EFFECTIVE TREATMENT: 1. Our Mission
1. Our Mission
Our Mission at The Abbey is to improve the health and happiness of our clients through individualized and compassionate care.
Let’s understand why this Mission enhances successful outcomes.
To begin, please notice that we do not emphasize sobriety – even though that is one of our primary goals. For most of our clients, their lives in addiction – the drinking and drug abuse, coupled with so many related problems – have made them miserable. But we want more for our clients than mere abstinence from chemical dependency.
In our experience, successful Recovery is best achieved when people are healthy, happy, and fulfilled in their lives. Therefore, as a clinical team, our principal goal is to help restore that health, happiness, and fulfillment in the lives of our clients.
To achieve this goal of positive Recovery for our clients, The Abbey has developed a Patient-Centered System of Care. This means that every aspect of our Program and every member of our Staff is focused on delivering individualized and compassionate care to our clients.
In this way, Positive Sobriety is a by-product of living a healthy, happy, and fulfilled life in Recovery!
EFFECTIVE TREATMENT: 2. Mental Health Disorders
2. Treating Co-Occurring Mental Health Concerns
In addition to chemical dependency, nearly all of our clients also experience an underlying mental health concern.
In some cases, a mental health concern such as anxiety or trauma may lead a client to addictive behavior. In other instances, addictive behavior may produce a different mental health challenge, such as anger management or shame.
Invariably, a vicious cycle develops where an addict’s substance abuse exacerbates these underlying mental health concerns, which, in turn, leads to more addictive behavior – and so on.
Accordingly, one of our primary goals is to assist our clients in addressing these underlying mental health challenges. By helping our clients to alleviate and manage these concerns, we not only help to protect against future relapse, we also help to improve their overall happiness and personal fulfillment.
- Anxiety
- Bi-Polar Disorder
- Depression
- Trauma
- Grief
- Loss
- Shame
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Excessive Stress
- Social Discomfort/Phobia
- Eating Disorders
- Relationship Concerns
- Pain Management
- Codependency
- Intimacy Problems
- Sexual Disorders
- Gender-Specific Concerns
- Sexual Orientation/Identity Concerns
- Sexual Abuse
- Physical Abuse
- Mental Abuse
- Anger Management
- Mood Disorders
- Learning Disorders; Dyslexia; ADD; ADHD
- Personality Disorders
- Self Esteem Concerns
- Narcissism
EFFECTIVE TREATMENT: 3. Clinical Staff
3. Highly Qualified & Experienced Clinical Staff
The engine that drives our Program is our highly qualified and committed clinical staff. Our management team is led by Karen Relf, M.S.Ed., who has over 20 years of experience in the social services field. Ms. Relf joined The Abbey in 2009 and became Program Director in 2013.
Because our emphasis is not just on substance abuse, but also on mental health concerns, all of our Primary Counselors hold Master’s degrees in counseling and therapy.
In addition to those committed team members, Abbey clients receive medical and psychiatric care from our physicians and nurses.
On average, our clinical team members have over 10 years of experience in the field of addiction treatment and behavioral health.
EFFECTIVE TREATMENT: 4. Individualized & Compassionate Care
4. Individualized & Compassionate Care
Upon admission, each client is assessed with diagnostic criteria set forth by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). Together with this assessment and other diagnostic tools (medical examination, psychiatric evaluation, a biopsychosocial analysis, etc.), we develop an Individualized Treatment Plan that addresses the client’s specific needs. That Individualized Treatment Plan is reviewed continually with the client – and modified over time (as appropriate), based upon the client’s growth and progress while in treatment.
Our highly competent and well-trained staff know and understand the disease of addiction. Our job is not to judge or lecture our clients – nor to treat them as though they are morally deficient. Our priority is to provide our clients with the tools necessary to treat their addictions and to improve their overall health and happiness in a life of fulfilling Recovery.