Why DARA
DARA Koh Chang
DARA Chanthaburi
CBT Program
Steps to Recovery™ Program
Choosing the Right Program
DARA Koh Chang
DARA Chanthaburi
DARA Koh Chang
DARA Chanthaburi
CBT ProgramCBT Program
CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) is one of the best evidence-based approaches for treating substance abuse. CBT helps people change how they think (cognitive) so they change what they do (behavioral). It focuses on the here and now in order to help people make life changes.
Seeing addiction as a behavioral issue rather than a disease, CBT empowers people to make the right choices. This is markedly different to 12 step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Note DARA also offers Steps to Recovery™, a 12 step based treatment program, at our Chanthaburi facility.
CBT provides a focused approach to helping people become abstinent by tackling the underlying issues behind their addiction. CBT helps people change the way they think about themselves, the world, and other people. It also helps people to understand how actions affect their thoughts and feelings and, inversely, how their thoughts and feelings affect their actions. CBT helps people make sense of what may seem overwhelming by breaking it down into smaller parts. This makes it easier to see how things are connected and how they affect people. After all, how we think about a problem can affect us both physically and emotionally, but most importantly, it affects what we do about it.
CBT works on the following principles:
- Addiction is not a disease.
- People are fully responsible for their own condition.
- Drug and alcohol abusers lack the skills and abilities to end their abuse, skills they can develop with CBT.
- One can, and should, end their dependency to drugs/alcohol through their own efforts and we provide the necessary support and skills to achieve this.
- The person themselves are responsible for their situation and, therefore, their recovery.
- Participation in the process of gaining greater control, responsibility and knowledge of their lives will assist their own recovery.
- Addiction is just one of the issues to deal with during rehabilitation. After all, substance abuse is not the root of the problem, it’s a symptom.
- Recovering is not recovered.
- Addiction, like a bad headache or heartache, has an ending.
Program components include counseling, group therapy, art therapy, group communication, group exercise, group sports, journaling, massage, meditation, personal training, relapse awareness, stress management, tai chi, Thai boxing, water workouts, and yoga.
Counseling or psychotherapy is not about giving advice, but rather listening and helping people to identify areas of their life that are not working. There are many different approaches to counseling, but they all have establishing a close and trusting relationship with the client in common. At DARA our therapists use a wide variety of different psychological approaches depending on what works best for each individual.
The group process allows clients from all walks of life to discuss their issues in an open and non-judgmental atmosphere with the help of a facilitator. Essential to our program, therapeutic groups are not only an excellent way of sharing experiences of addictive behavior, but also afford peer learning about solutions to resolve negative behavioral patterns.
