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For those struggling with addiction, what’s most needed is a full stop of the addictive behavior and support for embarking on a new direction.
The mission of AToN Center is to help people recovering from addiction find and enjoy this new direction. We aim to help our residents find a healthier and more satisfying way of living. This goal is built right into AToN Center’s name, an acronym created from the phrase “aid to navigation.”
The team of counselors, healers, holistic doctors, and medical professionals at AToN Center’s luxury rehab center offers a holistic approach to recovery. Residents are supported through the entire detox process. We also support individuals as they create a new life rooted in vibrant health and wellness. The heart of this therapeutic process is holistic healing.
What is Holistic Healing?
Holistic healing and integrative medicine address every aspect of a person’s life: physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. A holistic healer pays attention to the body, mind, heart, and spirit—and how each affects the others.
Western medicine tends to focus on disease symptoms and look for “magic bullets” (e.g., medications or surgery) that eliminate these symptoms. A holistic approach to healing helps improve a person’s overall health compared to conventional medicine alone.
Holistic medicine, in contrast, focuses more centrally on the root cause of the symptoms. A holistic healer finds ways to bring the entire body-mind-spirit system back into balance. Once the whole approach is balanced, the symptoms will tend naturally to resolve.
Holistic healing focuses on reactivating the body’s innate capacity for self-healing. Many alternative therapies are designed to calm and heal the nervous system by bringing the sympathetic and parasympathetic modes back into balance. In particular, the “rest and restore” function of the parasympathetic nervous system is vital for maintaining health and wellness.
Holistic healers help individuals to restore and maintain physical, mental, and emotional balance. They also help people to connect with an inner source of peace, joy, and freedom. They support the transformation of dis-ease into ease. And they encourage the cultivation of enhanced levels of wellness and vitality.
Other dimensions of holistic healing include:
- Paying attention to diet and nutrition—being mindful of the quality of food and drink that one ingests.
- Supporting digestive health via taking good care of the microbiome—the healthy microflora in the gut.
- Taking good care of the environment—the water, soil, and air that a human body depends upon.
- Enjoying regular exercise, along with periods of deep relaxation.
- Getting plenty of fresh air and natural light.
- Getting an appropriate amount of sleep.
Holistic Healing Methods
Many holistic healing practices have roots in ancient traditions such as Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, Tibetan Medicine, European herbal medicine, and shamanic traditions.
There are a wide variety of modalities that a holistic healer may employ. These include:
Regardless of the specific modalities employed, a holistic healer will always attend to the effects of treatment on every aspect of the individual experience. This includes physical sensations, mental-emotional functioning, and spiritual connection.
Benefits of Holistic Healing
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health oversees and conducts a wide variety of research on the efficacy of holistic healing methods. The bottom line is that complementary, integrative, and holistic healing methods effectively resolve various health concerns.
What Conditions Can Holistic Healing Treat?
When someone has a compound fracture, they need a surgeon—not a holistic healer—to set the bone correctly. And if a person is having a medical emergency, then a trip to a hospital emergency room is needed.
Western medicine is very good at dealing with these sorts of catastrophic physical traumas. These conditions are not the kind of thing most holistic healers would be qualified to address.
But pretty much any other physical, mental, or emotional condition—including recovery from addiction—can be effectively treated with a holistic healing approach. Holistic healing, for instance, can successfully resolve ailments that are:
(i.e., the result of nervous system dysfunction). An abundance of research shows that stress can be a triggering or aggravating factor for many diseases and pathological conditions. And holistic modalities tend to be excellent at providing stress relief.
including chronic pain. In combination with lifestyle changes, Holistic modalities can, over time, be very successful at alleviating chronic conditions. For instance, an intelligent restorative yoga practice can nourish and heal the body’s joints and deeply balance the nervous system.
For instance, the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) is a standardized 3-5-point ear acupuncture protocol to help treat addictions.
Uniquely Powerful Aspects of Holistic Healing
Above all, holistic healing is about treating the whole person. It’s about noticing how different aspects of human experience affect one another—and nourishing harmony and balance among them.
But like a beautiful diamond, holistic healing has numerous facets. And each of these facets contributes to its power and effectiveness:
- An emphasis on the prevention of illness and injury.
- Activation of the body's innate ability to heal itself.
- Transforming stress into balance and vitality.
- An acknowledgment of the body-mind connection (i.e., the authentic healing power of the so-called "placebo effect").
- Acknowledging the importance of a positive attitude and outlook.
- Welcoming the integration of different healing systems.
- Individualized attention to each person's unique circumstances.
- Resident empowerment: active participation in their healing.
- A humanized relationship between practitioner and resident—with mutual respect and open communication.
- Harnessing the power of mother nature, e.g., using herbs and flower essences.
- Seeing injury or illness as a growth opportunity rather than a punishment.
- Harnessing the power of genuine caring, kindness, and compassion.
- Healers who "walk their talk," i.e., who teaches by example.
What to Expect at Our California Holistic Rehab
In the true spirit of holistic healing, AToN Center recognizes that no single therapeutic modality can effectively meet the needs of every person. Therefore, our team provides various modalities to meet each resident’s unique needs.
This integrated treatment model offers the best opportunity for residents to find their optimal path to recovery. With the support of AToN’s holistic rehab services, individuals recovering from addiction learn how to bring balance to their bodies and minds; and live with a higher purpose.
Our Holistic Healing Programs
Residents at AToN Center enjoy unlimited group holistic activities such as sound bowl healing, breathwork, yoga, meditation, hiking, and painting class. In addition, each resident can schedule three individual Holistic Treatment sessions per week.
The powerful holistic healing modalities offered at AToN Center include:
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Breathing and Stress Reduction
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Yoga and Meditation
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Yoga, inspired by a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, became one of the most famous exercise practices in today’s world. Combining meditation, breath control and a system of physical exercises and postures, yoga fosters holistically physical and mental control of your body and well-being.
Meditation is often included in a multidisciplinary approach to addiction treatment for its positive effects on the mind and body.
Meditation is a technique whereby the resident will increase awareness and non-judgmentally attend to internal and external stimuli. This may help calm the mind and allow the resident to effectively decrease stress, cravings and emotional upset. Meditation can provide a deeper insight into one’s emotional life as well as allow for a peaceful escape. Meditation is a compassionate approach and focuses on acceptance and openness rather than guilt, blame and shame about one’s addictive behavior.
The basic advantage of meditation for treatment is in its simplicity. It does not take a long time to learn Meditation. It can be done nearly anywhere, anytime and, after some training, without any outside support. Most importantly, residents will be able to apply and exercise it in critical situations; avoiding relapse by controlling their stress, anxiety and cravings. Scientific research has been able to prove the positive effects of Meditation on the success of addiction treatment programs and the prevention of relapse.
At AToN Center, the Clinical Team teaches weekly meditation groups. These groups are focused on Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Addictive Behaviors. Through these groups, residents are able to incorporate meditation into their Relapse Prevention plan. They participate in guided meditation such as automatic pilot and relapse, awareness of triggers and craving, mindfulness in daily life, and mindfulness in high-risk situations. Additionally, AToN Center offers individualized meditation therapy with a skilled practitioner.
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Massage Therapy
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Acupuncture
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Hypnotherapy
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Personal Training
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Watsu
Includes techniques such as brain re-patterning. AToN Center offers individual breathing and stress reduction classes.
Yoga, inspired by a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, became one of the most famous exercise practices in today’s world. Combining meditation, breath control and a system of physical exercises and postures, yoga fosters holistically physical and mental control of your body and well-being.
Meditation is often included in a multidisciplinary approach to addiction treatment for its positive effects on the mind and body.
Meditation is a technique whereby the resident will increase awareness and non-judgmentally attend to internal and external stimuli. This may help calm the mind and allow the resident to effectively decrease stress, cravings and emotional upset. Meditation can provide a deeper insight into one’s emotional life as well as allow for a peaceful escape. Meditation is a compassionate approach and focuses on acceptance and openness rather than guilt, blame and shame about one’s addictive behavior.
The basic advantage of meditation for treatment is in its simplicity. It does not take a long time to learn Meditation. It can be done nearly anywhere, anytime and, after some training, without any outside support. Most importantly, residents will be able to apply and exercise it in critical situations; avoiding relapse by controlling their stress, anxiety and cravings. Scientific research has been able to prove the positive effects of Meditation on the success of addiction treatment programs and the prevention of relapse.
At AToN Center, the Clinical Team teaches weekly meditation groups. These groups are focused on Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Addictive Behaviors. Through these groups, residents are able to incorporate meditation into their Relapse Prevention plan. They participate in guided meditation such as automatic pilot and relapse, awareness of triggers and craving, mindfulness in daily life, and mindfulness in high-risk situations. Additionally, AToN Center offers individualized meditation therapy with a skilled practitioner.
Incorporating massage into a substance abuse program is advantageous in all of the stages of quitting an addiction: withdrawal, detoxification and abstinence. Skin, the largest sensory organ in our body, is our primary sense for connecting information from our external surroundings to our internal environment.
Massage has the unique ability to affect all of our layers of being — from the spiritual plane all the way up to and including our body’s chemical composition. In the process of abandoning an addiction, these many parts of ourselves become fragmented. Regular massage sessions can aid the client’s awareness of his or her own body, including where and when tension exists. Being conscious of these patterns is a step toward recognizing one’s own resistance, which can lead to healthfully addressing emotions associated with cravings and stress.
Acupuncture has been used for the treatment of a wide variety of ailments for over 2,500 years. Within the United States, acupuncture has been recognized as an effective method in an integrated addiction treatment protocol, with the movement beginning in 1976. Acupuncture focuses on the energy that flows throughout our bodies, called Qi. It is believed that abusing substances can block or interrupt the natural energy flow within our bodies, creating imbalance. By unblocking the energy and reinitiating its natural flow, we may facilitate the healing processes, resolve discomfort and foster the well-being of our residents.
An acupuncturist will first perform a thorough assessment which will dictate his or her treatment plan. Acupuncture uses specialized, hair-thin needles that are placed lightly into the skin in distinct locations on the resident’s body. Acupuncture in general is not a painful therapy.
Acupuncture has shown promising results in areas related to addiction such as:
- Reducing anxiety
- Improving sleep
- Easing withdrawal
- Relaxation
- Easing pain
- Decreasing nausea
- Relieving constipation and bloating
- Stabilizing emotional balance
At AToN Center we have highly educated and qualified acupuncturists who will assess our resident’s symptoms and will customize this therapy accordingly. At AToN we have acupuncture available as a vital integrative modality to help residents sustain wellness and sobriety.
The hypnotherapist at AToN Center’s holistic drug treatment center specializes in helping individuals overcome addictive behaviors. He also has sub-specialties in stress-related problems and pain management. Our hypnotherapist assists each client in learning how to achieve a state of peace by guiding them into it. Once this state has been achieved, the client then receives what are called hypnotic suggestions. These suggestions will enable the client to use the power of hypnosis in their life regularly.
The close relationship between the mind and body is well known. This connection is a philosophy reflected by many cultures around the world. The Mind-Body connection has been associated with depression, anxiety, chronic pain, cardiovascular conditions, substance abuse and other physical and mental ailments.
AToN Center takes advantage of this Mind-Body connection. Prior to entering treatment, many of our residents have neglected their mental, emotional and physical health. AToN Center offers several holistic services in an effort to promote wellness.
Personal Training allows our residents to work individually with our personal trainer in order to incorporate fitness and exercise into their recovery plan. AToN takes into account that each of our residents have unique needs and requirements regarding exercise, and often would benefit from an individualized format. A group circuit is also offered on the weekends.
Watsu is a gentle form of body therapy performed in a warm pool with the water heated to close to body temperature. It combines elements of massage, joint mobilization, shiatsu, and muscle stretching. The receiver is continuously supported while being floated, cradled, rocked, and stretched.
The deeply relaxing effects of warm water and nurturing support, combined with Watsu’s movements, offer a range of therapeutic benefits and are potentially healing on many levels. Watsu brings moments of stillness that alternate with rhythmical flowing movements that can free the body in ways impossible on land. The warm water relaxes the muscles and supports the spine – with this support, and without the weight of the body, the spine, joints, and muscles can be manipulated and freed in a way unique to water work. The effects include a release of tension along with a state of deep relaxation.
Find Your Path to Wellness with AToN Center
For those struggling with substance abuse, finding an excellent treatment center is the first step on the road to recovery. Finding a recovery center that provides medically assisted detox and an effective recovery program is important.
AToN Center in San Diego, California offers its residents high-quality, individualized care in a beautiful, luxurious environment. Each resident is invited to take a retreat to find their path to wellness.
AToN Center is on a private ten-acre sanctuary surrounded by trees and waterfalls. On-site chefs prepare healthy, delicious meals. Every home has a jacuzzi and pool, along with lush gardens. Each room is lovingly appointed as a “sacred space” where residents can enjoy privacy, relaxation, comfort, and quiet.
Each house is limited to a maximum of six residents. Group therapy sessions are comprised of only individuals who share a home. This ensures small group sizes and nourishes a sense of community.
Skilled counselors employ evidence-based modalities. These include cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and mindfulness-based approaches.
AToN Center provides the perfect balance of conventional and holistic healing modalities for those ready to enter the path of recovery.
Questions or comments? Please contact us to learn more about our program and how we can help.