In treatment of bipolar disorder and other mental health concerns, short episodes of medical stabilization are not enough to recover from debilitating symptoms. For long-term bipolar disorder, highly qualified Clinical or counseling psychologist and Doctoral level clinicians has proved to be the standard in achieving lasting recovery. With the right help, anyone can lead a healthy, active and involved life.
What is Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar disorder is characterized by dramatic mood swings that alternate from depressive lows to manic highs. People diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder I experience manic episodes marked by elevated mood, excessive excitement, and disruptive behavior. People diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder II experience mood swings and depression, but don’t experience manic episodes.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for bipolar disorder
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a versatile psychotherapeutic technique that is useful in treating a variety of mental health issues, including bipolar disorder and the co-occurring disorders associated with a dual diagnosis. CBT is an umbrella term for an approach that is based on the idea that thoughts are the root of behavior and emotions; in other words, your mind holds the power and responsibility for what you do and feel.
Through CBT, you can learn change that thinking. Clients are taught rational self-counseling and coping skills to help them learn how to think differently and achieve specific behavioral goals. CBT is a very popular and successful therapy because it encourages problem-solving and addressing each client’s specific issues like bipolar disorder, major depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD etc.
Another thing that makes CBT highly effective is that it yields quick results. Some clients feel better in as few as eight to twelve sessions, making it a perfect therapy for the restricted time frame of treatment. CBT can help individuals with bipolar disorder become aware of their moods and irrational thoughts, making participation in treatment and sticking to their medicinal regimen more likely. For bipolar disorder, CBT is one of a number of scientifically supported psychotherapy options.
Psychodrama for bipolar disorder
Psychodrama is one of the many alternative therapies for bipolar disorder. Psychodrama is a therapy that uses acting and role-playing to work through issues. Clients, with the help of therapeutic actors and a psychodrama specialist, are given creative license and a free range to express their problems and complex emotions.
Psychodrama is a method that is helpful in both the diagnosis and healing process. Because acting is a flexible medium, it can examine memories and troubles from any and every point of view, making it an indirect method of revelation and reflection.
Using dramatic techniques to unveil and explore the psyche is an alternative strategy that engages clients in ways that differ from traditional psychotherapy. The fluid aspect of improvisation and performance is cathartic and makes for a rewarding experience for both the person acting and their audience of peers.
Psychodrama lets clients get out of their head and rely on creative spontaneity to articulate their experiences and emotions on their own terms through imagination. They are empowered to express themselves as they see fit in a setting that’s safe and supportive. Psychodrama also promotes healing in a relatively short time span, which makes it a great therapy for clients with Bipolar disorder.
Yoga for bipolar disorder
Yoga is a popular meditative exercise that successfully addresses both physical and mental health through concentrated breathing and stretching. Though there are several forms and intensities, yoga universally promotes an inner connectedness and sense of peace through controlled movement, which helps clients relax in body and mind. Yoga therapy has been proven effective for an array of ailments, including bipolar symptoms and addiction.
Regular yoga practice is scientifically shown to:
- Alleviate physical aches and pains
- Ease the emotional symptoms of depression and anxiety
- Lower blood pressure
For the bipolar disorder, yoga therapy is led by a Yoga Instructor, who is also a certified Ayurvedic (alternative medicine) practitioner who specializes in mental health and addiction treatment. Yoga improves overall mental health by giving clients a sense of control over the overwhelming emotions associated with bipolar disorder.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy for bipolar disorder
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a psychotherapeutic technique created by Marsha Linehan, which addresses a client’s mental health from two opposing directions—
- The first from self-acceptance and
- The second from a point of change.
The idea behind DBT is that you must accept yourself, but still understand that change is necessary and good for you. For people with bipolar disorder, DBT teaches them that there is more than one viewpoint and that a middle path of thinking, mood, and behavior is attainable.
DBT encourages clients to question their thoughts without invalidating their experiences. It acknowledges distorted thinking as true because the client thinks it, but simultaneously challenges whether the thoughts are appropriate to the situation that’s causing intense reactions and emotions.
The goal is to remove the tendency to view life as black and white. This shift in thinking can be particularly effective for treating those with bipolar disorder in terms of mood episodes, life experiences, and issues as simple as refusing medication.
By receiving DBT, those who are struggling with their disorder can learn to view mood stabilizers differently by recognizing the ways it helps their symptoms or the fact that there are multiple medications to try that may work better than those in the past. Meanwhile, therapists instill coping behaviors and flexible thinking that help clients manage distress and regulate their emotions.
DBT is particularly effective for bipolar disorder and dual diagnosis clients because it gently challenges their complicated emotional experiences without discounting it through heavy criticism, which often makes them resistant to therapy.
Overall, DBT increases skillful coping behaviors and validates experience through empathy, which allows clients to be receptive to suggestions of alternative thinking.
Holistic Therapies for bipolar disorder
Our holistic therapies are carefully selected to meet the specific needs of clients in recovery. For bipolar therapy, treatment is not limited to the office or talk-therapy. Professional psychologist integrates yoga, tai chi, acupuncture, sweat lodge therapy, art therapy in an effort to diversify treatment and meet each client’s personal needs during rehabilitation.
Holistic therapies encourage growth in a way that traditional addiction treatment programs cannot. By individualizing treatment, each client gets the opportunity to work with their therapist to customize their therapy program.
Professional psychologists also advocate dynamic programming, so as clients improve and their needs evolve, their therapy options evolve as well. These scientifically supported holistic therapies give clients the opportunity to learn various methods for copying, processing, and self-regulating their emotions, which are essential skills to recovery.
All the while, highly qualified therapists work with clients to monitor their moods, evaluate the progress, and guide through treatment as seamlessly as possible. Between individual, group, and supplemental therapy, clients gain constant support and experiences during treatment that eases their journey to recovery and makes the transition to life post-treatment as seamless as possible.
Dual-diagnosis patients have all aspects of their addiction and co-concurring issues considered before having received a customized treatment plan developed and tailored for their individual needs. This specialized attention increases the potential effectiveness of all our programs and services, including individual and group talk therapy sessions.
As talk therapy can aid in the management of common mood disorders that occur alongside severe addictions, laying the foundation for effective communication is a major goal of the staff at bipolar disorder. With this help, clients are able to take part in the honest dialogue with professionals guiding talk therapy but, more importantly, with themselves, as they traverse the road to recovery.
Experiential Therapy for bipolar disorder
For bipolar disorder, therapists create a therapeutic alliance with clients to discover their positive intentions and personal resources. For example, a client’s stubbornness is viewed as a way to commit to sobriety one day at a time.
Experiential Therapy blends therapies: Gestalt therapy, family therapy with role-playing and outdoor therapy. Research demonstrates that Experiential Therapy is effective in treating depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, substance abuse disorders, and eating disorders.
Experiential Therapy Activities for bipolar disorder
In bipolar disorder, therapeutic activities include meditation on the beach, hiking, snowboarding, whale watching, and other life-enhancing experiences. The outdoors and physical activity have a transformative presence that is central to Experiential Therapy.
Activities can be used to re-experience an old event in which the accompanying emotions were not expressed at the time. The festering emotional pain is no longer repressed and clients are allowed to heal. The re-experience can be an opportunity for a client to feel those feelings at the moment, work through them, and defuse them once and for all.
At bipolar disorder, therapy deals with feelings such as anger, inadequacy, jealousy, loss, grief, and shame. In therapy, clients are able to let the pain go, and relief begins. Experiential Therapy also takes into account the feelings that are unfamiliar and often scary, feelings of contentment, hope, trust, excitement, and gratitude.
The relationships of a peer group, bipolar disorder are important to in Experiential Therapy. In a cohesive group, clients participate and attend more fully, more openly, and there exists a strong pressure towards conformity (alignment to purpose), enabling participants to make changes even when frightening emotions are experienced.
During and after the activity, clients process the experience so that learning transfers from a specific experience to other life experiences. This learning deals with feelings such as anger, inadequacy, jealousy, loss, grief, and shame. Later, during individual therapy, clients are able to let go of the pain, and relief begins. Activities also explore positive feelings of contentment, hope, trust, excitement, and gratitude.
The process of Experiential Therapy can be a fascinating journey. Where other attempts to recover have failed, where there is resistance to treatment and denial of illness, the therapeutic alliance available at bipolar disorder center can succeed.
The therapist-client relationship is honest and open, creating and/or restoring a positive emotional climate in the family. Free from unresolved emotions around relationships, the client is finally able to live in the present. The goal is to build up feelings of love, hope, serenity, and joy.
Bio-Sound Healing Therapy for bipolar disorder
For bipolar disorder-Sound Healing, therapy is a unique option for bipolar, substance abuse and mental health treatment. In a special room, clients lay on a vibration memory foam platform that helps them attain a theta level meditative condition from beginning to end a particularly synchronized audio-visual program. Theta level meditation is a deep healing state. This is helpful for making capable of:
- Daydreaming
- Learning
- Emotional surges
- Self-reprogramming
- Spiritual experiences and
- Creativity
This program can be a series from low rate tones and music to themed guides with:
- Guided Imagery and Affirmations
- Music and Massage Therapy
- Craving Assistance
- Chakra Alignment
- Solfeggio Meditations: musical tone meditation similar to the Solfeggio melodic scale
- Drum Therapy
- Four, One-Hour Mindfulness DVDs: “Gratitude”, “Health,” “Abundance,” & “Freedom”
- Five “Inspirational Videos”
- Sleep Music
- Nature Sounds
Clients lounge on the comfortable platform to experience the benefits of their respective Bio-Sound healing program, which combines meditation and biofeedback to relieve stress, curb cravings, and in some cases modify behavior. Client’s heart rate variability is monitored through a finger pulse sensor to regulate heart rhythm and assist in meditation as they work through traumatic memories, strong emotions, or lingering cravings.
This combination of biofeedback and guided meditation is based on extensive scientific research on the psychophysiology of stress. Bio-Sound healing therapy is shown to improve an individual’s overall health, relationships, and quality of life.
Bio-Sound healing therapy is typically employed over 1-4 sessions, which can vary in length from 30 min to 140 min, depending on the program and the client’s individual progress. This professional programming makes it the best treatment opportunity for those in healing.
Tai Chi for bipolar disorder
Tai Chi is a low-impact East Asian martial art (originally designed for defense training) that is practiced around the globe for its gentle exercise and numerous health benefits. As with yoga, regular practice of Tai Chi soothes bipolar symptoms and contributes to a sense of centeredness and stability through physical engagement. Tai Chi is considered a meditative exercise, which contributes to this feeling.
Scientifically-proven benefits of Tai Chi include:
- Reduced stress
- Reduced anxiety
- Less mood-disturbance
- Increased self-esteem
- Lowered blood pressure
- Improved cardiovascular (heart) health
- Improved flexibility
- More positive mood
Studies indicate that implementing Tai Chi as a “reflective and meditative practice” treatment for manic depression contributes to overall wellness.
Sweat Lodge for bipolar disorder
Individuals with bipolar disorder sometimes suffer from rapid cycling of mania and depression, which can leave the body drained and exhausted. Symptoms of this stress and other bad habits associated with manic moods, like overdrinking, substance abuse, overeating, excessive activities, and lack of sleep, take a big toll both mentally and physically.
After working out or doing something physical, sitting in a hot sauna or taking a warm shower often feels refreshing, because our bodies release built-up impurities in our sweat and the heat helps us relax our minds and bodies. Similarly, using a “Sweat Lodge” to exude a “good sweat” can alleviate many of the physical and psychological symptoms of bipolar disorder.
There are many health benefits to participating in a Sweat Lodge, such as:
- Stress release
- Easing aches and pains associated with injuries, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, neuralgia, tendonitis, and cancer pain
- Improved conditions for those suffering from ailments including migraines, high blood pressure, and autoimmune disorders (i.e. rheumatoid arthritis and lupus)
- Sense-driven awareness and inner peace
Given that individuals struggling with bipolar disorder are exposed to high levels of stress, the contemplative and tranquil atmosphere in a sweat lodge provides a healthy outlet to release their physical and emotional tension. For some clients, this intense relaxation also helps them anchor themselves psychologically, so in times of need, they can return to the peaceful feeling of centeredness they achieved at the sweat lodge.
Acupuncture for bipolar disorder
Acupuncture is an alternative form of therapy with roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine that has been scientifically proven to alleviate bipolar, depression and anxiety symptoms, as well as ease the emotional and physical symptoms of trauma and other mental health issues.
Thought Field Therapy (TFT), which is a needleless form of acupuncture that directly addresses emotional distress. Professional psychologist seeks to lessen the symptoms of bipolar, depression and anxiety any way possible, and for many, acupuncture does just that.
Studies have shown that acupuncture encourages the release of “happy” neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine, which in turn helps curb the brains release of the destructive “stress” hormone cortisol. Clients become happy through acupuncture as an effective therapy option for bipolar disorder and dual-diagnosis clients.