At Red Mountain Sedona, we believe everyone can experience a joyful life, no matter how painful the past may be.
Our founders and many of our key staff are in recovery from substance abuse and other addictive behaviors, so we know from personal experience both the horrors of addiction, and the overwhelming feelings, including both hopelessness and hubris, that are often present in early recovery. But we have also personally and directly experienced the miracles that can occur when we stay in recovery over the long term.
We KNOW recovery is possible for you, if you are willing to take certain steps. We have worked with literally hundreds of people in early recovery, and helped them through their first year and beyond. If you are supported with proven methods healing of the mind, body, and soul, you can experience long-term recovery, too.
We work with young adults who have struggled because of emotionally destructive behaviors brought about by their emotional difficulties, and the poor choices that have led them to difficulties with substances. Substance abuse can lead to the development of poor life skills, emotional limitations, and compulsive behaviors.
But we know there is hope, because countless Red Mountain graduates now live independently with a renewed desire to grow, and a committed will to overcome the hindrances that have held them back.
While you do not have to have substance abuse issues to attend Red Mountain, and our program is customized to your specific issues. We will not force recovery on you if you don’t need it. However, it is an area of strength for us, and we have a great passion for helping people in early recovery through the first year, and beyond.
Everyone has the potential to experience a life of peace and joy, but without hope there can be no healing or change. At Red Mountain Sedona, “hope is restored.”
In The Beginning – Ready to Grow
For those in early recovery, life is often chaotic and unmanageable. However, with our help, students become able to see new possibilities. Engagement in our program teaches not only sobriety skills, but also allows our students to gain the confidence they need to reclaim their hope, and dream about the future again.
We offer our students a new approach to life, and the chance to make lasting change from the inside out. Our program gives students opportunities for growth in recovery through participation in mindfulness practice, physical fitness, 12-step fellowship, and spiritual and emotional growth. This combination leads to powerful, personal transformation.
The Outcome and Hope for a Better Future
Before they complete their RMS stay, our students will have developed powerful, life-long skills. They become comfortable with living a healthy lifestyle, and proud of their increased confidence and abilities. Having learned to practice self-control as a “new normal,” our students begin to experience a life of restored promise and potential.
RMS graduates embody accountability, dignity, open-mindedness, curiosity, serenity, and strength of character. They are strong in their recovery, respectful of self and others, confident, engaged, and ready to launch. They have established goals and are clear on how to reach them. They are healthy in mind, body and spirit, having healed their interpersonal relationships. They are engaged in positive activities and ready to make the right choices on a daily basis.
The Red Mountain Sedona Healing Culture
From the moment they step on campus, our students enter a culture built on the belief that anyone can learn to manage their lives successfully. Through positive peer support, new arrivals begin to strengthen their belief that they too can live a life of stability and joy.
At RMS we believe that everyone has a noble purpose to share with the world – something that is uniquely theirs to give. Our goal is to help each student find it, grow it, and then use it for the best interest of the world in which they live.
Each student’s program is tailor-made for them based on their individual capacity and resources. Together, we evaluate strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and current coping skills. This assessment helps to form the foundation for treatment, and is made in concert with the student to best serve their unique situation.
A treatment plan designed cooperatively by the student and treatment promises a higher probability for success, and infuses a stronger desire on the student’s part as they feel they have been heard and their personal situation more fully understood.
The RMS recovery model is delivered through safe, proven modalities. Everyone is positively engaged in the process; our team, the student, their peers, and family members, creating a deeper emotional commitment for all involved.
The 12 Steps
At RMS, we use the 12 Steps as one of several co-supportive modalities of treatment for those with substance abuse issues.
Since not all of our students suffer from substance abuse issues, we individualize our group and individual therapy so that those who connect with and need the 12 Steps have a high level of engagement with them, while those who do not qualify for the issues the 12 Steps address have the opportunity to engage in other healing modalities more suited to them.
The 12 Steps, when practiced daily, provide a powerful catalyst for transforming the lives of people struggling with addiction. The experience of thousands of people over many years shows that the application of this program will lead to a life free of limiting dependencies and full of peace and serenity.
If the 12 Steps are not a good fit for a student with substance issues, other modalities are implemented. These include Rational Recovery, SMART Recovery, Refuge Recovery, and our own, highly specialized mindfulness-based approach to treatment.
Yoga and Physical Fitness
The purpose of yoga is to create strength, awareness, and harmony in both the body and mind through breathing exercises, meditation, and exercises that stretch various muscle groups. Yoga can increase strength, improve metabolism and cardio circulation and aid in stress management, all while helping to develop coping skills that lead to a more positive outlook on life.
Yoga is a powerful supplement to the 12-Step program and other modalities used at Red Mountain Sedona. For us, yoga is not an alternative to the 12 Steps, but a co-equal treatment, and, when combined with the 12 Steps, is highly effective at reducing cravings and increasing a sense of choice when students feel the temptation to return to their old ways.
Yoga empowers our students to seek and find a peaceful inner state that taps into the inherent healing capabilities of mind, body, and spirit.
Participation in daily physical movement has many proven benefits. It is known to:
- Reduce stress
- Improve brain chemistry
- Produce feelings of well-being
- Lower anxiety and depression
- Increase optimism
- Build self-confidence and enhance self-worth
Over time, the natural endorphins produced by yoga and other exercise modalities replace the adrenaline rush produced by substance use. This is why our students are encouraged to exercise every day. We add a sense of fun and adventure to our yoga and fitness program so that our students become life-long purveyors of fitness and its benefits. Our goal is that the habits and skills acquired during their stay will remain after the completion of the RMS program, and that exercise becomes a part of our students’ daily routines for the rest of their lives.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness reflects the belief that a positive and productive mental state can be achieved in adverse situations by becoming aware of, and acknowledging, one’s feelings, thoughts, and sensations in the present moment. This “data,” when acknowledged through awareness, can then be used to engage in productive therapeutic interventions, leading to more productive coping skills.
At Red Mountain Sedona, our students learn through mindfulness practice to become more aware of their thoughts, feelings and impulses. In doing so, they develop greater choice and self-efficacy, and experience themselves as more in charge of their lives, and less the victims of their unconscious impulses.
Through the simple act of awareness, our students become more conscious of the habitual thoughts and patterns that have led to poor outcomes. Through mindfulness, RMS students have an opportunity to disengage their “auto-pilot,” and make purposeful, “mindful” choices that lead to a better life.
Most importantly, members of the RMS community learn that they are not victims and that they can interrupt their self-destructive thought patterns, thus short-circuiting negative behavior. Our students learn to pause before acting, which leads to opportunities to practice new choices every day.
Medication
Our philosophy regarding medication is aligned with our overall belief that each individual is different and has specific needs and preferences.
For students experiencing good benefits from medication, our medical staff will continue to supervise and monitor its use. For those wishing to taper off of, or add medication to their treatment, we will assist in this process if it is medically and clinically advisable. For someone not currently on medication who may benefit from it, we are able to provide a psychiatric evaluation and medication recommendations.
Our psychiatrist, Dr. Oliver Cooperman, manages all of the medication assessment and monitoring at RMS. He is a Harvard-educated, board-certified psychiatrist who takes a grounded, holistic approach to prescribing medication. Dr. Cooperman and the RMS clinical staff agree that medication can be a supportive, helpful tool for some students, but is not appropriate in all cases. We work together with our students to determine the best course of action for each person to support their needs and goals.
Community Service
When participating in community service, our students report that they feel better about themselves, experience increased optimism, and strengthen their hope for a better future.
There is a simple reason why community service has this effect. Whenever we focus on others as opposed to ourselves, it gives us a new perspective, and gets us “out of our heads” and less focused on our own problems. It also puts our own challenges in context, and we realize that everyone faces challenges in their lives.
When focusing on and responding to the needs of others, we are better able to stop dwelling on our own concerns, which for those in recovery is a critical element of avoiding relapse. In the act of service we practice empathy for others and experience self-efficacy. This often leads us to a brighter perspective on our present, and greater hope for the future.
In Summary
There are several key components to successful recovery from substance use and abuse. At Red Mountain, we utilize all of them, truly healing the mind, body and spirit through a comprehensive approach including therapy, yoga and other forms of exercise, 12-Step study where appropriate, and meditation. This healing matrix is unparalleled in the young adult treatment community.