While completing St. Gregory’s addiction treatment program is an awesome achievement, sustaining your sobriety relies on community engagement for the best outcome. That’s why we specialize in bolstering your success with our intensive outpatient programs (IOPs) that include—but aren’t limited to—a wide range of services like group therapy, recovery coaching, and outreach opportunities to give back to your community. It’s a new life, and your community wants to be a part of it!
IOPs connect the lessons you’ve learned in treatment with your ability to execute them in the real world. These programs strike a balance between flexibility and discipline. They provide support and mentorship as you navigate your daily life professionally, academically, socially, and within your family.
Tune Into Group Therapy to Embrace Work, Social, and Family Life with Success
IOP learning often takes place during group therapy sessions, which are similar to our one-on-one CBT sessions but are much more dialogue and sharing-based. They’re highly effective at helping you maintain the progress you achieved during your stay at St. Gregory.
By helping you realize you’re not alone in your struggles, group therapy encourages you to take control of your attitudes, behaviors, and goals. In addition to normalizing the transition from inpatient to outpatient treatment, group therapy serves as a safety net that helps you stay on track as you enjoy your hard-earned independence.
During your group sessions, you’ll dive into crucial skill-building with people in the exact same boat as you. You can expect to touch on the following areas:
- Identifying root causes of your substance use, helping you to recognize and break free from cycles
- Identifying relapse triggers and learning how to manage or avoid them
- Strengthening your ability to express yourself and handle life’s challenges in healthy, productive ways
- Nurturing support systems and learning how to foster connections that uplift you and contribute to your ongoing recovery
Navigating New Paths with Recovery Coaching
In group, it’s helpful to understand that many struggle with addiction. However, it’s equally important to see that your addiction, recovery, and sobriety are unique. That’s why the main objective of a recovery coach is to help you understand your personal goals, strengths, and opportunities for growth. Then, you can set meaningful recovery goals and outline the steps it will take to achieve them. Simultaneously, you’ll build skills that support abstaining from substances and attracting friendships, professional advancement, and new hobbies.
Support and accountability are the names of the recovery-coaching game. As your recovery coaches at St. Gregory, we act as unwavering allies, offering consistent support and holding you accountable for achieving your goals.
Giving Back to Your Community in Iowa
Giving back to your community once you’ve arrived at a clear-headed space is crucial for keeping yourself accountable. Look at it like this: carving out a space for yourself in your neighborhood motivates you to take responsibility for it. It helps you feel like an important, necessary part of the world around you.
To give back is also a perfect means of practicing what you’ve learned throughout inpatient recovery, coaching, and group therapy. The wide range of physical and psychological benefits of volunteer-based activities aren’t too shabby either. After all, community participation lets you meet people face-to-face and interact with them in stimulating and meaningful ways. This all culminates to make sobriety feel less robotic, more human, and very much worthwhile.
Participating in community garden upkeep, food drives, community clean-ups, or a soup kitchen shift are all easy, accessible ways to connect with people and improve your mental health at the same time. If more generic volunteering doesn’t appeal to you, look for situations that resonate with your personality and interests. Whether it’s mentoring youth, advocating for addiction awareness, or picking up trash, your contributions make a real-world difference. That difference can only positively impact and prolong your recovery.
Keep Recovery Strong and Successful with St. Gregory’s IOP Programs
Don’t hesitate to contact us with questions—especially if you’re hunting for ways to learn new things, build friendships, expand your network, and give back to your community. Recovery is a life-long process. We’re here for it and for you!
