Interpersonal Individual Counseling
We are deeply involved with each individual person’s process. We don’t teach or counsel at them. We go through the recovery process with our clients. We don’t do it for them, we do it with them. We take them through the complete process. And they can go through the complete process, depending on how much time they are willing to spend on it. We walk them through it. Step by step as it was originally outlined and meant to be. To make this possible, we serve ONLY 12 CLIENTS. Our  counselor count ratio is 4:1. At most other facilities it is 5 times higher.

Educational Group Counseling
Once an individual’s treatment plan has been developed, they are then assigned to core groups and classes. These core groups and classes are educational in explaining the nature of addiction and are the platform to begin recovery. The group process is an emotive dynamic where the individual gets in touch with, and unravels, deeply rooted feelings and beliefs based on earlier life developmental experiences. Our client's learn a sense of relating, a sense of behavior, a sense of feeling, and a sense of thinking. Each one of these elements need to be restructured. Our clients are provided with the strategies to reconstruct the cognitive, emotive, and behavioral domains of their being through a sense of relating as experienced in the group process.

Therapeutic Methods
People who have substance abuse problems have inevitably developed very distorted views of what’s going on in the world emanating from the irrational thoughts and ideals that began to dominate their lives. The Facilitation Counseling process helps to address these issues from a cognitive perspective, from a developmental perspective, and from a sociological perspective.  It also takes into account the history of the person from a behavioral, psychological, and emotional context. We integrate the 12 Step process with a cognitive behavioral style of counseling. This Facilitation Counseling has proven to be a very effective method in the recovery process.

Compassionate Relationship
We believe that one of the most important elements in the recovery process is what we term, the “compassionate counseling relationship.”  Generally, the alcoholic or addicted person comes to us with feelings of loss, frustration, anger, or loneliness. In dealing with these issues, it must be done in a delicate way. It is extremely important that we address each situation from a very compassionate and empathetic viewpoint.  To bombard the addicted person or to confront them harshly by using "attack therapy" ruins the opportunity to establish a "trust relationship" and closes the door to moving forward in recovery. They have been confronted and bombarded over and over again by every family member, judge, doctor, and it just pushes them away. These methods causes them to detach from people and the world as a whole. They must have someone they believe they connect to, and can place trust in, to make an effective transition to recovery.  At the Design for Living Recovery Services facility, our clients and their counselors travel the “road to recovery“ together. 

The Spirituality of Treatment
For those recovering individuals who have had a traditional history of spiritual influences in their lives, we have spiritual counseling available at the client's request. We do not force spiritual counseling, but we leave this area completely up to the individual going through the recovery process.

Call us at (818) 489-3779  for more details on our alcohol and drug treatment methods.