Northstar Transitions
This week we’re highlighting a great program in the Boulder, Colorado area: Northstar Transitions. Northstar Transitions is the only licensed addiction treatment center inside Boulder’s city limits. They serve men, women and families dealing with addiction to drugs and alcohol.
Northstar features evidence-based treatment and behavioral therapies that produce sound outcomes for their patients, offering the best hope of long-term recovery. They recognize that addiction affects the whole family, and extend their counseling and educational services to the loved ones of their patients.
One of the more impressive elements about Northstar is the fact that founder Mike Farrell started the business with just $13,000 in 2012, and now they employ 20 or so employees and have multiple facilities for men and women. This is a successful business – in large part because of their focus on the process of healing and long-term recovery.
Northstar includes experiential therapy and a wellness program to clients that are enrolled in addiction treatment services. Experiential therapy gets people out of their comfort zone, and encourages them to engage with their peers. This process breaks down typical barriers, and encourages much higher levels of participation (vs sitting around listening to a group meeting and/or a lecture).
We like the practice of experiential therapy for the reasons listed above, as well as for the attraction it provides for clients. When one is actively participating in an experience, it makes the coping process associated with sobriety that much easier.
Typical experiences include some form of trust exercise, where peers are relied upon to help the individual navigate or overcome some type of fear. Climbing walls and ropes courses quickly come to mind. Such experiences require those participating to develop solid communication skills, as well as learn to rely upon themselves in ways they had not previously done.
Northstar implements indoor rock climbing, yoga, guided meditations, acupuncture and equine (horse) therapy. They also provide gym access, snowboarding, skiing, hiking, CrossFit, meal planning and cooking as well as massage therapy.
We would like to not only acknowledge Northstar Transitions for their innovative and comprehensive approach to recovery as it relates to the whole being of their clients, but we celebrate them for being an industry leader in their own right!
Their services are in-network for many insurance providers, and they make the process of seeking and finding help easy from the get-go.
We here at A New Outlook Counseling Services are committed to cheering for those in our industry that are making a difference with stand-out offerings. Today – we salute Northstar Transitions of Boulder/Denver, Colorado!
For more resources on experience-based therapy, please visit the Association for Experiential Education, the US Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, or this well-thought out article on evidence-based practice available on Wikipedia.
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