Each woman who embarks on the journey of self-healing and recovery at Villa Kali Ma will experience multiple individual therapy sessions each week that she is with us. This can include multiple sessions with her primary therapist as well as trauma therapy sessions, holistic therapy sessions, and individual case management sessions.
The Role of Individual Therapy in Women’s Addiction Treatment
Our team of experienced holistic therapists have vast clinical backgrounds that support the needs of each woman who finds her way to Villa Kali Ma. Our licensed and certified practitioners have many years of experience working with clients in and out of the residential treatment setting and are trained in modalities, such as:
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- Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy
- Shamanic Healing
- Ayurvedic Healing
- Mindfulness
- Somatic Processing Therapy
The Stages of Transformation From Addiction to Recovery
Although the individual therapy sessions may vary in styles, approaches, and trainings, our individual practitioners all unite around the understanding that all therapy begins with the human to human connection and the rapport building that allows the client to access their healing from within. In addition to the vital stage of rapport building, the therapeutic relationship can be categorized in three archetypal approaches which includes the: Guardian, Gardener and Guide.
Stage 1: The Guardian
Each resident of Villa Kali Ma will need a different combination of these approaches. Thus, we are committed to individualizing the treatment process to meet the needs of each woman who embarks on her healing journey with us. Beginning with the Guardian stage, our practitioners can use multiple different approaches to create a safe container and the healthy attachment needed to help the client feel safe and grounded within the healing space at Villa Kali Ma.
Many of the woman who come to Villa Kali Ma are in need of Guardians that can model healthy boundaries, healthy attachment styles, and teach the skills that help with distress tolerance and emotion regulation. Through the building of relationships between the women who come to Villa Kali Ma and our practitioners, we create a safe and nourishing place that allows for true healing to take place throughout the treatment process.
Our therapists are highly trained and work collaboratively with each client in the development of individualized treatment goals and a plan of action appropriate for each woman and her current level of preparedness, willingness and desire. This stage is all about helping the client get back to her foundation and build a solid footing. We learn to prioritize our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being as a means of finding our way toward healing.
Similar to how a primary Guardian models and teaches us when we are children, the Guardian stage of the therapeutic relationship allows for each woman to come back home to their true self, learn new skills like “grounding” and “creating a safe place,” and learn the importance of boundaries, all while finally feeling seen, heard, and nurtured on a daily basis. The next stage of the therapeutic relationship is the Gardener stage.
Within this stage, our practitioners will help each woman plant their seeds for new understanding, healing, and new behaviors. For instance, we will support the development of introspective work through meditations, journaling, trauma reprocessing, psychoeducation groups, and trying out the new skills learned during the Guardian stage. We will encourage the practice of “pause” to truly connect with what seeds we are planting on a daily basis and what truths or untruths we are replaying in our minds.
We will encourage the cleaning out of the old cognitive distortions or belief systems that no longer serve us and make way for the planting of new beliefs that support healing and growth. Our therapists and individual therapy sessions will also facilitate any family support sessions needed to allow for seeds to be planted within the family system to encourage growth, understanding and lasting change.
Stage 2: The Gardener
Each woman will practice planting her own seeds of self-love and self-compassion as well as identifying each of her unique needs and practicing her boundaries. This is the therapeutic Gardener stage through which each woman cultivates the seeds of new beliefs, positive self-talk, and the application of new skills. We will practice how to reframe thoughts and change behavior patterns, assisting each woman in nourishing the soil and harvesting the bounty from the self-nurturing and healing garden she has planted.
Stage 3: The Guide
The final stage in the therapeutic relationship is the Guide. Now that safety, trust and solid ground have been established and the seeds of positive change, self-love and new skills have been planted and nurtured, the therapist’s job is to act as a Guide to help the client to connect to her inner wisdom and tap into her own internal guidance system. The suffering caused by years of substance abuse, traumatic experiences and lack of safety can keep her from trusting her inner voice and connecting with her soul.
By healing and attending to those needs, our inner guide, or voice, will return and will become stronger and more confident with time. Although the primary therapist will act as a Guide at times, the ultimate goal is for each woman to access their own “inner knowing.” This stage is often about the building of the empowered self and the practice of listening to our soul-self instead of the small-self or the neurotic ego.
There are many ways to begin to access this inner voice, such as through a shamanic journey, or by accessing our WISE mind through DBT skills, or maybe a profound and transformational breathwork experience, or even through acts of self-compassion throughout each day. Each woman will access their own inner Guide more and more as they tune inwards and pause to allow their inner voice to be heard again and again.
All of our holistic therapists and practitioners will encourage each client in the development of self-knowledge, self-esteem, and self-compassion and help them connect with and cultivate trust in their own inner Guide, throughout their recovery journey at Villa Kali Ma. This helps facilitate the progress towards the main goal of: women will leave treatment feeling like she is now Guided by a higher power, and now trusts herself to make the right decisions for her life and future.
In turn, her self-confidence will further develop during case management sessions where, together with her case manager, she will create an individualized discharge plan that supports her continued recovery after transitioning from Villa Kali Ma. Overall, throughout treatment, individual therapy sessions are a place for each client to be seen, heard, and validated through numerous different lenses within all the stages of Guardian, Gardener, and Guide.
These different lenses allow each woman to identify what they need to feel safe, what they need to trust themselves, what needs to be released, and they need to do to attain true lasting freedom from trauma, substance use disorders, and all of the underlying pain. Through the development and realization of one’s own inner strength and the power to make healthy choices, true and lasting transformation can be attained.