What is a Mental Health Retreat?
Miriam Webster defines a retreat as: a place of privacy or safety. In general, a mental health retreat, then, can be defined as a private and safe environment where you can focus on your emotional well-being. Unlike a typical hospital’s behavioral health therapy program, however, a mental health retreat is usually more residential and can be more holistic in nature. This type of “retreat” even takes on the added connotation of self-examination.
An Alternative to In-Patient Hospital Care
When it comes to mending your emotional health, a safe, supportive and therapeutic environment is of utmost importance. Yet the healing environment does not have to resemble a locked down inpatient hospital program. Rather it can be cozy in nature.
Mental health retreats provide an alternative to the hospital setting. It is a way for you to be part of an environment that positively promotes wellness but within a luxurious residential setting. These beautiful surroundings are not limited to inside the facility either. Rather they extend to the outside as well, where you can use nature as part of your therapy treatment through long walks, reflection and introspection.
Additional Features of the Mental Health Retreat
Mental health retreats can allow you access to all the comforts of home, such as phone, computer, Internet, DVDs, etc. Meanwhile, your whereabouts are essentially private. In essence, it doesn’t cut you off from the world, but it does create a safe and supportive environment where the main focus is a “working on you” experience.
Treatment at a mental health retreat tends to be more intimate in nature and offers one-on-one care and attention as well as small group interactions. In addition, many naturalistic approaches to treatment can be used. Following are a few examples:
• Somatic Experiencing (SE) – an approach that allows a patient to access their own built-in immunity to trauma.
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) – borrowing from Buddhist meditation practices to help people deal with sudden and powerful surges of emotion.
• Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) – an individualized therapy that reduces emotional distress related to memory.
• Art and music therapies - providing artistic options for awareness, communication and exploration.
• Acupuncture and massage – alternative healing therapies.
• Aerobics and weight training – allows the individual to take an active role in recovery.
• Yoga – creates an experience of overall well-being: Body, mind and spirit.
Of course not all mental health retreats are the same. Are you ready for a holistic treatment approach to anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar and other mood disorders that resembles the experience described above? Choose Bridges to Recovery as an alternative to in-patient mental health treatment. Contact us today.
