Treatment Model

New Blended Model of Treatment for any Addiction
We are dedicated to breaking the cycle of addiction in young people who have been affected by abuse issues and/or addictions. Depression, anxiety, sleeping and eating disorders and self-medicating for inner pain or chaos, all can be symptoms of unresolved trauma. We offer therapeutic counselling and life-skills programs for our clients and their families. Counselling and life-skills will help them deal with the inner pain or chaos, that up to this point they have dealt with, albeit dysfunctionally, through self-medicating behaviour.When a young person self medicates they are attempting to deal with inner pain, inner chaos or an undiagnosed mental illness but in a dysfunctional way. Inner pain or chaos can be caused by undiagnosed psychiatric disorders or could be the results of childhood abuse. This blended model can successfully deal with a client’s historical abuse issues, whether they were founded in verbal or physical violence, or from neglect or sexual abuse. It helps our counsellors determine if the youth grew up within a dysfunctional home or have an undiagnosed mental illness.

This new blended model is based on traditional recovery models but adds therapeutic strategies based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, the Learned Helplessness Model, Visualization/Actualization techniques, Grief Work, Therapies that deal with overcoming the inner pain from childhood abuse, Personal Empowerment Models and is based on over thirty-five years of experience in working with youth affected by abuse and addiction issues. We also believe this new blended model could also operate under current government funding that is augmented by targeted fundraising.

We need to empower our clients to heal their core issues through intensive therapy that deals with their inner pain so that the need to self-medicate falls away. Most importantly we must be there to help them when they need the help, not to make them wait until they are clean or to put them on a waiting list of up to six months.

“How many therapists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one but the light bulb has to want to change.”

Another aspect of this model would be to help the client develop a five-year plan while they are in treatment. Here they are allowed to dream or vision out a future that they may have given up on because of their abuse issues and addictions. Through visioning they can begin to see a positive future again as a possibility. We help them develop a clear and detailed vision of a future that they want, which incorporates their educational, career, health and relationship goals, so that they can build a strategic plan based on how to actualize their visualized future.

So when the client follows this new model, they deal with their addiction as they deal with their pain or inner chaos, while at the same time planning out a future that they believe in. Other presenting issues like depression, anxiety and sleeping and/or eating disorders also decrease when viewed holistically. This gives them a much better chance of breaking the cycle of addiction and moving into a future that they desire.

Our end goal is to operate a specialized recovery centre for youth who are dealing with abuse and addiction issues. Each client’s treatment would be tailor made to address their core issues by an experienced therapist in a supported residential program. At the same time they would work with lifeskill coaches, while taking part in a work-skills program. This model would lend itself to a farm like setting. A working farm with greenhouses would provide year round training programs, covering the full spectrum of growing foods to preparing and cooking foods, opening up many possible careers for our clients.

So help us build our vision into a reality. Dan’s Legacy needs your help and vision to grow into what we believe is needed by some young people within our community. They are a resource too important to waste, even if they have been damaged along the way. If it was damage from a car accident, we would spend whatever it would take to see them back to health. No medical treatment would be denied to them, including whatever pain medication that would be necessary. No counselling would be held back while they heal from their physical injuries. But when a young person experiences drug abuse, especially because of violence, sexual abuse or neglect, we expect them to suck it up and deal with it. Their attempts to self-medicate have historically caused us to view them as defective or even as criminals and we respond by punishing them. This injures them a second time. We need to offer them something better so they can experience real and lasting change.