Sitting With It: Everyday Activities
Ashley Metz, MS, Mountain Valley Program Director shares with us how every activity in residential treatment has a therapeutic impact. All activities in a residential setting work towards the clinical health of our residents.
Many applicants will ask what you “do” all day at a residential treatment center (RTC). Most RTCs offer individual therapy a few times a week and traditional group therapy once a day, yet this is not the totality of the therapeutic work at these programs. Group Activities, Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), Independent Academics, and Personal Time are all opportunities do clinical work. And, in fact, it’s often where the residents have to put into practice all of the things that learn in traditional therapy.
At Mountain Valley, where we treat anxiety and OCD, it’s important to allow residents to be exposed to the activities and experiences that cause them distress. Through these exposures, they are able to collect data on how they react and function in real life activities. They can then take that information into their therapy sessions to develop new skills and strategies to overcome their stressors.