Complementary Therapy Groups
Held daily and involving an ever-widening range of techniques, including Shiatsu, Creative writing, Yoga, Qigong, Shintaido, Guided meditation, Auricular acupuncture, Hoola Hooping, Art Therapy, Singing, Dance Movement Therapy, Cookery skills, Baking skills and Drumming.
The purpose of these groups is to teach residents ways of relaxing without having to resort to drugs; creating space, to make way for deeper intuitions and allowing time for working through between group work sessions.
Life Skills Education Programme
Weekly workshops covering topics such as:
'Working with Anger', Depression, Anxiety, Stress Management, Assertiveness, Community & Citizenship,
Beginnings-Middles-Ending, Decision Making,
Budgeting, Mutual Aid and Relationships.
Community
Re-Enforcement Approach
Chandos works within the spirit of the Community
Re-enforcement Approach (CRA). This is achieved by working closely with the Workers Education Association (WEA) where a varied ever changing range of activities and potential interests for residents are brought in-house. Senior residents are strongly encouraged to explore their own interests out in the community, be these vocational, hobbies or just fun activities with the aim of making an abstinence based life rewarding.
Relapse Prevention
“Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory”
– Miguel de Cervantes
Elements of our relapse prevention groups include; Urge management and stimuli control, identifying and coping with high risk situations, lapse control, trigger awareness and understanding the abstinence violation affect. Relapse Prevention groups incorporate the theories and models of Marlatt & Gordon, and are held weekly at Chandos.
Shiatsu
There is a weekly Shiatsu share. Shiatsu is an ancient healing art that involves applying pressure to the body’s energy channels (meridians) with either fingers, thumbs, hands, elbows or knees in order to rebalance the body’s energy and promote good health. It is a safe holistic method of staying healthy and full of vitality in an increasingly stressful world. Shiatsu helps discover new vitality – release stress and tension, benefit the nervous system, increase your self awareness, treat common ailments, strengthen your immunity, boost stamina and body awareness
and helps you relax and feel good.
Yoga
Nearly anyone can take part, regardless of age or fitness. Gentle or strong it’s up to you. The postures and breathing energise your body both powerfully and beneficially.
Outdoor Activities
We have a fully qualified outdoor sports instructor who will work with clients on overcoming their mental and physical boundaries, and help in unlocking the potential that everyone has within. Activities include: Climbing, Mountaineering, Abseiling, Orienteering and other outdoor activities.
Shintaido
Movement that celebrates life. The secrets of ancient Japan fused with creativity and free expression from the West, Shintaido was created to help develop a supple fitness, bring joy to our lives, relieve stress and promote health.
'Healing the Family Tree'
This work supports and complements any therapy a participant may have. It is deeply challenging, often humorous and apparently simple work, where the containment of deep feeling is encouraged. By setting up individual family constellations it is possible to trace complex issues that influence and bind members of the system.
In these seminars a participant sets up a constellation, either for present or the family of origin, using other participants to represent family members. These representatives begin to feel as the original members felt and an entanglement or misplaced loyalty often becomes visible. It is these forces that Bert Hallinger calls “the order of love”.
All sorts of suffering can be traced to unhealed parts of the family system where love and loyalty may unconsciously bind us, including illness (both psychosomatic and accidental), relationship problems, suicide, depression and addictions. When the family system is made visible and experienced, the constellation can put us on the path to healing.
Recreational Activities
Through the medium of sport and recreation you can develop a healthy relationship toward exercise, fitness and health. This in turn fosters teamwork, communication, collective responsibility and a spirit of togetherness.
Qigong
Opening to full aliveness, a sequence of movements, conducted in a soft slow and totally focused manner. A moving meditation qigong is a way of directly experiencing and opening to the subtle energy known as Qi in oriental medicine. It connects us more deeply to the natural flow of energy around us and to the source of our aliveness. It is simple to learn yet challenges each person to their own limit.
Benefits may include the healing of deeply engraved patterns of physical and emotional disharmony, increased vitality and clarity of perception, the cultivation of inner stillness and, most of all, a deeper enjoyment of being alive.
Community Meetings
Participants join the weekday community meeting in which they can voice practical or emotional concerns, make day to day decisions together and plan other events. This helps to create a close and vibrant community which makes everyone feel at home. In order to support this the roles of house leader, deputy house leader and housekeeper have been created.
Course Handbook
Undertaken by all residents, it is expected that all clients will complete our course handbook to give them a thorough
grounding in their recovery.
Other assignments can be given, for example: co-dependancy, relapse prevention, female dependency, pride, behaviour, trust, self-esteem, anger/rage. This list is not exhaustive, but is intended to provide an idea of available assignments when tailoring individual treatment plans.
Guided Meditation
Inner stillness and inner strength through deep relaxation. Calming our thoughts enables us to access feelings of joy and peace.
Daily Meditation Readings
Taken from Taming the Tiger Within, the readings are made before our community groups commence; after each lunch and dinnertime.
Life Story Groups
These are held when a new resident has been in the house for 5-10 days and are attended by all residents. Their purpose is to allow new residents to share their life history with their peers.
Treatment Details
Group Therapy
This is the primary means of input at Chandos.
This daily group provides a therapeutic space where you can talk honestly and openly about yourself as a man. Through discussion, feedback and therapeutic exercises, the group serves to stimulate and support the process of self discovery and change.
Transformational Speaking Circles
Shy people blossom and confident people become inspirational. These workshops create instant communities. The small (10 max) non-judgemental and supportive nature of the groups empowers and fosters trust and permission to be in the moment.
This innovative and absolutely supportive approach can help increase your confidence, authenticity, spontaneity,
self expression and effectiveness.
Massage & Body Work Therapy
On a weekly basis clients will receive a 'whole health' massage from our experienced and highly qualified Massage and Body- Work Therapist. Kathryn is skilled in supporting people who have experienced sexual abuse; for people who have experienced abuse, massage and body work can offer the experience of ‘ Safe Touch'.
“An opportunity to begin to re-inhabit your body, bring self awareness, break patterns and bring new ways of living into your body.”
1-2-1 Talk Therapy
Weekly sessions provide emotional and practical support in the transition to taking up your role in the community.
They are also used to identify a treatment plan which will be reviewed each week. Residents identify issues within these sessions and will usually explore further in group therapy.
The treatment programme at Chandos has been carefully crafted to ensure that each of our interventions readily compliments the others; through engagement with our comprehensive structure of activities, each resident can begin to develop a more firmly rooted foundation,
on which to build a better quality of life.
Please see the treatment details below, and feel free to contact a member of our team should you require any additional information or support.
1-2-1 Consultations
Four weekly consultations in nutrional therapy, person-centred homeopathy and personal health and fitness.
Suggested Therapeutic Literature:
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AA/NA main text
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Flying Boy: Why Men Run from Relationships – John Lee
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Iron John: A Book About Men – Robert Bly
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A Little Book on the Human Shadow – Robert Bly
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Fire in the Belly: On Becoming a Man – Sam Keen
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Healing the shame that binds you – John Bradshaw
(Click on a book title to learn more)
Careers Guidance
We have a careers guidance officer who “helps people who need support in finding voluntary work, training, education or employment…he recognises that people in recovery have specific needs, which must be considered so that they can reach their full potential and take their place in society”. Offering assessment of support needs in relation to work – advice sessions to find suitable direction in work or training and planning on how to achieve goals – workshops which give people with similar experiences the opportunity to support each other to find a way forward – providing support or finding support from other agencies – work placements with a variety of local businesses, organisations
and community projects.
"Each brick has the same value; without the others
for support the foundations lose strength, and the entire house begins to collapse."
SMART Groups at Chandos
These groups are held every Sunday afternoon, with the primary focus being on relapse prevention and related topics. Typically a six session rolling group; allowing each resident to cover each topic twice.
Topics include:
Identifying and Disputing Irrational Beliefs
Seemingly Irrelevant Decisions
Refusal Skills
Other relevant topics
Members of the group are encouraged to draw on and discuss past situations of failure and success with the aim of finding future solutions to remaining drug and alcohol free.
SMART Training Opportunities
An experienced SMART facilitator will be on site every Sunday afternoon to provide encouragement and support for residents who would like to complete the on-line training for themselves. This includes registering at www.smartrecovery.org.uk
and help with training. Those who are currently training or completed are then encouraged to facilitate/co-facilitate SMART in the community.
