Our Treatment Model
Individualized Treatment Plans
Helping people into a lifestyle of wellness and recovery is similar to rebuilding a house after it’s damaged. If you want to rebuild a building you need a blueprint. At PCI our blueprints, individualized treatment plans, take into account your developmental history, present circumstances, family dynamics, medical needs, emotional challenges, and any struggles you may have had with drugs, alcohol, sex, shopping, pornography, or other potentially addictive experiences. After your assessment the clinical team at PCI collaboratively reflects on the issues you present to us and works with the clinical director to formulate the most comprehensive treatment plan, organizing your IOP schedule around your specific needs for the best outcome.
Individual Therapy
Our staff has clinicians trained in a variety of brief and depth oriented psychotherapeutic techniques. Most clients will at times require some brief interventions and coping oriented therapy, whereas all clients deserve the attunement and healing dynamics provided by more depth-oriented and intensive psychotherapy. Family of origin issues, trauma, relationship issues, attachment problems, depression, anxiety, and a variety of other clinical complaints our patients present will require both a short-term and a depth-oriented approach to achieve optimal relief required for the creation of a lifestyle of wellness.
Group Therapy
Part of any comprehensive treatment experience is group therapy. Through the challenge of learning how to be vulnerable in a group of people also engaged in the same growth process we can learn even more about our relational qualities, which will add synergy to and enhance the other components of your treatment experience. Group psychotherapy at PCI spans topics and modalities like relapse prevention, trauma resolution, DBT, mindfulness, gender specific issues, and many more.
Relapse Prevention
An essential component of any facility helping people with addiction disorders is relapse prevention. Here at PCI we offer relapse prevention in the form of psychoeducation, individual sessions with our addictions counselor, and group therapy focused on understanding, managing, and preventing cravings or triggering situations. Relapse prevention at PCI begins from the moment you enroll in treatment. During the initial evaluation we assess your readiness for sobriety and begin educating you on our initial assessment of your potential for relapse and basic strategies for early sobriety success. Relapse starts well before we compulsively use a substance or engage in a maladaptive behavior, and we help our clients monitor their relapse warning signs from the day you begin treatment until the day you leave. Moreover, we also provide an alumni night for our successful graduates so they can maintain their relationship with PCI and “check in” about their successes and struggles after completing our program.
Family Education and Counseling
The last 50 years of research on addiction and mental health disorders has revealed some amazing insights about the brain and our ability to manage our feelings and urges, or”self-regulate.” We now know that our basic ability to self-regulate is partly biological (i.e., brain based) and partly socially developed. At birth we all have a temperament, our natural rhythm of emotional/brain/body regulation, and then the outside world (i.e., parents, caregivers, or family members) responds to our temperament. This process of having emotional or bodily experiences and then the outside world responding is called “attunement.” When the outside world does not respond appropriately to our needs we experience a “misattunement.” Often, many of us experience a number of misattunements during development that can affect our ability to self-regulate as adults. We now know that self-regulation is a fundamental process that goes wrong in people with addictions and mental health issues.
Here at PCI we help all clients and their families understand their particular history of misattunements that may have contributed to, not caused, the client’s addiction and mental health issues. The neurobiological, family of origin, and social issues that all contribute to our addiction and mental health issues are complex. A necessity for client’s both during and after the early sobriety period is helping their family better understand the complex challenges their loved-one is facing, as well as educating the family on how to attune, how to set boundaries, and how to engage with themselves more mindfully. We at PCI provide regular family therapy sessions in order to educate and help the family function in a more cohesive, attuned, manner. Also, the staff at PCI host a recurring family support and education night on Tuesdays at 6pm at our Westlake Village location. Feel free to contact us to sign up for our family support and education nights.
Art Therapy
“Art Therapy is a non-verbal and verbal modality that integrates both sides of the hemispheres of the brain. It uses art media to help clients externalize internal states and emotions to regulate the Parasympathetic Nervous System to improve mind/body connection, somatic awareness and Nervous System resourcing. As a Mindful modality it improves present moment experiences, self and affect regulation, reducing depressive, anxious and PTSD symptoms supporting clients to heal and improve mental stability and well-being.” “Art therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals, as well as community concerns. Art therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensorimotor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change (American Art Therapy Association, 2018).” Art Therapy.
Vocational Rehabilitation
Another feature that sets PCI apart from other treatment facilities is our focus on helping our clients find meaningful avenues for reintegrating into the workforce. Most people have a variety of skills fitting for the workforce, but their mental health and addiction disorders often hamper people’s ability to maintain employment or perform up to their potential at their work. At PCI we offer vocational rehabilitation services to our clients that will help them reintegrate into their families and communities so that they can feel fulfilled.
Holistic Model that Includes Mindfulness-Focused Physical Activities
Last, but never least, is our physical health. At PCI we know that the research consistently shows that exercise is the most underutilized medicine. If our physical health is off track, then it is nearly impossible for our mind to be well. At PCI we offer a variety of mindfulness-focused physical wellness activities like yoga, nature walks, and personal training sessions. We have hand-picked some of the best instructors who are fully invested in a wellbeing model of healthy living.
