.Addiction Support and Education
Greenbrier Academy specializes in helping people understand the relationships they have with themselves, with others and with the environment. A major quality that all of the students we work with have in common is how they use their body, food, academics, substances and other environmental factors as control mechanisms. In short, it seems that when people struggle with intimate relationships from developing infants to mature adults, there is a strong tendency to use environmental tools (from sex and drugs, to food or self-harm) to help us ease our troubles. In other words, sex, drugs, food, shopping, self-harm and more can and often are used to mediate a person’s pain.
We help our students and families continue to understand the intentions that motivate these control mechanisms through individual, family and group therapy. We ask our therapists to continue to keep up with the most recent therapeutic treatments for the many different forms of struggles our students face.
Greenbrier utilizes a multi-layered relational approach to dealing with substance abuse. Many places tend to deal with substance abuse issues from a cause-and-effect perspective or narcissist approach. They teach kids about how they need to take care of themselves and do what makes them feel better. This obviously can give a person struggling with substance abuse the impression that taking care of “number one” remains the most important priority. This is where the term “dry drunk” comes from; a person will stop drinking only to start something else with just as hurtful effects. In other forms of treatment clients are asked to thoroughly examine how drugs and alcohol have affected their lives, as if just realizing the cause and effect will somehow make them sober.
The treatment philosophy utilized at Greenbrier encompasses a much broader spectrum. In the beginning, a student would go through various therapeutic exercises designed to help them examine what it is they want at the deepest level. Other discussions, lectures and philosophical seminars are being presented during this initial phase with the intent of challenging the value systems that they held prior to entering treatment. As the student begins to clarify her true desires, discussions around how substances have helped or hindered the obtaining of their life goals are introduced. Gradually, they are led through experiences that help them to recognize how many relational dimensions were harmed by their preoccupation and use of substances. As an example, initial individual work might focus on intra-personal conflicts, i.e. “If I use I will feel better but if I use I will get in trouble, which makes me feel worse”. This would lead into an investigation of how interpersonal relationships were compromised. If the student had a belief in something greater than self, they might be led through guided imagery experiences to help them internalize what message an all loving; benevolent higher power would have in regards to their use.
As treatment progressed, they would be invited to examine how relationships that have not yet materialized, i.e. a future loving relationship, children that they have yet to give birth to or children they may want to adopt, would all be affected by the choices they're making today. Through examining their choices in the context of many different environments and relationships , girls at Greenbrier develop a much more clear picture about what it is they really want in their life and what it will take to achieve those goals.
It has been our experience that this approach creates an intense desire for sobriety, and this can then be augmented in the later stages of treatment by introducing them to more traditional forms of ongoing aftercare support such as AA or NA . Girls also reported as a result of this approach to treatment that they have had a "dialectic" experience, where they find that even contemplating "old" choices creates internal conflict.
Some of the above would apply to eating disorder support and body image issues as well. After a thorough medical screening, our Medical Coordinator speaks individually with each student on their specific health and medication issues. We utilize a holistic approach to support our students with these issues and depending on the severity; there is a protocol in place to insure our girls maintain a healthy lifestyle. This could include random weigh-ins (in addition to the weekly weigh-ins), monitoring the food choices the girls make at mealtime, observation after meals, including limiting immediate bathroom visits and possibly escorting the girls to the restroom. We also have these students’ B-12 and nutrition levels checked regularly and nursing keeps an eye on their skin tone, eyes, mouth and hair.
