Balance Rehab

03/10/2025

08/09/2025

What are some clues that the outcome measures you are using (or considering using) are part of a cult? Here are some:

1) The creator of the measures is not open to feedback about them. If you are supposed to use the measures to get feedback, the example should be given from the top down.

2) Using the measures requires you to give them veto power over your own perceptions. Useful measures will not undermine your self-confidence.

3) There are direct and/or indirect consequences if you do not praise the measures or defer to them.

4) The research that is used to support the measures is only allowed to be interpreted one way. The general rule of thumb is to have at least a few hypotheses for why a study produced certain results.

5) Even though the measures are meant to be applied to any counselling approach, there are direct and indirect messages from the creator and his supporters that only certain approaches are approved. Another bad sign is when approaches that are have outcomes measures built into them are not allowed to be used.

6) Vague promises of fame and fortune are promised by the creator to people who support the measures and promote them to other counsellors.

23/08/2025

Outcome measures are a hot topic in addictions treatment now. They involve the routine use of standardized questions with clients to gain information about how they are responding to the treatment that is offered. There are obvious benefits to soliciting feedback from clients, but there are also dangers in relying on them too much. Here are some of the dangers:
1. Sometimes management uses them as a way to threaten or micromanage their counsellors.
2. Clients sometimes alter their responses to influence their treatment in ways that they want.
3. It is sometimes assumed that the responses that clients give to the questions are more accurate than what the counsellor thinks they need. That is not always true.
4. Responses to outcome measures can give counsellors ideas about where the therapy needs improvement, but does not tell them how to improve it.
5. Responses to outcome measures do not guarantee that the counsellor will become more motivated to make appropriate changes to his or her approach.
6. Despite reassurance to the contrary, clients can sometimes fear that the measures are being used to evaluate them.

14/07/2025

To say that research is more objective than personal observation is misleading for a number of reasons. Results from a controlled environment may not be an accurate representation of a natural setting. The factors that they choose to examine in a study may not be the critical ones. Researchers can still, knowingly or unknowingly, influence the results of a study. Observation is also a form of research called qualitative research (rather than quantitative).

13/07/2025

Research is based on the concept of testing and trying to disprove theories, hypotheses and concepts. If someone tries to tell you that you cannot challenge a research finding, that person does not understand research and/or is trying to use research findings to overpower others in the way she or he desires. Beware of power mongers and snake oil salespeople.

10/07/2025

Why should you consider receiving treatment in a beautiful place like Tao Garden? Shouldn’t you be in a place that feels more like prison so that you are punished and taught a lesson for your misdeeds? A lot of people think that is trues. Loved ones who are resentful for all your addiction has put them through often think that way.

Remember that addiction is a mood-altering activity. People do it to feel better. If people go to some horrible environment for treatment and they are miserable there, then they might get triggered back to their addiction. Also remember that lasting recovery involves creating a life and lifestyle that is so enjoyable that the idea of returning to an addiction is not appealing. How can you learn how to do that in an environment that feels like a prison?

09/07/2025

Did you know that correlation and causation are not the same? Correlation just refers to the tendency for things to change at the same time. It doesn’t mean that one factor causes another. For example, decades ago a study found that eating ice cream was correlated with increased violence. Some people thought that meant that eating ice cream caused people to be violent. However, both of those factors were associated with a third factor - hot weather. If someone says or implies that research has found that some factor causes another, be suspicious. A red flag for misinterpretations of research results is when someone says “the research says…”. Research does not talk. It doesn’t think. It just reports.

09/07/2025

Be a good consumer. Sometimes results from research are used to support a particular approach or kack thereof that a program or therapist uses. Read the research yourself. For example, many people cite a study by Smith & Glass (1977) called Meta-analysis of psychotherapy outcome studies. It was published in the American Psychologist journal, volume 32, pages 752-760. Many people refer to that article as proof that all counselling approaches work as well as the others. If you read the Discussion section of that article (which is one of the longest ones I’ve ever read, by the way) the researchers discuss at length the dangers of coming to any black-and-white conclusions based on their results. The studies they compared used different subjects, different locations, different numbers of sessions, and varied on many other factors. There are lots of reasons to be skeptical of research results. That’s research, after all.

23/04/2025

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06/04/2025

How long should you wait after you have halted active addiction before going to residential treatment if you want to get the most out of the program?

Residential treatment focused a lot on helping you connect or reconnect with your feelings and learn how to effectively manage them without resorting to using mood-altering drugs or activities. For at least two weeks after a person stops using addictive things their emotional processing system is still readjusting and returning to normal. Therefore it is often difficult to fully benefit from what treatment has to offer until that readjustment has finished. That is why many treatment programs emphasize that participants in the program should be free from their addictions for at least two weeks before entering the program.

Some friendly advice would be to think of that concept not as someone else’s rule but as a guideline that you can use for your own benefit to make sure that you get your time and money’s worth out of the program.

05/04/2025

What should you do if you find out that another participant is breaking the rules of the program?

Talk to the person directly if it seems safe to do so. Use the skills that you’ve learned in the program so that you come across with a tone of care and concern rather than judgment. Come from the heart and express yourself so that you come across as an ally rather than an enemy. Encourage the person to let the staff know what she or he has done. If the person refuses, it would be good to let the staff know so they can deal with the situation. Otherwise you are enabling thst person to get away with the kind of behavior that he or she came to treatment to change.