Recovery and Rehabilitation Perspective

Successful mental health recovery and rehabilitation is a process that has evolved to an individual recovery process or model. Individual responsibility is the key. Unless you make a conscious choice to move forward and recover, it will not happen. While there may still be a need for medication and medical treatment when biomedical imbalance exists or regular psychotherapy or counseling is necessary, this approach transcends the medical model with a significant paradigm shift. It adds a spirit dimension to the healing process. The spirit dimension adds the awareness that your spirit or consciousness exists beyond your ego and body. You accept where you are, be present in the moment and do what needs to be done. This is spiritual in that it relies on faith in something yet unseen. Some people choose to relate this to a higher power. Others consider it a function of the mind. In any event the belief must come from you. Recovery will not happen until this awakened spiritual consciousness is present.

I believe in YOU

Many mistake more traditional rehabilitation as occurring when the professional practitioner does something to the patient with the professional taking significant responsibility for success or failure. Was the therapy correct? Was the medication correct? Were the counseling sessions long enough? In the self directed recovery and rehabilitation process you take responsibility for your healing process with guidance of your rehabilitation counselor and support from other medical professionals you work with. Each contact between you and the counselor is a separate moment in time. The same process is utilized each time but the result is up to you. You decide the next constructive creative step from a list options in accordance with your vision for the future, your plan. The counselor empowers you to work your plan. The counselor encourages you to make conscious choice to move to a balance of function.

This model is based on a number of psychological theories. These include Carl Roger's Client Centered Theory, Albert Ellis Rational Emotive Theory, William Glaser's Reality Therapy and a touch of Victor Frankel from a Search for Meaning among many. It is an ecletic blend of these theorists and the individual counselors own centeredness. William Anthony is the prolific writer on this model. He is connected, among other institutions, with the Boston University, Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Another great source for this movement is the
National Consensus Statement on Mental Health

Mental Health rehabilitation process is recovery. Recovery is an ongoing process that must start now, where you are at, where you believe the focus is. Then each choice moves you towards healthy behavior and activity. The recovery model empowers you to take an active role in the decisions or choices regarding your future. There are some limits to this where medication is necessary to control biochemical imbalance. However, to the extent it is possible each decision must be made by you with guidance and a clear understanding of probable consequences of those choices or decisions. This process evolves your awareness with individual dilemma, then choice, suffering and choice, and then some success comes. It does not take place in a single point of time but rather is an ongoing recovery process. The choices you make are personal. Professionals cannot make the choices for you but rather facilitate the exploration of all options. Sometimes this requires going outside the box, at least during the exploration stage. By outside the box I mean using a brainstorming and/or visualization to imagine the ideal. Let the body, mind and emotions feel that ideal in a thought and that vision can then become a goal. When goals are visualized and believed they can be achieved. The goal must come from your center in recovery. Professionals may suggest, encourage or even demand certain goals but the final choices must be left up to the individual. The only exception of this is when the choice will be harmful to the individual or any other human. Then the professional must intervene.

Finally, psychosocial rehabilitation is still evolving in its own definition. Each time you fail to reach a goal, but get up and going again there is progress. Each success brings new possibilities for healing. The final measure is the peace and balance you experience, the ease with which you live and make decisions and the love you have for your self and others.

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