One type of therapy that is essential in addiction treatment and recovery is experiential therapy. It allows clients a way to confront and rewrite the events in their past or relationships that cause them pain. Doing so allows them to identify and cope with negative feelings associated with these events or relationships. Experiential therapy can allow clients to move forward with their lives without being burdened with pain and fear. When paired with trauma-based therapy, clients gain a strong foundation to help them in their recovery journey.
That’s why Painted Desert Recovery offers a wide variety of therapies that are designed to allow clients to conquer their fears. These therapies are safe, effective, and easily tailored to a client’s individual needs, especially if they struggle with fear. Fear can be a major detriment in addiction treatment and recovery, as it can be difficult to cope with such a powerful emotion. To understand how experiential therapy can help, we must first examine what a person can expect in experiential therapy.
What Happens in Experiential Therapy?
There is a lot that goes into experiential therapy than what many would expect. It takes the help of several activities and other therapies to provide the flexibility needed to help a client. In experiential therapy, clients participate in recreational activities that have therapeutic abilities. Role-playing, art, music, and animal care are all examples of activities one can participate in with experiential therapy. Other types of therapy are commonly rolled into experiential therapy, working together to provide healing to the client. Art therapy, wilderness therapy, animal-assisted therapy (such as equine therapy), and play therapy are a few examples of therapies that work alongside experiential therapy.
In experiential therapy, the goal is to address specific events or relationships that are still causing harm to the client. These sessions are overseen by a qualified treatment provider who has the training to guide clients through the therapeutic process. Experiential therapy is safe and clients don’t have to fear being put in real danger. They may feel the emotions associated with danger, especially if they are acting out a particularly traumatic event they wish to address, but they are never in true danger.
It may not be comfortable at first, as clients address feelings of anger, shame, and hurt. However, the goal of experiential therapy is to help them cope with these feelings by building up self-esteem and “rewriting” how they viewed the event.
The Role of Fear in Addiction and Mental Health Disorders
Fear is a negative emotion that plays a serious role in our survival. It’s designed to protect us by preventing us from approaching things that can harm us. For example, it’s common for people to fear snakes on an instinctual level, because wild snakes can potentially be venomous. Fearing heights, spiders, and the dark are all instinctual and are normal for people to be wary of. However, when fears prevent someone from living their life or seeking help, it becomes a problem.
Humans are social creatures, so we fear being considered “other” or “strange.” We want to fit in and we want to be seen as “normal.” As a result, a person can try to quiet this fear by engaging in harmful activities. For example, peer pressure is a major factor behind substance abuse and addiction. People fear being socially isolated, so they will sometimes engage in substance abuse, even if they know it’s dangerous. On the other hand, it also prevents people from seeking mental health care. Mental health disorders, such as addiction, are heavily stigmatized in American society. This fear of being judged or ridiculed prevents people from seeking the treatment they need.
Lingering fear from traumatic events also plays a role in addiction and poor mental health. This causes the desire to self-medicate and mask the negative feelings associated with fear. Over time, this can develop into an addiction. Experiential therapy is designed to teach clients how to overcome this fear, so they can cope in healthy ways.
How Experiential Therapy Helps Clients Overcome Fear
Painted Desert Recovery utilizes therapies that are effective and safe for addiction treatment and recovery. Experiential therapy works because it allows someone to examine a traumatic event or relationship and see it from a new perspective. Sometimes, this type of therapy helps show clients that they are not responsible for the fear they experienced. Experiential therapy lets clients take back control of their lives by rewriting the event or relationship that harmed them, setting them free from the fear that holds them back.
For example, let us say a client is afraid of being ignored or talked over. In the past, they were neglected by their parents, and such wanted to be seen and noticed. A treatment provider will guide the client in confronting their past by having the client address stand-ins for their neglectful parents. As part of experiential therapy, they may utilize expressive therapeutic activities, such as art therapy, to find a way to express themselves and communicate. They may practice how to seek healthy attention with their treatment provider. In time, the client can overcome their fear of being forgotten and noticed, which allows them to move on from their painful past.
The goal of experiential therapy is not to erase the past but to allow clients to accept it and move on with their lives. It gives them a way to cope that doesn’t involve harmful and unhealthy activities. Experiential therapy is also useful in helping clients overcome phobias by rewriting the events that caused their trauma. In time, clients come out of experiential therapy with hard-earned courage, which helps them face addiction treatment and stay in recovery.
There are many types of therapy used to help people overcome addiction, one of which is experiential therapy. Because of its utility, it’s common for this type of therapy to help relieve underlying fears that are hard to cope with. There are many fears associated with addiction that can hold people back during treatment, so it’s important to conquer these fears in a safe environment. That’s why at Painted Desert Recovery in New Harmony, Utah, experiential therapy is used to help set women free from their fears. With compassionate and understanding mental health care professionals, anyone can get the help they need to conquer both their fears and addiction. To learn more, call (844) 540-0353 today.
