Many of our clients who suffer from addiction at some point turned to drugs or alcohol in order to cope with traumatic experiences in their lives.
Northfield, NJ (PRWEB) September 16, 2015
Park Bench℠ Group Counseling, an individualized, clinically sophisticated addiction treatment program in New Jersey, has announced the addition of a gender-specific trauma track for partial care (outpatient) clients. The program includes weekly group sessions aimed at exploring childhood and adult trauma, which has been strongly linked to addiction and other mental health disorders.
A highly personalized addiction treatment center, Park Bench℠ provides day treatment/partial care that includes psychiatric evaluation and treatment, individual and group counseling, and life skills training.
The trauma sessions are designed to help clients better understand how trauma influences emotions and thinking patterns and to provide tools for processing and overcoming these patterns. “Many of our clients who suffer from addiction at some point turned to drugs or alcohol in order to cope with traumatic experiences in their lives,” says the program’s Clinical Director Jennifer Maguire, MA, MS, LPC, ACS, CCS. “If we do not address the impact trauma has had on them and teach them how to cope without using drugs or alcohol, then we are missing a huge component of treatment.”
Trauma can take many forms, says Maguire. “The death of a loved one or abuse from childhood are clearly traumatic events, but sometimes trauma is much subtler,” she says. “Trauma is based on the client's perception of an event, so anything that occurs in a client's life that they are having trouble emotionally processing can be addressed in therapy.”
The groups are very small, and are led by a therapist with specialized training and experience in the treatment of trauma. “Our clients learn to understand the connection between addiction and trauma,” says Maguire. “We do not rehash the actual event or events. Instead, we address what they are experiencing in their body, and their resulting thoughts, behaviors and feelings.”
The groups also teach meditation and grounding exercises, which provide practical tools for managing intense emotion. Following treatment, clients are given a referral to a trauma-focused individual therapist as part of aftercare planning.
“These groups have been powerfully effective,” says Maguire. “They are providing clients who have been impacted by trauma a safe place to process their experiences, which many of them have never had before. The response has been tremendous.”
About Park Bench℠ Group Counseling
Park Bench℠ Group Counseling is a highly personalized addiction treatment center located minutes from the beautiful Jersey Shore in Southeastern New Jersey. The center offers day treatment/partial care and intensive outpatient treatment for those wishing to maintain independent living while working an active 12-step program. For more information, call (855) 893-5987 or visit http://www.parkbenchgroup.com.
Park Bench℠ Group Counseling is a member of Elements Behavioral Health, an owner of a series of behavioral health programs located throughout the United States. The Elements Behavioral Health® family of programs offers comprehensive, innovative treatment for substance abuse, sexual addiction, trauma, eating disorders, and other mental health disorders. Through its programs, the company is committed to delivering clinically sophisticated treatment that promotes permanent lifestyle change, not only for the patient but for the entire family network. For more information, visit elementsbehavioralhealth.com.