 43 acre campus

What is Our Approach to Detoxification and Withdrawal?

Successful alcoholism treatment must address more than just the causes of the alcohol dependency. Treatment must also address the medical challenges a woman will face as she attempts to curtail long-term abuse of alcohol and other substances. Her safety is our first priority. Depending on the length of time she's been abusing alcohol, the presence of other addictive disorders, and the state of her physical health, she may require medically managed detoxification.

Our internal medicine staff and psychiatrists have extensive experience helping women through alcohol withdrawal symptoms with comfort and dignity. One of the unique features of a leading residential treatment center is that we provide 24-hour nursing care. A woman facing withdrawal, as well as her loved ones, can be confident that her safety will be closely monitored and that staff will be attentive to the need to address her pain or complications from other health conditions. More importantly, our entire staff provides her with continuous emotional support that recognizes the important step she's taken by committing to treatment and recovery.

Alcohol abuse and addiction are serious medical conditions that require treatment from chemical dependency specialists. Abruptly stopping one's use of alcohol without proper supervision can trigger serious medical complications, including death. Detoxification from alcoholism should not be attempted at home or without direction from a medical doctor. If you or your loved one are concerned you may be experiencing alcohol withdrawal symptoms, call 911 for emergency assistance.

How Do We Treat Co-Occurring Disorders With Alcohol Abuse and Addiction?

When treating women and girls for alcohol dependency, our specialized treatment team at Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center never assumes they are treating an isolated disease. Frequently, long-term abuse of alcohol and other drugs progresses from attempts by a woman:

• Reduce feelings of anxiety or depression worsened by underlying psychiatric conditions that we refer to as co-occurring disorders
• Manage pain or other symptoms from acute injuries or chronic medical conditions
• Soothe intense emotions related to unresolved, traumatic experiences in her past

Co-occurring disorders describe a situation where alcoholism or drug addiction exists along with at least one other psychiatric illness that is active and negatively impacts the recovery process. Co-occurring disorders are a widely recognized factor among alcoholics. However, many medical and behavioral health professionals, who are primarily concerned with addressing the alcohol dependency, do not always treat these complex conditions appropriately. Medical researchers have found that a large percentage of those who have an addiction to alcohol also have at least one other mental illness and/or personality disorder. Women with co-occurring disorders tend to have more severe symptoms of each illness and higher potential for relapse.

Examples of conditions that can co-exist with alcohol abuse and addiction are:

• depression
• bipolar disorder
• eating disorders
• panic and anxiety disorders
• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
• personality disorders
• schizophrenia
• various phobias and compulsions

For a person with co-occurring disorders, an attempt to address only the alcoholism in isolation is at best incomplete. In some cases, it can worsen her long-term prognosis for recovery. To facilitate life-long recovery, treatment providers must have an in-depth understanding of each disease and the complex interactions between them all.

To learn more about alcohol abuse and addiction treatment and recovery at Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center, call one of our experienced admissions counselors today at 877.257.9612. We accept adolescent and adult women for admission seven days a week.