Our Treatment Approach

At October Road, we don’t leave anything to chance. We understand that people start using drugs under a wide range of circumstances and for a wide range of reasons. That’s why each client’s care plan is personalized to meet their needs. In our group programs, you will form coping mechanisms that do not involve substance use, learn the best ways to leverage your support network during recovery, and determine what triggers the urge to use so you can head off cravings.

Counselors working with the Matrix Model incorporate proven therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and motivational interviewing into a 16-week program that builds on itself to reintroduce healthy habits into participants’ lives. This program involves peers and family members for encouragement and support. Clients will be taught how to:

• Manage time to help reduce stress and leave time for healthy practices
• Understand the continuing cravings and/or withdrawal symptoms they might feel
• Reduce their chances of relapse and use healthy coping mechanisms
• Help (and be helped by) their peers

The Matrix Model separates recovery into four stages:

1. Early Recovery
2. Family Education
3. Relapse Prevention
4. Social Support

As clients progress through the stages, they learn how to make and maintain positive changes in their lives. They will also be introduced to outside resources that can help them stay drug-free after they finish our IOP or PHP treatment. The Matrix Model has been found highly effective for helping clients turn their lives around, especially among those recovering from stimulant addiction.

Self-medication often leads to addiction, and we realize that where there are underlying causes, simply insisting on sobriety won’t help. The Seeking Safety curriculum helps patients understand and work through the traumas or PTSD that led to their substance-using behaviors. The method empowers participants and helps them see hope and improvement in their futures rather than encouraging them to dwell on the past. Each of the 25 lessons that may be addressed adhere to the following principles:

1. The goal of treatment is to find safety
2. It is best to treat substance use and PTSD/trauma simultaneously
3. Focusing on ideals can help combat both PTSD and substance use
4. There are four areas treatment should focus on: the cognitive, the behavioral, the interpersonal and individual case management
5. Participants should be aware of how their interactions with their counselor shape their recovery

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), focuses on the mental processes behind long-term change. The approach asks participants to accept that their thoughts may not change, but with mindfulness practices, they can change their responses to common triggers. Rather than trying to avoid “bad” thoughts, clients can learn to deal with them in a healthy manner.

Based on relational frame theory (RFT), ACT recognizes that you may not be able to render a trigger harmless, but you can form new behaviors around it. Brains can change, and ACT helps participants focus on their values and desired behaviors rather than succumbing to impulse or habit. The system teaches six methods:

• Defusion: Removing or weakening the emotional impact of beliefs by looking at your thoughts as if from a distance
• Acceptance: Understanding that negative emotions happen, but your responses—not your feelings—dictate the outcome
• Attention to the Present: Learning to focus on current circumstances rather than getting lost in the hypothetical regarding past decisions or future outcomes
• Self-as-Context: Understanding that your thoughts are not reality, but a description of the world the way you see it—and therefore can be questioned or disproved
• Values: Choosing the principles you want to abide by, which are then reflected in action
• Committed Action: Setting goals that fulfill your values