Services
Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention
Now Being Offered at the Temenos Center
Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) is an eight-week series of two-hour sessions, teaching a mind-body approach developed by Dr. G. Alan Marlatt specifically for people recovering from alcohol and drug addictions. MBRP combines research-supported and clinically-proven methods combining Relapse Prevention Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which is the work of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine at the U. Massachusetts Medical School. The goal is to teach mind-body methods that support sobriety and prevent relapse. A recent outcome study funded by NIDA has shown that MBRP is an evidence-based approach.
MBRP is a structured series of sessions with specific content (this is not process-oriented, open-ended group therapy); each session teaches mindfulness meditation, yoga breathing, and cognitive-behavioral relapse prevention strategies. A particular additional emphasis of ours is to teach yoga breathing techniques that quickly and reliably allow one to access a calm body and quiet mind.
Why mindfulness?
Mindfulness meditation has been shown to decrease physical and psychological symptoms, improve self-esteem, and increase the ability to cope with stressful situations. In studies at the U. Mass Medical Center, of persons completing the MBSR program, 94% reported they now know how to take better care of themselves, and 93% said they were better able to handle stressful situations. Thus, it addresses some of the most common vulnerabilities to relapse: problems with self-esteem, self-care, emotion regulation, and stress coping. The regular practice of mindfulness supports acceptance and discerning wisdom, the very qualities we ask for in the “Serenity Prayer”. The focus of mindfulness-based therapy is teaching clients how to make a simple yet radical shift in their relationship to the thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations that contribute to relapse. This shift entails fostering a “decentered” relationship to experience, in which negative thoughts or feelings can be viewed as events in the mind, rather than as parts of the self, or as necessarily true. Mindfulness can be defined as a state of mind which entails full awareness, of the present moment, with acceptance.
Relapse Prevention Therapy
Each session also includes Relapse Prevention Therapy, a cognitive-behavioral approach that focuses on skills training for successful change in dealing with urges, cravings, and internal and external triggers. External triggers can often be simply avoided once they are identified, but internal triggers, such as negative mood states must be coped with as they arise, since they can’t simply be escaped. RPT teaches skills for dealing with both, and mindfulness itself is an effective coping strategy for coping with internal triggers.
In-session Practice
Each session will include actual practice with mindfulness meditation and yoga breathing under the guidance of the group leaders who will lead, coach and support your practice. Mindfulness will change your experience and relationship to your mind, and yoga breathing will bring about rapid and reliable, positive and health-supporting changes in your body. Both will support your sobriety. You can have a serene and enjoyable sobriety, rather than a “white-knuckle” abstinence. Participants will be expected to practice the skills at home between sessions, and will be given instructional CD’s to support their home practice.
MBRP Facilitator
Frank J. Schwoeri Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist who also is certified in the treatment of substance use disorders by the APA College of Professional Psychology. He is in private practice at the Temenos Center in Moorestown, NJ, a group practice specializing in the treatment of addictions and eating disorders. A large part of Dr. Schwoeri’s practice is providing Recovery-oriented Psychotherapy, a specialized individual therapy for people in recovery. He has been involved in the treatment of addictions for over thirty years. He received his PhD in 1981 from Bryn Mawr, and did postdoctoral training with the Philadelphia Academy of Psychoanalysis and at the Washington School of Psychiatry. Dr. Schwoeri has been the Clinical Director of outpatient treatment programs, and co-led the inpatient dual diagnosis addictions unit at Hampton Hospital in NJ, where he was also the director of the Department of Psychology. He has also been on the full-time clinical faculty at Hahnemann University and The Medical College of Pennsylvania; while at Hahnemann he received the Belmont Award as Outstanding Teacher of the Year in the Department of Psychiatry, and has also taught at Swarthmore College and Bryn Mawr College. Dr. Schwoeri continues to provide consultation and supervision to mental health professionals, and provides individual, group, and couples therapy at his practice in Moorestown.
Location: The Temenos Center, 720 East Main Street, Suite 1A, Moorestown NJ 08057
Cost: $600 for the eight 2-hour sessions
Time: Mondays, 6-8 PM
For Information about Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention Please Call Dr. Frank Schwoeri at 856-722-9352. Also ask for information about Recovery-Oriented Psychotherapy, a specialized individual therapy for people in recovery.
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