Experiential therapy helps you develop and reinforce the skills you learn in clinical therapy through enriching practical activities.
At Cirque Lodge, our world-class treatment facilities offer a fantastic range of experiential activities. We provide a holistic healing experience where you can reconnect with your passions and rediscover your love for life.
One of our most impressive activities is our ropes course and climbing center. Our adventure ropes course is inside our state-of-the-art Studio facility and is in a 17,000ft ‘giant black box’ with 50ft ceilings. The course helps you step outside your comfort zone, overcome your fears, and learn to believe in yourself. You also develop important team-building skills and explore trust and communication with others.
“A group of peers pulls a resident up to probably about 60 feet. I saw a woman dealing with her fears.
We coached her; in her mind, she said, “I can do this. I can do this”. She got to the ground, and she was just all smiles and tears and laughter. She won that day.”
– Dave Beck, Experiential Director
The high ropes course consists of two large wooden tripods at each side of the room. A spectacular series of climbing apparatuses, beams, wires and swings connect one tripod to another. Below are several low ropes activities and team challenges to strengthen your problem solving and interpersonal skills.
The room also hosts an indoor archery range that we use in other experiential therapy sessions.
Our high ropes course has an incredible number of different elements. The main course is a series of thirty-nine climbing steps and challenges that take you from one giant tripod to the other. There is also a climbing wall, a zip line, and a giant swing.
Feelings of fear often underlie alcohol and drug addiction. We may turn to drugs to escape from something we are afraid of or because we are scared to face the world without it.
Our high ropes course helps you to challenge these fears. Climbing up a tripod and leaping from the top takes courage and bravery. You learn to believe in yourself and trust that you can overcome your fears without using drugs, and you realize that you have the strength to recover from addiction.
You will learn that you can rely on your recovery peers to keep you safe, understand how to communicate under pressure, and how to ask for help when you need it. This directly feeds into our 12-step ethos.
The low ropes course is a series of challenges to practice your cognitive thinking and problem-solving skills. The course contains various team-based activities made from logs, bricks, blocks of wood, ropes, and boards.
In an experiential session, a professional therapist will give you a problem for your team to work through using these items. Success requires effectively using your problem-solving skills while supporting one another.
Our low ropes course helps you learn about honest and effective communication, build trusting relationships with others, and develop your social skills, all of which are fundamental to the recovery process. They help you heal relationships damaged by your addiction and develop the strong networks of mutual support necessary to maintain sobriety.
Professional, certified therapists lead every session to maximize its therapeutic benefit, and they ensure you are safe and comfortable at all times.
With their guidance, we provide time for clients to process their experience at the beginning and end of each activity and discuss what they gained from the activity as a group. These learnings are things that you can take with you and apply to your recovery.
Having fun in sobriety is one of the most powerful relapse prevention tools.
Often, we turn to drugs and alcohol as a means of escape from negative feelings. Taking part in enriching and exciting activities helps you learn positive, healthy ways to enjoy a life free from addiction.
Recovery from addiction is not easy. It is a lifelong process that requires commitment and motivation. Our experiential activities help you to rediscover passions and find inspiration for the journey ahead.
Every person is different. We have different experiences, different strengths and weaknesses, and different ways of learning.
Some people learn best ‘by doing’. They learn through practical activities where they can experiment and apply different skills. Our high ropes course provides an environment where they can flourish.
We all thrive from variety. We have limits to our concentration and our ability to focus on one particular thing for any length of time. Experiential therapies like adventure therapy, equine-assisted therapy, and art therapy help you remain interested and engaged throughout the treatment program. It offers a break from clinical treatments and gives you space to have fun and relax as you heal.
Research has found that taking part in novel treatments leads to better satisfaction and makes you more likely to complete your treatment.
At Cirque Lodge, we offer experiential therapies alongside cognitive-behavioral therapies, support groups, family therapy, and dual diagnosis. The world-renowned 12-step method of Alcoholics Anonymous underpins our entire program. We work through the principles during individual therapy and explore them through experiential activities.
The breathtaking mountains surrounding the center provide the perfect place to recover and heal. We offer the highest levels of care from luxury facilities, and our enriching rehabilitation program offers a holistic healing experience where you can reconnect with your passions and rediscover yourself.
Our treatment program is individualized from beginning to end and begins with an in-depth assessment of the nature of your addiction and your unique needs. We identify any co-occurring disorders and other mental health issues that may underlie your addiction.
We partner you with a dedicated therapist who draws on their extensive knowledge and experience to design your treatment plan. Your therapist works with you throughout your stay, continually evaluating and adapting your program as you progress.
Recovery from addiction and substance abuse is a lifelong process. After you leave the treatment center, we provide you with a bespoke aftercare plan to guide you through the rest of the recovery journey.
We connect you with local and online support groups to offer continued support in the years ahead. If you wish, you can work with a mentor to help you transition back to everyday life. Through our alumni program, you can return to Cirque Lodge for reunions, retreats, and events to reconnect at the place you found sobriety.
