Jump Tracks from Advice to Non 12-Step Rehab
Does advice feed our self-knowledge and ignite our inner fires to heal ourselves? Well, let’s see. Advice comes from the outside. And while we often get advice from our parents and well-meaning friends–people who often have our best interests at heart–it is based on the assumption that someone else knows us better than we know ourselves. A non 12-step rehab program is different because it’s not about advice.
The truth is it doesn’t matter who the advice comes from as it mostly just pisses us off. We want control over our own decisions and to follow our own beliefs and values. We crave living our own lives. We think that if someone has to tell us what to do, we must need to be fixed. If we need to be fixed, then we must be no good. Non 12-step rehab doesn’t waste time going down this road because shame feeds addiction.
It’s too painful, too much. I can’t take it. I’ve got to do something to release the stress. Drugs, alcohol, cutting, eating, not eating, buying? Whatever gets us through another day and away from all that advice. Why would we want to pursue recovery that is scripted with all the “answers” ready and waiting? Isn’t that just more of the same?
Non 12-step rehab is customized and focuses on your natural brilliance, even if you can’t yet see it for yourself. It supports you while you find your answers. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach to overcoming destructive addictive behaviors and does not assume to know what’s right for you.
So what is non 12-step rehab?
- It’s based on the premise that you are innately brilliant.
- It assumes that you did the best you could with the beliefs and coping skills you had in the past and that now you’re ready to live the life you really want.
- It’s all about supporting that life—the dream of feeling deeply good, balanced and whole.
- It’s based on self-inquiry. Non 12-step rehab respects you as a unique person with unique struggles and strengths. Who knows you better than you do when you are ready to know yourself? When you enter non 12-step rehab, you enter a customized program that is focused on processes for recovery and self-discovery that vary from person to person.
Aaron and Elizabeth have been admitted to a program with non 12-step rehab a few days apart. Each has entered non 12-step rehab with a similar mix of substance abuse, an eating disorder, and excessive buying. They are surprised to discover that non 12-step rehab isn’t a cookie cutter approach. In their non 12-step rehab sessions, Aaron and Elizabeth find themselves being honored and respected in the most meaningful ways they’ve ever experienced. Their individual non 12-step programs are surprisingly different. When they compare notes about their treatment team goals they find a breadth of differences because they are different people! And this empowering non 12-step rehab environment feeds their self respect and enthusiasm for their lives and teaches them to listen to their own individual core values. Non 12-step rehab supports each of them in expressing their joys, pain, fears, triumphs, and goals but it doesn’t do that by following a scripted list of steps.
Non 12-step rehab is about living lives of congruency, integrity and authentic joy. The journey is one of self discovery that goes way beyond sobriety. It’s about living a life of passion and clarity for the rest of our lives.
This article was contributed by The Exclusive Hawaii Addiction Treatment Center, a treatment facility that specializes in non 12-step rehab.
