At Serenity Recovery, we believe that care should be integrated and holistic to meet your specific needs. Through the use of a wide range of activities, plus integrative and traditional therapies, we’ll help you on the road to well-being and personal growth.
Holistic, from the Greek ‘holos’, means whole. Its aim is to restore balance throughout the body, treating not just a person’s symptoms, but their entire being. Our holistic approach supports your professional treatment plan but has long-lasting benefits beyond the initial phase of treatment. Central to our holistic approach to addiction rehabilitation is being in the safe, serene and healing natural environment.
OUR THERAPEUTIC APPROACH
The Serenity Model does not focus solely on traditional modalities, but seeks to integrate them with a range of holistic therapies as part of your highly personalised treatment plan. Such is our attention to detail that even the time of day when a therapy occurs is all part of the balance. Your bespoke therapy programme is what sets Ocean Recovery apart from other addiction rehabilitation centres.
Finding the balance
At Serenity Recovery, our medical director is a naturopath, and at the heart of the Serenity Model lies the balance between naturopathic treatments using nutraceuticals, and allopathic, or Western, medical techniques. These twin medical philosophies work in harmony to provide our residents with the very best holistic care. Alongside our medical director, our dedicated team includes a psychiatrist, a psychologist and a psychiatric nurse practitioner to provide you with the maximum benefits of medical care.
Naturalising sleep rhythms
Our beautiful natural environment allows us to recreate the natural sleep/awake cycles which are central to our holistic methodology. The five cycles of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) during a good night’s sleep are essential to allow our brains to rest and reboot for the day ahead, when we awake refreshed and ready to make clear decisions and healthy choices. This healthy sleep cycle is typically absent or diminished in those with addiction, depression and trauma.
Blue light from the sun releases endorphins that interact with receptors in your brain to create a sense of euphoria, thus decreasing symptoms of depression. Allow yourself to ‘be’ in the stunning environment of Serenity Recovery and attune your sleep cycles to the natural world around you and you’ll experience the sensation of feeling more stable and grounded. Unlike any other rehab centre, we consider this natural rebalancing to be a central part of your personalised treatment plan, and so we go above and beyond in our use of sleep therapy – from sleep hygiene lectures to consultations with our polysomnographer at our state-of-the-art sleep lab.
Tap into your healing abilities
As humans, we’re hard-wired to heal ourselves. When we cut ourselves, the body works quickly to heal the skin and it is this realisation – that the mind can heal itself as the body does – that lies at the heart of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). This is a widely researched and validated method for dealing with trauma, and this specialised psychotherapy has helped many people to begin their own self-healing journey.
Rather as how a wound that is constantly irritated is slow to heal until the infection is removed, so EDRM seeks to remove the block that is causing intense pain and preventing the brain from moving naturally towards mental health. Based on the theory that a traumatic experience becomes locked in the brain and stored with the same perceptions that were created at the time of the event, its strength lies in allowing you to tap into the natural psychological processes that allow the process of self-healing to begin. EMDR therapy also has proven effectiveness with anxiety, stress, depression and addiction rehabilitation.
INTEGRATIVE THERAPIES
At Ocean Therapy, when the primary treatment team develop your personalised treatment plan, they look to integrative therapies as a critical part of our holistic approach to trauma, depression and addiction rehabilitation.
The Serenity Model takes the view that there is no single therapy that can treat every individual in every circumstance. We believe that no one therapy holds all the answers, which is why we integrate cognitive, behavioural and psychological systems with your spiritual needs to create a therapy system that is tailored specifically to you as an individual.
Our integrative therapies combine with more traditional therapies to create a complete treatment suite that is beneficial for the multiple layers of common symptoms related to acute and chronic trauma-based disorders.
Positive affirmations
Affirmations are a primary part of the programme at Serenity Recovery rehab centre. By exchanging your negative thoughts for positive ones, you will realign your thinking with the principles of balance, self-healing and well-being.
Healing through sound and music
Sound and resonance have been used for healing since ancient times, from the mantras of the Hindus to the medicinal melodies of indigenous South and Central American peoples. Both music and pure tones can have extraordinary effects on a range of psychological and physiological conditions. Sound and resonance therapies can equalise brain waves, boost the production of endorphins, improve memory and learning and can positively impact on depression.
At Serenity Recovery, we use Resonance therapy – the production of a frequency or vibration that is most natural to a specific organ or system – as a way to help you connect with your innate healing capabilities by connecting with your deepest emotions. We use the latest research into the effect of resonance as the basis for our sound healing therapies.
Research shows that music with a slow and repetitive 10-second cycle can calm the listener as it resonates with the cycle of the body’s own blood pressure control. In fact, NASA have long investigated sound therapy as a way of combatting the problems facing astronauts spending prolonged periods in zero gravity. Sound may also have an important part to play in restoring normal function and replication to dysfunctional cells. Research also tells us that the areas of the brain that respond to music are those involved in reward, motivation and primal feelings.
Sound can facilitate shifts in our brainwave state from waking consciousness to relaxed consciousness or a meditative state. Sound is the frequency that can adjust and attune our consciousness towards the sleep state, where natural healing can occur, moving our mind and body from imbalance towards balance.
Free yourself through movement therapy
The body is a tool for self-expression and communication, and studies reveal the way the mind-body connection can cause changes in one to affect changes in the other. According to body language studies, if we act in a way that is powerful and confident through our posture and movement, over time we will begin to embody those traits in ourselves.
Embrace the power of yoga
Both group and individual yoga is embraced as part of Serenity Therapy’s holistic treatment package. We believe yoga practice to be one of the most powerful and wonderful practices for people recovering from addiction. When you have lost touch with your body and mind, yoga can reconnect you to yourself through breath control, meditation and a series of specific bodily poses that help you to attain mental and physical control and a deep sense of well-being.
A one-to-one session with our yoga teacher can have powerful benefits, beyond those of a group session. Your individual yoga session will be designed specifically for you, to support the therapies in your treatment programme. Your practice may involve meditation, physical movement, chanting and imagery alongside the study of Eastern philosophy. Body, mind and spirit will all be nourished and sustained during your bespoke yoga practice.
The object of Yogic principles is to address the complexity of human suffering, and to honour and cultivate our individual strength, in order to return to wellness and establish deeper and more intimate connections both with ourselves and in our relationships. Yoga is, therefore, one of the most effective tools for dealing with stress and emotional upheaval, and by continuing your yoga practice through life you’ll experience a successful and lasting recovery.
The benefits of massage therapy and acupuncture
Both Shiatsu massage or ‘finger therapy’ and acupuncture are traditional Japanese therapies that seek to harmonise, stimulate and rebalance the Qi energies that flow throughout our bodies.
The shiatsu massage therapist is trained to recognise imbalances in the Qi that flows through the meridians of the body. Left unchecked, these imbalances can manifest themselves in a range of symptoms. Your shiatsu massage will access these meridians using slow, consistent and methodical movements, and sometimes gentle stretching and passive manipulation. Ongoing shiatsu therapy is an excellent way to maintain wellness.
Pain relief, muscle relaxation and becoming grounded in your body are just some of the physical benefits of massage therapy. But the benefits for our residents go far beyond the physical. Muscle manipulation can unlock long hidden trauma and negativity from our being, freeing the spirit. For residents who have difficulty articulating their feelings, touch therapy takes recovery work to a fundamental emotional level without the need to communicate through words. By connecting the body directly to the emotions, massage therapy can help with trauma, anxiety, depression and addiction.
Acupuncture is another ancient method of rebalancing the body’s Qi, and in the Ocean Model, has proved an effective treatment for depression, insomnia, chronic pain, substance abuse withdrawal and PTSD. This gentle and effective therapy treats the body holistically, to improve your physical and mental health and well-being as you find your pathway to wellness.