In rehab treatment for addiction, recreational therapy can play a significant role in your recovery. While art and music therapies sound fun, they actually serve a purpose in helping you put substance abuse behind you. These and other recreational therapies address specific needs for your best physical, psychological, emotional, and behavioral health. You also gain better social, emotional, physical, and cognitive functioning through these methods.
What Is Recreational Therapy?
Recreational therapy fulfills many needs in rehab treatment. These methods serve as complementary therapies with a range of wellness services. They help you relearn how to enjoy yourself engaging in social activities or hobbies while avoiding drinking or drug use. They also help you change your behaviors and relax.
For your recreational therapy in rehab, you meet with a group therapist multiple times each week. You engage in a variety of recreational activities, such as:
- Arts and crafts
- Dance and music
- Sports
- Animal therapy
- Community outings
Art and music therapy provide two of the most common recreational therapies. However, many activities qualify under this treatment method. Most are group-oriented as a type of group therapy. Therefore, you also get to know your peers in treatment better as you learn about yourself.
Your therapist sets goals for recreational therapy, such as boosting your mood, building better motor skills, gaining physical strength, socializing healthily, increasing your independence, improving your well-being, managing time effectively, and creating work-life balance.
Does Recreation Therapy Work?
Recreational therapy program treatment works alongside other therapies as part of a mix of methods. Therefore, this type of therapy certainly complements others used in your treatment. However, recreation therapy alone does not cure addiction. It does, however, provide help and healing in ways that other therapies may not.
Your recreational therapy program forms one part of your individualized treatment plan. The nature of recreation helps you stay focused on treatment and gives you new coping skills for relapse prevention. You get to know your peers in rehab in new ways and with greater depth when you all participate in fun activities together.
Being healthy, social, and active also helps you want sobriety more. You start feeling the benefits of recreation and stop wanting the sedentary and isolating lifestyle of addiction. In fact, a 2012 study showed that people engaged in recreational activities maintain abstinence better and for more extended periods of time than people not participating in these activities.
Your home community likely provides recreational opportunities for your involvement as well. These await your participation for staying healthy, sober, and social at home without reintroduction of drugs or alcohol. Being active in recreation also helps you maintain a positive mood with your better health.
A Mix of Therapies at Memphis Recovery in Memphis, TN
At Memphis Recovery Centers in Memphis, TN, your residential addiction treatment includes a recreational therapy program. These programs include music, art, and healthy outdoor activities. In rehab, you get up and moving again to start feeling connected to a better way of life. This boosts your mood, relieves anxiety and helps you get to know your peers in treatment.
Programs and services at Memphis Recovery include:
- Men’s, women’s, and adolescent’s addiction treatment
- Residential, PHP, and IOP rehab
- Six months of aftercare
- Art therapy and music therapy
- Trauma and dual diagnosis treatment
- Family program
- Individual and group therapy program
You can put your addiction behind you for a healthier, happier lifestyle through recreational therapy and other therapy programs. This takes work, but Memphis Recovery Centers shows you the way to your own best recovery by providing all of the support and care you need. Call Memphis Recovery now at 901-272-7751 to learn more about available programs and to start putting addiction behind you today.
Addiction damages many areas of your life. For this reason, and because of how substance abuse changes your brain and body, you need many types of treatment to recover and rebuild. Recreation therapy is one such method. Quality rehab programs incorporate recreation into a mix of therapies designed for your best success in treatment and beyond.
What is Recreation Therapy?
Recreation therapy uses activities to help you cope with your substance abuse recovery, mental illness, or other struggles. These therapies usually take place in group settings, whether indoors or outside. Activities used in recreational therapy work to engage and excite you in your self-discovery.
The first uses of this therapy took place in the 1800s under Florence Nightingale. She saw how patients’ quality of life improved when they spent time outdoors and doing recreational things. The American Red Cross developed recreational therapy programs and used Nightingale’s methods by the 20th century. Today, few hospitals or treatment centers neglect the benefits of these therapies when planning individual care.
With recreation therapy, some other methods of addiction treatment include:
- Dual diagnosis care
- Spirituality
- Music and art therapy program in Memphis, TN
- Family therapy
- Trauma therapy
In a residential, partial hospitalization, or intensive outpatient program, these therapies form your treatment plan. Each type of treatment brings its own benefits, whether the methods take place in individual counseling or group therapy sessions. Each technique also affects different people in different ways, and you never know where your most significant treatment breakthroughs will come from. So having a mix of therapies offers greater opportunity for real recovery.
When you seek rehab treatment for your addiction, you join tens of thousands of people who search for their own best rehab center. For many, this search begins with what types of recreational therapy each program offers. Having an interest in your own therapies increases your chances of learning new coping skills and engaging in your treatment.
How Does This Therapy Work for People with Addictions?
Recreation is one of nature’s best methods for healing. When you engage in recreational activities, you let your guard down. Without intense personal defenses blocking your thoughts or behaviors, you gain the chance for real change. When sitting in a chair in talk therapy, freeing yourself from your defenses often takes longer.
Many people also say what they think their therapist needs to hear, when in talk therapy sessions. You think too much about what others think of you in a group and often hold back from saying things you want to express. These controlling behaviors keep you from complete healing.
In recreation therapy, you free yourself from this self-control and focus on the activity.
Many of the best recreational options for therapy require you to pay more attention to your actions while making quick decisions. So you do not have time to control your thoughts or behaviors. You express yourself using core emotions as well as gut instincts.
Benefits of recreation therapy include:
- Better communication
- Relationship building skills
- Learning to ask for help
- Anger reduction
- Emotional awareness
- Team skill building
- Improved self-confidence
Where to Find Recreational Therapies in Memphis
When looking for addiction treatment in Memphis, TN, remember that you need a mix of therapies and approaches, not just one type of therapy. But you can certainly choose your best rehab options based on the types of therapy they offer and what entices you into treatment. You also need to screen rehabs based on their provided levels of care.
These levels of care include:
- Residential rehab
- Long term residential
- Partial hospitalization
- Intensive outpatient program
- Aftercare
Remember that your best treatment is treatment designed specifically for your individual needs. Memphis Recovery Centers in Memphis, TN, provides all of the above levels of care, along with the recreation therapy and other types of therapy you need for complete recovery. Talk to a caring intake counselor at Memphis Recovery today by calling 901-272-7751 and learn how recreation can help you build a better life.
