Individual Therapy is a key aspect of the addiction recovery process. As one begins a life of sobriety, many emotions and past experiences will crop up. Individual therapy gives the client the opportunity to explore these emotions and past experiences with one of our Masters Level Therapists to make sense of it all and begin the healing process from the chaos created by their addiction. We offer Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy for those who have experienced trauma in their life (sexual abuse, physical abuse, abandonment, rape, accidents, serving in the military, etc.) which can help a great deal with PTSD and other mental health disorders. CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, is also used as a mechanism to process these emotions and gain clarity as to why these things happened, take responsibility when necessary and build a picture of what life looks like moving forward. These are just a couple of the techniques we use to help our clients in our program.

At Desert Mountain Health, our number one concern is the care of our clients and the success of everyone achieving long-term sobriety. Our model has been proven to work and every client who engages in the program has a high chance of success. We are here to make each and every client feel right at home so the recovery process is as comfortable as possible. We believe we have the most experienced and compassionate treatment team in the field and we are here to help each and every person suffering from addiction. See below for a detailed description of our individual therapy services.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

​​EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.

More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy. Some of the studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions. Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions. There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense. Given the worldwide recognition as an effective treatment of trauma, you can easily see how EMDR therapy would be effective in treating the “everyday” memories that are the reason people have low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, and all the myriad problems that bring them in for therapy. Over 100,000 clinicians throughout the world use the therapy. Millions of people have been treated successfully over the past 25 years.

EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session. After the clinician has determined which memory to target first, he asks the client to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use his eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision. As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected with the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise and the clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings. In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level. For instance, a rape victim shifts from feeling horror and self-disgust to holding the firm belief that, “I survived it and I am strong.” Unlike talk therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes. The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them. Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the client’s’ thoughts, feelings and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies.

CBT -Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a short-term, goal-oriented psychotherapy treatment that takes a hands-on, practical approach to problem-solving. Its goal is to change patterns of thinking or behavior that are behind people’s difficulties, and so change the way they feel.​

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the primary form of treatment for relapse prevention. As a relapse can cause a major setback in one’s recovery, it is the goal of Desert Mountain Health for every client to maintain long-term sobriety. Methods used for relapse prevention are working on how to deal with cravings, triggers, learn healthy coping mechanisms and shift the dynamic of sobriety being the bigger focus over the addiction. Our therapists work hard to ensure each client has a new set of tools to use once they discharge from our program.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is a form of psychotherapy used to create subconscious change in a patient in the form of new responses, thoughts, attitudes, behaviors or feelings. It is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis.

A person who is hypnotized displays certain unusual behavior characteristics and propensities, compared with a non-hypnotized subject, most notably heightened suggestibility and responsiveness.

Life Coaching

Most clients who enter into a substance abuse program have issues they are dealing with in regards to finances, education, employment and legal matters. Our life coaching program is in place to help clients learn how to manage money, complete their GED or enroll in college, obtain a job for when they leave the program and resolve any legal matters that are outstanding. Life coaching is a crucial aspect of treatment and will set our clients up for a successful transition from treatment back into the real world. Below are just some of the curriculum for our Life Coaching Program.

  • Resume building
  • Interview skills
  • Job Search
  • Securing a job
  • Completion of a GED
  • Enrollment in college
  • Money Management
  • Strategies to pay off debt
  • Healthy relationships
  • MVD issues
  • Building healthy routines
  • ​Many more