Rio Retreat Center adds Equine Exeriential to our evening activities!

Along with other evening activities including Yoga, Acupuncture, Tai Chi, Music, and 12 Step Groups, our Rio Retreat Center workshop participants now have the opportunity to take part in an Equine Experiential. Jean Collins-Stuckert, Executive Director at Rio, had a plan to add this next piece into Rio’s evening activities, “we have access to these beautiful, healing horses at our Retreat Center and this experience fits right into the flow of what we do here at Rio, it can help to integrate the work our participants have been doing in group all week with a mindful self-awareness.”

Christie, equine specialists at The Meadows, spent Thursday evening with twelve of our Rio Retreat workshop participants. Working with Black Jack and Phantom, participants engaged in round pen activities building relationship, communication and trust with the horses. On the first evening, the feedback was phenomenal -

“This experience was amazing! My horse helped me to feel grounded in my Survivors workshop experience” 

“I was so engaged with the horses, I loved the interaction with them, I had so much fun!”

“There’s a quote on the wall at the corrals - I may not speak your language, but when you spend time in my presence and listen with your heart – you will hear my voice. This rang so true for me.”

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Your Family Survived the Holidays…But Not Exactly Unscathed

There is nothing quite like the holidays to bring a family closer together…or to drive them even further apart. Families and holidays can be wonderful.  However, they can also be painful and traumatic.  Even the best families can have some holiday drama. 

Holiday family drama is so common that it is the storyline for many movies—most of them pretty entertaining.  In the movie, A Christmas Story Ralphie’s family shows us how they cope with a turkey disaster, the terrible leg lamp, and Ralphie almost shooting out his eye with his Red Ryder BB gun that he almost did not get.  Kevin gets forgotten and left behind for three days in Home Alone while his family struggles to organize themselves for their holiday vacation.  The Griswold family deals with annoying in-laws, unexpected guests, power outages, sewage issues, a visit from the SWAT team, and a fire in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.  While these movies are funny and end well, not all of us experience such a nicely wrapped-up Hollywood ending.

My own family dealt with some holiday drama this past Christmas.  Due to a prior disagreement, I was not invited to the gathering at a family member’s home though everyone else was expected to attend.  I was hurt. While my family was attending that event, I decided to join a friend’s family dinner rather than sitting at home alone and upset.  My friend’s family also had some holiday chaos and tension.  Ultimately, at both family gatherings, someone ended up in tears on Christmas day.  While there were no beautiful endings, we all survived, but feelings were left hurt and relationships left damaged.

After the holidays, family members often take with them more than the gifts from under the Christmas tree.  When families find themselves dealing with hurt feelings, damaged relationships, guilt for behaviors or reactions, or shame brought up through family interactions, it may be time to seek some assistance.  There is help and healing available for families who find themselves in this situation.

Whether it is the holiday season or any other time of the year, families do matter and most people want to resolve family issues they experience.  Rio Retreat Center at The Meadows offers a customized workshop called Family Matters.  The Family Matters workshop offers a supportive and safe environment for family members to work through issues by encouraging them to be authentic, communicate productively, utilize boundaries, and function in a constructive fashion. The Family Matters workshop helps families identify and resolve conflicts and teaches them how to develop tools and healthy strategies to manage conflicts in the future that will improve a relational family system. The ultimate goal of this workshop is to help family members bridge the gaps that have plagued the family system.

If you or someone you know would like to enroll in the Family Matters workshop, please call our intake department at 866-441-0368 or click here to learn more.

Written by Dr. Georgia Fourlas, LCSW, LISAC, CSAT-S, Clinical Director of Workshops for Rio Retreat Center at The Meadows

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Tian Dayton Psychodrama Workshop

Content Source: Relationship Retreat Center

THRIVE is an experiential intensive that takes you to the next level of recovery.

Hanging onto old pain keeps us preoccupied with our past and anxious about our future, rather than living in the present. Releasing dysfunctional roles and embracing new ones empowers us to experience our full potential. But before we’re able to release worn out roles, we need to give voice and shape to them. This action oriented process will provide a unique opportunity to engage in an exploration that will lead you to a greater sense of aliveness and purpose: a life changing new experience carved out of time to energize and revitalize —to live your actualized life!


The workshop will emphasize:

• Forgiveness
• Resilience Training
• Post Traumatic Growth
• Consolidating Recovery Gains
  
  
  

To THRIVE is to……

Engage: More fully and mindfully in your relationships and day-to-day life.
Embrace: A deepened and more purposeful sense of self.
Expand: And revitalize your life roles.
Energize: Forgive the past to live more fully in the present.
Empower: Take ownership of your own healing and attitude towards life.

Emotional Healing Retreat

Specialized For Your Needs

Our workshops allow participants to learn and receive support from people facing similar issues. These transformative programs help individuals to identify negative patterns, and break the cycle of negative behaviors that holding them back from living the life they desire.

Committed To Seeing Our Participants Succeed

Workshops at the Rio Retreat Center are designed to help you understand your own needs, desires, emotions, habits, and everything else that makes you who you are. The more you know about yourself, the better equipped you are to engage in healthy relationships and have an improved sense of self. To learn more about the Rio Retreat Center or to sign up for one of our groundbreaking workshops, call us at 866-441-0368 866-441-0368 or fill out the form below and a representative will be happy to provide you more information.

Mutual Respect and The Power of Intimacy

Power is a very interesting phenomenon. I remember having numerous conversations about the complex intersection of power and relationships in graduate school. There was a lot of confusion as to what exactly power even is.
One of the most common misunderstandings about power is that it is a linear phenomenon. In fact, power comes at us from numerous sources all of the time.

The second most common misunderstanding is that power is a zero-sum game— either you have it or I have it. And whatever you have, I can’t have, and vice-versa. This fundamentally flawed way of thinking about power greatly impacts our experiences in relationships.

There are two main ways we experience power in our relationships: power with and power over (you have power over someone else or some else has power over you). The Man Rules say that real men have power and are never weak or powerless. Therefore, from a very early age, young boys are encouraged to find power over – power over others, power over their feelings, and power over themselves.

The Woman Rules say that women should be cooperative, passive, nurturing, selfless, and not too strong. Therefore, from a very early age, young girls are encouraged to find power with. Women are expected to share power with others even if it puts them at a disadvantage; even when it means they have to give up their own power.

And that is the rub in so many heterosexual relationships.

Making Peace with Power

You cannot have a relationship that doesn’t involve a complex interaction with power. What some people don’t often consider is that power can be healthy. In fact, it is an essential part of the day-to-day human experience.

To help us explore the complexity of power in relationships, we can look to the classic Karpman drama triangle which illustrates the shifting, and sometimes destructive, roles of persecutor, rescuer, and victim that people play in relational conflicts. In this “drama triangle” each person involved in a conflict experiences and acts out all of these roles at different times. The role we take on can determine how we perceive our partners, interpret their behavior, and interact with them.

The reason these triangles arise, and often endure, is that each person, regardless of their role, finds that they get their unspoken, and often unconscious, psychological needs met by playing these roles—roles which they most likely originally “perfected” through the power dynamic that played out within their family as a child.

Whether they play the victim or persecutor, or some combination of all three roles, in the end, each person feels justified in acting upon their needs. Feeling satisfied, they often conveniently fail to acknowledge the dysfunctional ways they tend to go about getting their needs met, or the harm that is being done as a result to themselves, their partners, or any third parties (like children) who may be directly or indirectly involved in their conflict.

When there are times of disconnection in the relationship and even if, for whatever reason, there is a loss of respect between partners, intimacy can only be restored in the space of mutuality. We have to move away from the desire to have power over our partners toward the experience of having power with them. When we are able to uncover how our emotional needs arise from our childhood trauma, and release some of that pain, we have the ability to break free from the drama triangle and build an intimate and nurturing environment of mutual respect. Is it easier to let our relationships fall into a series of power plays or to maintain a space of mutual respect? I would suggest the former.

We have to build up our emotional and spiritual muscle in order to truly listen to our partners and maintain respect, especially when they are being their very human and imperfect selves and not doing what we want them to do or being who we want them to be.

Source Link : Mutual Respect

Signs that You Need Help for Sex Addiction

Are my sexual behaviors really that bad?

Just like any addiction, sexual addiction can occur on a continuum of severity. On one end of the spectrum is the person who has caused physical harm to themselves or others or who has gotten into legal trouble for their sexual behaviors. On the other end is the person who hides their behaviors and feels shame about them but has not really suffered any external or visible consequences as a result.

While a person who has suffered more consequences might be more likely to admit they have a problem, it is not necessary to let things get that far before seeking help. No one thinks that they will ever go “that far,” or that their addiction will get out of control. Almost everyone feels somewhat surprised when they find themselves neck deep in dire consequences from their sexual behaviors, having believed that they would somehow avoid the inevitable. It is possible, and wise to stop before it gets to that point.

How do I know if I have an addiction?

There are three common characteristics of addiction: obsession, compulsion, and continuation despite adverse consequences.

Obsession refers to the intrusive and sometimes never-ending thoughts about the behavior. Obsession could mean that a person constantly thinks about the behavior; but, more often, it simply means the obsessive thoughts come at times that are inconvenient, inappropriate, or distracting and that it is difficult to stop the thoughts when they do arrive. The thoughts can be about the actual sexual behavior or about some aspect of the behavior. People might obsess about a person that they act out with, a place where they have acted out, (a hotel, car, or certain club) a plan to act out, or something that they use in their acting out (website, flowers, secret phone) or even about plans to enable their acting out (checking funds, making reservations, thinking of excuses of why they will be home late).

Compulsion refers to the engagement in the behavior despite efforts to not engage. A person who makes sincere promises that they will discontinue the behavior, then finds excuses to continue doing it in spite of those promises is typically acting on a compulsion. Another common example of a compulsive behavior is when a person knows they have made a prior commitment to be somewhere, like at a family function, but they feel they must act out sexually and they do, making them late for the function or making them miss it entirely. Ultimately, compulsive behaviors will lead to adverse consequences; however, adverse consequences alone do not necessarily mean that an addiction is present. Some people engage in a behavior, suffer an undesirable consequence, and then never engage in that behavior again. But, when someone continues the behavior after suffering consequences, it indicates a more severe problem.

Imagine a person who compulsively views pornography. Their children find the digital files, and their spouse becomes very angry and insists that all the pornographic images be deleted from the computers in their home. Instead, the person downloads the images onto a flash drive, labels it “Architecture Plans,” and continues to watch it, hoping the children will be deterred by the label.

This is a continuation of behavior despite adverse external consequences and puts this person at risk for further undesirable outcomes. Internal consequences are just as important as external consequences but are often less obvious than external ones. Internal consequences include, but are not limited to, feelings of intense shame, intense self-hatred, isolation, and secrecy. Adverse external and/or internal consequences are usually what motivate the person to seek help.

Do I need help?

Adverse consequences have a unique way of offering a moment of clarity. A person may be willing to admit to themselves that they need help after suffering a consequence. Or they may be willing to get help, even if they are not sure they need it because, at a minimum, they want to avoid further painful consequences. There are also times when a person might seek help just to appease a loved one, their employer, or the courts.

Regardless of the reason, if the person receiving help is open to looking at the potential causes of their behavior and its consequences, they will reap the benefits of treatment. If you have suffered consequences for your sexual behaviors, particularly repeated consequences, the time to seek help is now.

Still have doubts?

When a person experiences consequences, it usually leads to a bit of an emotional crisis. There is a strong desire for the pain to stop. When the pain of consequences leads a person to make the wise decision to seek help, denial can sometimes step in and offer a second opinion. After the crisis of the consequence fades, decisions to seek help are occasionally rescinded. That call for help might seem like a “rash decision” or an “overreaction.” Do not allow yourself to fall back into the denial. Get the help you need. Your future self will thank you.

What are my options for help?

Rio Retreat at The Meadows offers two different 5-day workshops, one exclusively for men and one exclusively for women, that helps people begin to deal with their sexual compulsivity or sexual addiction.

The Men’s Sexual Compulsivity Workshop helps men to broaden participants’ views about sexuality, learn how to have healthy sexual experiences, maintain positive relationships, and avoid harmful patterns of the past.

The Journey of a Woman’s Heart: Finding True Intimacy Workshop is for women who want to explore unhealthy sexual patterns and behaviors that deeply impact their ability to develop real emotional connections. Methods for enhancing self-esteem from within, rather than seeking validation from outside sources are explored

The Meadows also offers inpatient treatment programs for sexual addiction and compulsivity. Gentle Path at The Meadows is exclusively for men and Willow House at The Meadows is exclusively for women. All of our programs are firmly based in the work of Dr. Patrick Carnes and his 30-task model. Please call our Intake Department at 866-986-3225 to begin the healing process and find out which program is best for you.

Source Link: Sex Addiction Treatment Arizona

The Complex Trauma Survivor Faces a Lifetime’s Worth of Bullying

Complex trauma survivors face a dilemma that very few can fathom: they are forced to confront present-day stressors while attempting to resolve triggers from the past. These layers upon layers of trauma take courage, support and time to unravel. The healing journey of a complex trauma survivor who has several sources of toxic stress is multifaceted. Their day to day reality is filled with tiny terrors embedded within larger cracks in the psychological war zone that is their psyche.

Survivors of bullying and other traumas face a double bind: not only are they oppressed by their peers, they are often oppressed by family members, authority figures and other life circumstances. When bullying is also supplemented with other microaggressions or tumultuous life events, the trauma is undeniably more forceful in its impact. What happens when the child is bullied at both school and the home, both meant to be safe places? What sort of effects linger far beyond childhood, when not only peers but also parental figures simultaneously terrorize the victim? Or what about the impact of chronic, severe bullying – a form of bullying which occurs for years across the child’s entire school career, rather than short-term?

The Effects of Life-Long Bullying

When one has undergone several sources of abuse throughout his or her lifetime, including but not limited to bullying, emotional neglect or abuse by parents, witnessing domestic violence, and/or even sexual abuse, starting from early childhood, the simultaneous wounding from multiple violations literally rewires the brain, creating disruptions in identity, self-efficacy and interpersonal effectiveness. According to Bessel van der Kolk, trauma causes the brain becomes re-organized to deal with danger, rather than mindful of present-day engagements; trauma survivors become subconsciously programmed to feel an overwhelming, pervasive sense of fear and helplessness.



Bullying already poses a severe socioemotional and academic threat to victims who endure it; victims of bullying are more likely to drop out of school, commit suicide, abuse substances, struggle with anxiety and depression, and have low self-esteem. If a child is targeted for bullying without protective factors such as supportive family members or validating authority figures, this form of alienation exacerbates toxic stress in the child’s life and presents high risks to their early development. A child abandoned by their family members or school administration during difficult circumstances suffers undeniably more. According to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, “Without caring adults to buffer children, the unrelenting stress caused by extreme poverty, neglect, abuse, or severe maternal depression can weaken the architecture of the developing brain, with long-term consequences for learning, behavior, and both physical and mental health.”

Complex Trauma and Complex PTSD

While singular trauma is often linked to the development of PTSD, complex trauma can cause symptoms beyond PTSD – it can result in Complex PTSD. Judith Herman first coined the term “Complex PTSD” to explain what occurs when an individual experiences a prolonged period of victimization and captivity, usually experienced in situations like long-term domestic violence, long-term child sexual abuse, prisoner of war camps and organized child exploitation rings.

In addition to the regular symptoms of PTSD, which include hypervigilance, avoidance, dissociation, nightmares and flashbacks, someone with Complex PTSD also experiences issues with emotional regulation, consciousness, self-perception, distorted perceptions of the perpetrator and disruptions in interpersonal relationships.

Childhood abuse can be considered a form of ‘captivity’ and so can prolonged bullying when the child perceives no means of escape. The causes of complex trauma can thus be diverse and varied. According to trauma therapist Pete Walker, multiple sources of trauma can lead to a pervasive sense of toxic shame, a cruel inner critic and emotional flashbacks which cause the survivor to ‘regress’ back into the original traumas of the past.

Although Complex PTSD is often associated with long-term sexual or physical abuse, Walker confirms that long-term emotional neglect and assault can also be a factor. And indeed, many studies confirm that verbal and emotional abuse can cause just as much damage to the early developing brain as physical abuse (Teicher, 2006; Choi, 2009; Copeland, 2013).

Reenacting Trauma: The Trauma Repetition Cycle

Part of Complex PTSD is what therapists call “repetition compulsion.” In his book The Betrayal Bond: Breaking Free of Exploitative Relationships, Patrick Carnes writes, “In part, trauma repetition is an effort by the victim to bring resolution to the traumatic memory. By repeating the experience, the victim tries anew to figure out a way to respond in order to eliminate the fear. Instead, the victim simply deepens the traumatic wound.”

It goes without saying that the number of traumas one experiences simultaneously will factor into the strength of the trauma repetition cycle. Traumas compounded with other traumas will increase the overall risk for trauma repetition in adulthood. It is no surprise that a study showed that children who are both mistreated at home and by their peers are more likely than children only mistreated at home to show significant mental health problems later in life. Due to the immense impact of these traumas as well as the emotional and psychological warfare that often accompanies bullying, survivors become conditioned to engage in negative self-talk, blame themselves for the abuse they’ve suffered and continue to the vicious cycle of abuse. They may struggle with a shame that should belong to their perpetrators and develop maladaptive ways of coping. These maladaptive mechanisms are attempts to survive unbearable, overwhelming lifelong trauma through destructive means that inevitably reenact and reinforce the trauma.

Complex trauma survivors may seek unsafe mechanisms to regain control (such as self-harm, undereating or overeating, abusing drugs, etc.) as an attempt to survive the experience. Toxic shame that arises from incidents of bullying and abuse can lead to behaviors such as sustaining abusive relationships, addiction, eating disorders, and reckless sexual behavior as futile attempts to avoid the trauma and create “numbing” in response to the symptoms. For example, The Adverse Childhood Experiences study showed that abuse in childhood not only contributes to increased risk for health problems such as obesity, heart disease, cancer, stroke, it also increased the risk of alcoholism, depression, suicide attempts, adolescent pregnancy, STDs, and missed work.

This reenactment of past trauma is not a coincidence – rather, it is a consequence of the trauma itself.

Social Isolation, Anxiety and Destructive Relationships

Another symptom of the complex trauma that accompanies bullying is increased social anxiety and self-isolation as a form of self-protection; bully victims often withdraw from school activities to avoid the sites where the bullying took place. They may become fearful and distrusting of their peers as well as authority figures, especially if they felt those people did nothing to protect them.

This pervasive sense of distrust unfortunately does not make the survivor immune to repeating these patterns in their adult relationships. When childhood trauma is ongoing and chronic, it becomes overwhelming to the body and leaves the body in a constant state of hypervigilance and hyperarousal (Perry, 2000). Betrayal by trusted friends, family members or even partners can cause what Patrick Carnes calls a “betrayal bond,” or trauma bonding.

Trauma bonds are bonds that develop between victims and their abusers; these bonds act as defense mechanisms that allow victims survive a tumultuous and hostile environment. Survivors of bullying both at home and at school may develop people-pleasing habits due to having to walk eggshells around their childhood abusers.

What conditions survivors to become tone-deaf to emotional and psychological violence in adolescence can also compel them to seek partners and friends that remind them of their first oppressors in adulthood. As bullied children become adults, they see emotional abuse as “familiar,” a dangerous comfort zone that keeps them trapped within the trauma repetition cycle.

This is why so many complex trauma survivors often blame themselves and continue to ‘bully’ themselves through self-harm when they engage in behaviors that are self-destructive, not knowing that trauma reenactment is often a symptom of their Complex PTSD.
 

Healing Complex Trauma

Despite the complex nature of the trauma that has been endured, there is hope for healing and self-reflection. Complex trauma survivors can address their subconscious programming using diverse healing modalities, including but not limited to traditional modes of therapy, EMDR, art therapy, hypnosis, sound therapy, meditation, yoga, reiki healing and other forms of bodywork that enables them to release the trauma on the level of mind, body and spirit. Healing modalities should always be discussed with a certified trauma counselor to ensure that the survivor is addressing their unique needs and triggers.

Survivors can learn to grieve the losses they’ve had in both childhood and adulthood, with the willingness to validate all of the emotions that arise from complex trauma. They can begin to gain distance from negative self-talk and learn to “reparent” their inner child with self-soothing techniques. They can seek validating support networks via group therapy with other trauma survivors, trusted friends or mentors, trauma-informed survivor forums and online communities. Most importantly, they can rewrite their narratives of helplessness to those of power and agency. While complex trauma survivors face a lifetime’s worth of bullying, they also develop a lifetime’s worth of resilience.

Source Link- Center for Healing Childhood Trauma

Everyone needs a therapy…

When somebody mentions therapist, psychiatrist or mental health care specialist, we assume them to be a mental patient. The person having therapist may not be mental patient but instead just requires a little bit of help. The people who are suffering from emotional trauma just needs emotional support, which in our language we say Healing Trauma. We at Rio Retreat conduct various Healing from trauma workshops in Arizona. There are 5 different types of Trauma Therapy in Arizona provided by Rio Retreat:

1. Survivors I: Healing Childhood Trauma

We provide safe and supportive environment, in which victim faces his defeating behaviors such as addictions, trauma, mood disorders, and troubling relationships. The primary focus of this workshop is releasing the negative messages and emotions to embody your authentic self.

2. Survivors II: Continue the Healing Journey

Survivors II is an advanced intensive customized to meet the needs of the participants of Survivor I. It is structured for those suffering from unresolved childhood and adult trauma who are struggling with self-defeating behaviors they wish completion of its previous healing work.

3. Healing Intimate Treason: For Partners of Sex Addiction

Here we teach participants about the biology and the behavior of sex and love addiction. This is a workshop that assists partners in moving through their grief and loss, breaking free from the attachment to fantasy, and enhancing emotional self-regulation. The motto of this workshop is to create a safe and compassionate environment, which provides a path to healing as they travel on their own journey in recovery.

4. Healing Heartache: A Grief And Loss Workshop

Here participants are offered hope for the future. We believe that feelings and words that are left unsaid needs to be released through experiential exercises. Issues pertaining to relational problems are addressed, with an emphasis on recognizing emotional reactions to loss, trauma, and broken dreams.