Partial Hospitalization – Discharge Insights

When someone finishes our program, we make a big deal out of it. Our Partial Hospitalization program runs 4 weeks and goes 5 days a week for 6 hours a day. It is the equivalent of residential treatment, but you don’t need to get locked away from family and friends. Facing yourself for an entire month to me is the hero’s journey. Who wants to deal with the worst parts of themselves? Here we do and try to make it tolerable.

I love to listen to people on their final day talk about their experience at our facility. I may have set up the program but these individuals bring it to life. Yesterday, this one graduate talked about their resistance to what was being presented at first because it was so different than what they believed. Their whole way of life had been to shame people, be right, and make them wrong and apologize for it. They admitted it didn’t work at all. But on the other side of the coin, to love yourself, realize that they could only work on their side of the fence, and each time they pointed out the faults they saw in others, three fingers were pointing back to them. It was humiliating at first but when they realized they could only change themselves, treatment became an adventure to better themselves and their life began to rapidly improve.

We did an exercise yesterday morning in which the participant talks to the younger part of themselves who were admitted into the program. There were stark differences seen when the old troubled part talks with the more stable part now. Each participant reported that they didn’t realize all the changes they made until they went through the process.

Talking to oneself? Pointing out one’s own faults? Yes, obviously this is not the 12 Steps but real psychology. If these words seem harsh, I apologize. I started out in the 12 steps, saw people falling through the gaps, and continued my education to find some solution to the poor results existing in the treatment world.  

 

 

When I worked at a luxury residential treatment facility in Malibu there was no program. We only took clients to 12 Step meetings. And we were treating many of the rich and famous. At the time, I was attending a world-renown school for my master’s in psychology. The University of Santa Monica had its coursework in Spiritual Psychology. Spirituality and psychology combined? I was intrigued and decided to attend. There, we learned clinical psychology that was being used in conventional therapy with a spiritual twist. We were tracking a problem back to the root and applying love to the part of us that went through the issue. To spiritual psychology, it was the application of love to our wounds that ultimately healed, and soon all us students were healing as we practiced on each other. This is the format I use at Basic Steps Mental Health. Participants are taught a psychology approach, practice them in a duo format with each other, and in the process of counseling each other bonds are formed and healing takes place.

Often during the discharge sessions, clients compare what we do to the other treatment they have gone through. It saddens me to hear that people rarely have one on one time with a counselor. Normally people watch films, are made to go to 12 Step meetings as they did in Malibu, and never felt that someone cared. If you have gone through difficulty, like my staff and I have, then it should be natural to have compassion for people that were addressing the issues you have already faced. This is why my staff goes through my program with the clients, so they can sit in the client’s chair and work through their issues as well. How can you help someone without the expertise?

At the end of the discharge, the whole room was charged. The one thing that stood out the most was not the person talking about a deep conversation they had with an empty chair and telling mom something they held in for decades, but the person who talked about how important Karaoke singing was to them. It had been embarrassing and wrought with a lot of self-judgment to get in front of a group, or even a person to sing. Though, when they eventually mustered up the courage and did so, it was exhilarating and they felt free. Now all they want to do is sing!

So, I keep on coming back to work and face a new group of guarded people stuck in their misery eyeing me as if I was some crazed doctor. To be honest, I am just my goofy self with a whole lot of field experience and compassion, knowing that I was once there, and this will soon be an experience of their past that they will get through.  

Compassionate Care is Always Available

There are many more tools and strategies you can use in your pursuit of happiness. Here is where we come in. Contact us at Basic Steps Mental Health and let us support and educate you on this journey back to your loving heart center. Imagine living a heart-centered life, regardless of what is happening externally. We’d love to be of help.

For 25 years, Dr. Scott Alpert, the clinical director of Basic Steps Mental Health, has treated over 7,000 people with mental health and addiction problems, using a Psychological approach that mixes and matches ten of the top approaches used in the industry. We are here virtually and in-person to help you get through this COVID-19 pandemic and many other difficulties you may be experiencing.

May you have good mental health.