Recovery treatment has quite a few blanket elements that are applied to everyone, mainly because they work for almost everyone. Alcoholics and addicts are always served by abstinence and sobriety. Also, both individual and group therapy tend to be remarkably helpful in recovery treatment. Eating right and being physically active never did anyone any harm. And then there is the biggest and most effective universal solution: the 12-Step program of recovery. This course of action works for anyone who is willing to do the work. The Twelve Steps, combined with meetings and being of service, is the solution that really works for so many of us.
These are big, one-size-fits-all applications of recovery treatment methods. But each of them also has a deeply personal element that sometimes gets overlooked. For truly effective recovery treatment, we can’t forget the personal touches needed with each method. Addiction recovery treatment has so many blanket elements that work for everyone, but each of them also has incredible potential to become personal, meaningful, and truly alive. We must not fail to bridge the gap between what works for everyone and what works for each individual. Lives often get saved one at a time, and that’s what we’re really doing here.
Blanket Approaches Aren’t All Bad
It’s true. Widely applied, universal treatment methods aren’t bad at all, but they also aren’t enough on their own. Yes, alcoholics and addicts all have the same disease, but they aren’t all the same person, they don’t all have the same symptoms, and they don’t all have the same lives. They just have the same disease. Solutions such as sobriety, therapy, and 12-Step recovery work for the vast majority of alcoholics and addicts, but they must be applied in personal and meaningful ways in order to really work. Though every alcoholic and addict will benefit from these methods, they will benefit in different ways. They will take different things away from the treatments and seek resolution to different symptoms. So yes, the blanket methods must be applied, but they must be also applied personally and individually.
Individualized Therapy
Therapy is a marvelous and incredibly necessary part of addiction recovery treatment. There are so many different schools and methods, and the vast majority of them can add to and positively impact treatment. Therapy is also wildly helpful when conducted in both group and individual settings. Whether one-on-one or with many, therapy is an effective and important element of recovery treatment. Therapy helps pretty much everyone who participates in it.
But there is also a huge opportunity to apply many personal touches in therapy. Therapy is less effective when everything is done by rote, the same outlines recycled over and over as if all alcoholics and addicts fit the exact same mold. The disease is the one thing they all have in common, but the disease does not manifest the same in everyone. Each individual has such a unique life experience behind them prior to entering recovery treatment that we are selling them short if we don’t get extremely personalized with therapy.
Jaywalker Lodge has a proprietary intake process during which we not only assess the individual, but we learn all we can about them — not just how their disease manifests, but who they are and what kind of life they wish to lead in recovery. From this information, we draft a personalized, individualized therapy program. We incorporate this information into properly applying group therapy methods and how we go about the 12-Step education process as well. Doing things this way ensures that everyone gets the most possible benefit out of universally applied treatment methods.
No Solution Is More Versatile and Personal Than the 12-Steps
That’s not an overstatement — it’s fact out of our experience. No addiction recovery solution is more versatile and personal than the 12-Step program. Period. It works for everyone, both as a whole and as an individual participant. The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions are what keep the entire recovery fellowship afloat. They are also exactly what keeps the individual in a recovery lifestyle that is ever-changing, ever-growing, and ever-improving. It is a truly evergreen solution to alcoholism and addiction.
However, a great disservice is done when the Twelve Steps are applied in an impersonal manner. The Twelve Steps are a deeply personal thing and best when worked between an individual seeking recovery and a sponsor who has at least some success with recovery themselves. When it comes to education about the 12-Step process, no two people are alike. Even though the recovery literature remains unchanged and the Twelve Steps are the same for everyone, somehow the miraculous and personal nature of the solution means that each person will have their own unique experience and takeaways from the same readings, the same Steps, and the same process.
This cannot be overlooked. No 12-Step introduction or education program can truly be one-size-fits-all, even though the literature and the Twelve Steps are absolutely one-size-fits-all. Don’t let this be confusing, just understand that the same Twelve Steps are so deeply personal and completely individualized that they must be engaged in simultaneously on a group and individual level. Both must happen at once, and it is our responsibility to facilitate that.
Jaywalker Lodge believes so much in the 12-Step process that we make no bones about it being our foundation. The 12-Steps are what we’re here to help you get involved in. We also believe that recovery is possible for anyone who is willing to do the work, and we believe that every alcoholic and addict deserves recovery. Period. Most of us at Jaywalker Lodge are alcoholics or addicts ourselves, and the Twelve Steps have worked for us so immensely that we have the privileged blessing to be here to help others find the same joy and freedom. We all work the same Twelve Steps, but we do so on such a personal level that it must be experienced firsthand to truly understand it. If you are an alcoholic or addict, trust that what worked for us can work for you, too — no matter how many times you have tried before. Call Jaywalker Lodge now at (866) 529-9255.
As Chief Executive Officer Bill provides leadership and manage all day-to-day operations of Jaywalker Lodge, an extended care residential addiction treatment program for adult men.
