Here at White Lotus Landing, we work to support women’s journeys to recovery. One key way in which we do that is to develop individual treatment plans that include different types of therapy.
Therapy for women is designed to specifically take the needs and unique experiences of women into account. It accounts for societal pressures, body image issues, traditional roles women have been placed in, and other society-specific pressures that women have to shoulder in modern life. Healing from addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders needs to be holistic in nature to prove sustainable. At White Lotus Landing, we provide many different modalities of therapy to support overall healing.
What Can Therapy For Women Provide?
Over time, therapy can help you develop skills and insight to help you resist the urge to use your addictive substance of choice.
Some types of therapy, especially motivational interviewing, can help provide insight into why a person feels or is motivated to do what they do. You may also be able to receive practical answers for why certain things may have happened to you in the past.
A major benefit to therapy is the ability to ask for the help of someone who has worked with women with addictions for some kind. They’ll have insight and advice for relapse prevention that will help you maintain sobriety.
One major characteristic of group therapy is the opportunity to learn about how addiction works and how you can avoid relapsing through self-knowledge. If you have a co-occuring mental disorder, you’ll also have the opportunity to learn about how it interacts with your addiction and how you can work to gain mastery over both of them.
A common feeling among those that suffer from addiction is that they’re completely alone in their struggle. Group therapy and hearing about the struggles other people like you face can work directly against those feelings.
Addiction affects more people than just the person suffering from addiction. Family therapy is designed to directly address the impact of addiction on the family unit and work to repair those bonds.
The most common experience for women entering rehab is to participate in multiple forms of therapy (depending on treatment plan). As a result, someone experiencing therapy in treatment will enjoy multiple types of benefits.
Different Types of Therapy For Women
This form of therapy features one-on-one interaction with a mental health professional to work specifically on your concerns. This can be about your addiction or underlying issues, depending on the direction of your treatment.
Group therapy for women involves coming together with other women to discuss and learn about a particular topic. Groups range from mostly therapeutic to mostly educational, with different formats depending on the mental health professional that leads the meetings. There are also specific meetings based around working the 12 Steps.
The family is often a key point of communication and support on the journey to recovery. Unfortunately, a person’s family may also be the most affected group of people in the course of a person’s addiction. Family therapy encourages open communication and works to help reinforce those potentially damaged or broken bonds.
This modality of therapy for women directly discusses the relationship between thoughts, beliefs, and actions. People undergoing this type of therapy will learn strategies for managing this connection and how it can affect their recovery.
Mindfulness, staying in the moment, and coping with stress are the main points of this modality of therapy. One of the aims of DBT is to help prevent individuals from being overwhelmed by emotions in the moment.
Intense trauma, such as assault or abuse, can drastically affect the mind and perspective (sometimes literally rewiring the brain). Trauma-informed therapy works directly from this perspective and helps the individual cope and heal in a safe space. This may be particularly helpful for women suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).
For women dealing with a co-occurring mental health disorder as well as addiction, part of recovery may include working to find proper medication to ease detox symptoms that don’t directly cause further symptoms. This may be particularly helpful for women suffering from opioid addiction or alcohol addiction, both of which may cause severe discomfort during detox.
If you don’t like the idea of talking about your feelings with a mental health professional, you may experience benefits from motivational interviewing therapy. This modality focuses on questioning one’s own behavior and looking internally to find one’s personal motivation.
This modality features setting personal goals and rewards for having met them. This may serve women who don’t like the idea of conventional therapy or who want a more practical approach to recovery.
Heal With Therapy For Women at White Lotus Landing
Dr. Liebermann has been practicing Addiction Medicine since 2006, initially as a rural Family and Emergency Room Physician in Maine. He has served as Medical Director at several treatment facilities, working in various levels of addiction care, including inpatient withdrawal management and residential care. A Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and a member of the American Osteopathic Academy of Addiction Medicine, he advocates for Medication Assisted Treatment. Dr. Liebermann graduated from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed a residency and fellowship at Eastern Maine Medical Center.
