The contribution of complementary therapies in addiction treatment.
Seeking the overall well-being of the person is key when treating addictions.
The World Health Organization describes alternative therapies as those that refer to a broad group of health practices that are not part of a country's tradition or are not integrated into its predominant health system.
We are talking about practices, approaches and knowledge that incorporate treatments based on plants, minerals, personal growth therapies, manual techniques and exercises aimed at the treatment of diseases.These are practices, approaches and knowledge that incorporate treatments based on plants, minerals, personal growth therapies, manual techniques and exercises aimed at maintaining wellbeing and participating in a complementary way in the treatment of various pathologies.
In this respect, the reality of addiction treatment (and of therapeutic communities in particular) in Spain some 30 years ago was very different from what we know today.
In general, there was a lot of vocation and dedication in the task of helping people to overcome their addiction with conventional methods of detoxification, while lacking the specific training and the technical and human resources of the specialized multidisciplinary teams that we have today.
In that scenario and in those moments in which even in Spain the term Mindfulness was hardly known, except in very specific circles, in the Therapeutic Community Llaurant la Llum was already working in an avant-garde way using alternative therapies and techniques in a complementary way to traditional or orthodox treatments such as, for example, guided meditation, self-improvement sports like sport climbing, yoga, laughter therapy workshops, aromatherapy, music therapy, etc.
Another vision of support for people with addictions
Within the therapeutic program that has been developed and implemented in Llaurant la Llum over 35 years, has always been intended to provide a comprehensive approach in the treatment of addiction, in which the person has the in which the person has at his disposal the best psychological and medical therapies, while this work is complemented or reinforced with the regulated practice of various alternative therapies provided by professionals.
- The experience of so many years has allowed us to witness the benefits and contributions that alternative therapies can provide in a complementary way:
- The regular practice of guided meditation helps to work on full attention and awareness, which is fundamental when it comes to being able to recognize maladaptive thoughts and emotions in order to work on them.
- Improvement is observed in pathologies such as anxiety and depression, which allows a better integration by the patient of the work done in the rehabilitation therapies as a whole (psychological sessions, group therapies, pharmacological treatment...).
- We found benefits in aspects related to self-acceptance, self-esteem reconstruction and, above all, at the level of emotional and impulse control.
- They facilitate the conciliation of sleep and rest.
- Improvements in cognitive functions such as concentration and memory.
- In short, they are techniques that reduce stress, promote self-knowledge and help to focus thinking.
Concluding, we can say that addictive behavior is usually accompanied by a personality in which coexist blockages, existential emptiness, traumatic experiencesThe patient's symptoms, poor management of negative emotions (guilt, anger, sadness...) and, in short, an enormous burden of discomfort and internal suffering. For all these reasons, any technique and therapy that can help to stabilize patients should always be received as something positive and beneficial in the overall computation of the treatment.
We must make available to patients the widest variety of therapies and activities that we can offer, because everything they do from abstinence and with motivation for change will be something positive and perhaps decisive in their rehabilitation process.
(Updated at Apr 12 / 2024)