Glossary

Terms You May Want to Know

As you look through our site, you may wonder about some of the terms you encounter. We've created the glossary below to help you better understand what Cottonwood de Tucson can offer you.

12-Step Meetings
Aftercare Planning
Educational Lectures
EMDR
Equine Therapy
Experiential Therapies
Family Program
Group Therapy
Individual Therapy
Lawyers Behavioral Health Focus
Mental Health Tech
Mind/Body Therapy
Nicotine Cessation
Problem Gambling
Therapeutic Recreation
Trauma Therapy

12-Step Meetings
In addition to the multiple treatment modalities utilized at Cottonwood de Tucson, each patient is strongly encouraged to regularly participate in 12-step meetings as part of the ongoing recovery process.

Patients are introduced to the 12-step process through a group called Introduction to the 12-Steps, and then regularly attend both community based and campus based 12-step meetings.

Meeting options address a variety of recovery issues and include Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Alanon, Debtors Anonymous, Anorexia and Bulimia Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts, Sex Addicts Anonymous, and Nicotine Anonymous.

Additionally, some patients are offered Lawyer specific AA meetings, Physician specific AA meetings, Young Adult 12-step meetings, and Gay and Lesbian specific 12-step meetings. Attendance at community based 12-step meetings aids in the development of community integration and utilization of supportive resources in recovery.

Back to Top

Aftercare Planning
Research indicates that individuals who continue therapy following inpatient treatment have a higher likelihood of maintaining recovery behavior.

Understanding the value of aftercare, Cottonwood de Tucson places a strong emphasis on developing a detailed aftercare plan for each patient reflective of his or her individual needs.

Each patient is provided with extensive referrals including continuing residential care, psychiatric appointments, individual therapy, group therapy, and psychological service resources.

Back to Top

Educational Lectures
Patients participate in daily psychoeducational groups in order to increase awareness and provide resources for ongoing behavior change. Topics include: Neurobiology and Recovery, Depression Recovery, Trauma and brain chemistry, Relapse Prevention, Anger Management, Spirituality, Medical Aspects of Recovery, Grief and Loss, Forgiveness, and many others.

Back to Top

EMDR
EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a psychotherapeutic technique, developed by Francine Shapiro. Studies have demonstrated the efficacy of EMDR in treating PTSD and exposure to traumatic events.

EMDR is founded on an information-processing model, which suggests that PTSD symptoms arise when events are insufficiently processed, and can be eliminated when the memory is fully processed.

It integrates many traditional therapeutic approaches, such as psychodynamic, physiological, cognitive behavioral, experiential, and interpersonal therapies.

EMDR also utilizes the component of dual attention stimulation, such as eye movements, bilateral sound, or bilateral tactile stimulation.

Back to Top

Equine Therapy
It has been said that the Equine-assisted Therapy Intensive at Cottonwood is like a profound glimpse into the total Gestalt of a human being. As patients explore their own capacity for trust, intimacy, boundaries, and self-acceptance, the horse confirms and mirrors the person's strengths and challenges.

Noted pioneer in the field and lifetime equine professional, Laura Brinckerhoff, and her team of Equine professionals and safety support carefully facilitates this equine encounter, which is available at least one time to each patient at Cottonwood. Occasionally patients may participate more frequently as determined by the treatment team.

Although the intensive is a group process, patients work one at a time in the round pen with a chosen horse. This intimate encounter with a horse provides rich information to the counselor and often results in catharsis, insight and a life-changing shift in perspective for the patient. Horses make it easier to be venerable, to risk and ultimately to connect in a powerful present moment encounter of complete acceptance.

Metaphor is also a factor in equine therapy. Sometimes it's less about the connection and more about the mirror created by the horse's behavior. Patients may be able to in turn recognize things about their own behavior, which will provide the facilitator an opening for questions and observation.

All work with the horses is on the ground. There is no riding or riding lessons. Horses can be naturally therapeutic, but with the assistance of Laura and her team, we offer an intense, unique psychotherapy group.

Back to Top

Experiential Therapies
Experiential therapies include groups that enhance treatment by allowing patients to explore therapeutic concepts through an expressive experience. As participants engage in self-expression, they encounter new ways of engaging in treatment apart from the traditional aspects of "talk therapy". These groups may include music therapy, expressive art therapy, psychodrama, Playback Theater, and Tai Chi.

Back to Top

Family Program
Family Program is a five-day process during which patients and their families explore issues of recovery within a structured therapeutic setting. Each participant will explore aspects of relationship recovery including the development of healthy communication and the strengthening of boundaries. Psychoeducational and list work process groups provide a dynamic and healing opportunity for all participants.

Back to Top

Group Therapy
Patients participate in daily group therapy. Each patient is assigned to a primary therapy group and a primary counselor. Patients attend two hours of primary group therapy Monday through Friday.

Each patient will also be scheduled to attend specialty groups to address his or her presenting issues. Group therapy allows participants to improve communication skills and develop greater awareness of self and others through group process and integration of feedback from other participants.

Back to Top

Individual Therapy
Patients participate in regularly scheduled individual therapy with his or her primary counselor. Session length and frequency are determined by the patient's treatment needs and guided by the treatment plan. Individual sessions will address issues such as chemical dependency, depression, anxiety, relapse prevention, and treatment planning.

Back to Top

Lawyers Behavioral Health Focus
Resourceful minds. Strong wills. Trained to argue.

The same skills that make people good lawyers can make them difficult patients. So we undertook major research to determine how to best address chemical dependency and other behavioral health issues of legal professionals.

Cottonwood clinicians were invited to present the findings of the research at the 2003 American Bar association Conference on Lawyers Assistance, and the study was published in the behavioral health journal Addiction Professional.

Building on the year-long research project, Cottonwood de Tucson developed a comprehensive treatment focus that includes complete assessment, medical and psychological therapy and ongoing clinical help to resolve a client's problems and prevent relapse.

Legal professionals undergoing treatment for co-occurring disorders at Cottonwood attend both general and lawyer-specific treatment activities, some facilitated by clinical staff that are also practicing lawyers. Lawyer-specific 12-step meetings are also available.

For more information about this program or for information on admission to Cottonwood, please contact us.

Back to Top

Mental Health Tech
A Cottonwood employee whose job it is to support the patient while they are with us. Responsibilities can include taking daily vital signs, running community meetings, driving to off campus 12-step meetings and appointments and generally making sure the patient is comfortable and safe.

Back to Top

Mind/Body Therapy
Mind/Body Therapies offer a holistic approach that unites mind, body, and spirit and assist patients in the discovery of "self". The utilization of spiritual concepts allows patients to learn the art of self-acceptance, self-care, and the creation of balance as the core of recovery.

Mind/Body therapies include the following groups: Yoga, Meditation, Energy Psychology, Energy Medicine, Honoring Anger, Voices of the Heart, A Soul Journey of Recovery.

Back to Top

Nicotine Cessation
Nicotine cessation groups allow participants to receive education regarding the physical, emotional, social, and psychological implications of his or her nicotine use. Participants are also encouraged to examine the addictive process, including triggers for use as well as develop a plan to stop smoking.

Back to Top

Problem Gambling
Some people experience an abiding or recurring urge to gamble despite adverse consequences and an honest desire to stop. Problem gamblers and their families can suffer severe financial, emotional and relationship problems as a result of the gambler's behavior. Recent research suggests that pathological gambling is an addiction that affects the gambler's brain similarly to the way drugs affect the addict's brain.

Back to Top

Therapeutic Recreation
Therapeutic recreation groups are an essential aspect of treatment and recovery. These groups aid participants in the development of crucial recovery skills, including self-discipline, stress management, self-control, improved self-esteem, anxiety reduction, and assertiveness.

Therapeutic recreation groups allow for kinesthetic learning opportunities that enhance the understanding of recovery issues such as trust, forgiveness, and decision-making. Through participation in therapeutic recreation, participants identify and change dysfunctional behavior by evaluating these behaviors in a safe environment.

These groups include Rocks and Ropes, Cardio-kickboxing, Recreation in Recovery, Challenge Course, Leisure Wellness, and Community Reintegration.

In addition, adolescent female patients participate in Karate, which lends to the development of skills such as self-control, learning to take direction, and the development of respect for self and others. Patients receive promotions in their belt colors as they participate and improve.

Back to Top

Trauma Therapy
Many individuals enter treatment with a history of untreated trauma. For these patients, the careful identification and exploration of traumatic events is crucial to overall recovery. Trauma therapy may include trauma process groups, trauma and intimacy groups, psychodrama, psychoeducational groups, and EMDR.

The use of mindfulness techniques, expressive art therapies, and mind-body groups offer participants the opportunity to develop containment skills to manage traumatic memories more effectively.

Back to Top