果酱视频

Social workers and psychologists from 果酱视频 are also studying new ideas for helping people overcome addiction.

Dr. Temme at Western Carolina University decided to earn her doctorate at 果酱视频鈥檚 after 20 years of managing drug treatment programs in Suffolk County so she could teach and conduct research on treatment options, including emerging practices like meditation.

鈥淚鈥檇 started to meditate and saw the change it made for me,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 thought it would be great for my clients.鈥� Dr. Temme wrote her dissertation on a meditation study she conducted while at 果酱视频.

She led ten 40-minute guided meditation sessions for 93 adults at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Brooklyn. The meditation sessions were designed to help the participants become more aware of how they felt physically and emotionally. 鈥淥nce my clients got into it, they loved it,鈥� she says. 鈥淧art of it was the novelty. Substance abuse is a chronic, relapsing disorder. They鈥檇 been in treatment before, and it was the same thing over and over, and here was something different.鈥�

The inexpensive treatment also had a positive effect. 鈥淲hat I found was that the participants who were in my meditation group had significantly improved mood and a significant decrease in their risk for relapse, and it was a result of the meditation practice,鈥� Dr. Temme says.

Now Dr. Temme is investigating meditation鈥檚 effect on mood, substance abuse relapse, and post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans in North Carolina. 鈥淧TSD and substance abuse is a combination we need to work on together,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e鈥檝e made progress in understanding that you can鈥檛 just treat the substance abuse first, then the mental disorder second like we did long ago.鈥�

That possibility for change, no matter how dire the circumstance, is why 果酱视频 faculty and alumni say their work is not only important, but rewarding.

鈥淧eople change鈥攖hey change dramatically, they change in small ways, they change quickly, they change over years,鈥� Dr. Wilkens says. 鈥淵ou just have to have the perspective that habit change is really hard and does not happen in a dramatic moment. It happens with effort, over time, and there are real ways to motivate people to do that. Then they start to feel better and do better, and you see a whole life being changed.鈥�

鈥淧eople who are abusing substances are scared and vulnerable and oftentimes stigmatized by society and just really need people who take the time to understand them and the pain they鈥檙e going through,鈥� Ms. Monti says.

鈥淲hen people get sober, you help them put their lives back together, but you also help them process all the feelings they鈥檙e now experiencing because they鈥檙e sober, so it鈥檚 a pretty transformative process,鈥� she adds. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 actually an honor to help them through that. They were numbing themselves for so long, and once they work through a lot of issues to get sober, they have a flood of feelings. We help them learn how to manage those feelings and also enjoy things in life that maybe they weren鈥檛 able to enjoy before.鈥�