• Healing in the Desert: Intensive, integrative trauma treatment

  • presented by Awake and Aware LLC

  • Suffering that won’t stop? Don’t give up. Regain a sense of direction and begin healing old wounds.

     

    A life worth living can be achieved and recovery from trauma possible. Here at Awake and Aware, LLC, it is our mission and our honor to lead you through your journey of healing. Our individualized, integrative, and immersive program supports you in your process of recovery from addictive patterns, trauma symptomology and chronic suffering in a supportive and caring environment. Our program operates foundationally from a holistic model of treating mind, body and spirit and recognizes that successful integration of all facets of humanness are necessary for whole healing.

     

  • Our outpatient program offers tools to set you free.

     

    We are the only intensive outpatient trauma treatment program in New Mexico that provides an integrative model of intensive outpatient trauma care and is capable of providing comprehensive and adherent DBT within the treatment program. Upon completion, all individuals that need to step down into comprehensive Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) will be discharged seamlessly into our intensive DBT Program.

     

  • How do you know if you need intensive trauma treatment?

     

    There are numerous ways that past trauma can show up in your life including anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide, self-injury and PTSD symptoms. These symptoms often include sleeplessness, hypervigilance, irritability, reliving of past experiences as well as intrusive memories, thoughts and sensations. Behaviors that may be present in your day to day life could include

  • Disassociation or “Checking out”. This is the experience of

    • losing track of time or location
    • forgetting things you’ve said or done
    • feeling lost, confused and terrified
    • Uncomfortable within your physical body or numb and disconnected. 

  • Agoraphobia

    • Fear of being with others or of leaving your home or bedroom.

  • High anxiety and rumination

    • You may feel trapped or experience sleeping disorders. 
    • Your thoughts may tend to race out of control. 
    • You may have difficulty managing emotions and thoughts that seem persistent and unstoppable 

  • Depression

    • You may find that you can’t function or that you’re not interested in things you used to like. 
    • You may feel deep sadness and cry a lot without knowing why. 
    • You may experience isolation, weight gain or constipation or other GI distress 
    • You may have difficulties in interpersonal relationships, often make statements of helplessness, hopelessness or worthlessness. 
    • Preoccupation with thoughts of dying are common. 

  • Self-injury

    • This includes cutting, scratching, burning, hitting or punching, hair pulling, picking at skin or wounds. Friends/relatives may notice fresh cuts, scratches, bruises or other wounds and you may find yourself wearing long sleeves or long pants even in hot weather.

  • Suicidal thoughts

    • Perhaps you are preoccupied with ideas of no longer being alive or imagining that things would be better if you were gone.
    • The desire to communicate or connect may disappear, replaced by isolation and silence
    • Your friends/family may notice you are engaging in extreme isolation; 

    Note: If you feel suicidal, don’t take chances. Call suicide prevention at 1-800-273-8255. Later, our intensive treatment offers long-term solutions. 

    Maybe you can’t engage with people or you’re afraid you’re going crazy. It seems like there’s no way out, that this condition is a dead-end.  

  • "The wound is the place where the Light enters you."

    Rumi

  • The Process

     

    Unique Outpatient Format

    Our program is built firmly on a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) foundation and is provided in a DBT-adherent setting by DBT trained clinicians. Clients who attend our program in addition to groups which are focused on teaching and practicing the DBT skills. Often, trauma symptoms are too severe to be effectively addressed in standard therapy and leaving home and family for residential treatment is not possible. At Healing in the Desert, We create individualized treatment plans that not only address your on site treatment,  but that will help you plan for off time during the  weekend as we work to understand what is getting the way of the changes you need to make to follow your path to recovery. 

    Through Healing in the Desert, Awake and Aware LLC provides enhanced services and care in a DBT intensive format while providing the safety net of continuous care at discharge via step-down into the agency’s established and highly acclaimed comprehensive DBT program.

    Why DBT as a Foundation?

    DBT is known to benefit multi-disordered, complex individuals who present with a myriad of problems based often in intense emotion dysregulation. These include: chronic suicidality, self-harm behaviors, borderline personality disorder and other personality disorders, a history of trauma/PTSD, substance abuse - in addition to eating disorders. DBT is especially helpful for people who struggle with more than one problem or who have tried other more-conventional therapies and are still struggling.  

    Beginning the Process

    Each individual completes a mental health assessment interview at intake as well as a physiological assessment by our Doctor of Oriental Medicine. Individuals needing medication assessment and/or medication management will be assessed by an Medical Doctor. Through, interview, collateral information, and self-assessment tools, an individualized treatment plan is created that treats the physical body, emotional body and spiritual body. Treatment is organized around therapeutic modalities that reflect the most current evidence base, supporting safe and cohesive therapeutic choices. These include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)/DBT, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Trauma informed Yoga and art therapy as well as other experiential and intuitive based work. Primary traumas can be expected to reduce in their intensity and individuals will experience a more grounded level of functioning at discharge.

  • The Treatment 

     

    A typical treatment plan includes:

     

    •  Individualized treatment by a Masters level clinician intensively trained in DBT and /or trauma-specific areas of expertise.
    • Group treatment in trauma management and self-regulatory skills, as well as, movement and creative therapies.
    • Assessment and treatment by a Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
    • Mindfulness-based interventions and practice included but not limited to MBSR, mindfulness practices including vipassana practice and prayer practice.
    • Family therapy
    • Couples therapy
    • Spiritual exploration, practice and personal intentioning. 

     

    The Program

     

    We currently offer 30-day treatment options for Healing in the Desert. The length of your treatment program will be determined following an initial assessment. All treatment is conducted onsite as an outpatient on the Awake and Aware campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Treatment occurs 4 days a week, 3 hours per day.

    Participants can expect an increased understanding of the effects and impact of trauma, an increase in personal insight and overall daily functioning, and a decrease in emotional outbursts or “checking out.” We’ll explore your chronic issues deeply, addressing problematic behavior and emotional patterns. The program increases understanding of addictive patterns and creates a process for unraveling troubling dynamics in relationships and within the family. Provides tools to improve overall daily functioning addressing the whole body.

     

    Payment Options

     

    Healing in the Desert is completely covered by some New Mexico Centennial plans! It is also partially covered by in-network commercial insurance plans Call 505-492-9149 for more information on insurance coverage and cost for self-pay.

  • Healing in the Desert can help you regain a sense of personal power and freedom. Discover the life you were meant to live.

  • "I am so thankful for this opportunity. Not only am I alive but I am happier, hopeful and excited for the adventures that my future holds. You are such a blessing."

    Client