Expressive therapy has proven to promote healing in women seeking recovery from eating disorders, substance abuse or drug addiction, and co-occurring disorders.

Timberline Knolls expressive therapists help residents integrate creative and experiential activities into their recovery process on a daily basis. Expressive and experiential therapies encourage residents to reconnect with their healthy selves by working together with peers and staff.

Expressive and experiential therapy sessions are conducted in groups by licensed and certified therapists. In addition to their education and experience in mental health counseling, expressive therapists also have specialized training in the use of creative arts for women in the early stages of recovery. Timberline Knolls’ expressive therapists participate in weekly clinical care conferences with each resident’s treatment team.

The wooded, 43 acre Timberline Knolls campus offers space for basketball, volleyball, outdoor movement classes, and equine therapy. Additionally, the campus is home to a historic art studio, which provides a welcoming and inspiring atmosphere for residents to partake in art therapy.

Residents work weekly with their treatment team to select therapeutic activities that are clinically appropriate and match their interests:

• Art Therapy
• Dance/Movement Therapy
• Recreational Therapy
• Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy
• Body Image
• Empowerment Group (experiential trauma recovery group)
• Therapeutic Outings (for example, restaurant outings, cultural events, sporting events, food and clothes shopping, volunteering)
• Cooking and Meal Preparation Group
• Self Defense
• Daily Fitness
• Meditation and Relaxation
• Letting Go Ceremonies
• Creative Performances

The self-healing women experience from expressive therapy reinforces their ownership of their spiritual renewal. Residents draw on their work in spirituality and recovery groups, and their daily experience of their surroundings, to fuel creative the creative process. In this way, expressive therapy helps women move forward in recovery by expressing emotions that are stimulated in other therapies.  As residents progress in treatment, they continuously find new sources of creative inspiration, both in treatment and in the natural tranquility of the Timberline Knolls campus.