In the literature of recovery, Helping Up Mission is considered a therapeutic community. Officially, we call our Spiritual Recovery Program “a 12-month residential Spiritual Recovery Program in a 12 Step Therapeutic Community.”
For recovery, a therapeutic community is explained as one addict helping another addict get well. Therapeutic communities have staff which provide structure and instruction, but the value of a client’s support for another is recognized and maximized.
Here in our therapeutic community, clients attend classes, do one-on-one and group counseling and have daily work therapy responsibilities. To support this, we have assembled a wonderful group of staff, strategic partnerships and volunteers who provide both the program and direction. Yet, when all is said and done, the reason almost any man finishes our 12-month program is because he connected to other men here (as well as developed a recovery network outside) and found the support and encouragement he needed to make it through the difficult times of life.
Every day in class, someone shares how medical, financial or legal issues, relationships problems or some experience within our own facility were enough for him to pack up and roll out of here. But he either went to talk with someone or had someone come and speak to him and he decided to just sit still another minute. And that was all it took for reason to prevail.
I am very proud of the staff at Helping Up Mission. I am so grateful for our many talented volunteers and I appreciate our strategic partners. Yet, I think the real heroes here are the clients, themselves, who are willing to be honest and open with each other – and even willing to speak up when it would be a lot simpler to just say nothing. That is what a therapeutic community is all about – and we have a great one here at Helping Up Mission.
Sincerely,
Pastor Gary Byers
Spiritual Life Director