We offer a range of services to tackle recovery from substance dependencies, primarily alcohol or drugs. Each aspect of our service is integrated to complement another aspect and forms part of a Healthy Lifestyle Plan, which is carefully designed to guide you through your individual process of recovery from intervention to after-care. The Healthy Lifestyle Plan will incorporate the five key areas of our Well-being DNA approach as part of our exclusive and tailored service.
Our team doesn’t just work with the individuals directly affected by substance misuse, but also with family members, partners and loved ones as part of the healing process.
Our commitment to our clients:
A detailed view of our services that we draw from to create our tailored programmes:
(Click a service link below to go straight to that section or scroll through the page to view all our services.)
Consultation
Phoenix Guardians has a firm belief that each person has a valuable story and that story is unique to him or her. This is where we begin.
This is the initial process that enables team members from Phoenix Guardians to gain a historical overview of the circumstances surrounding the individual’s dependency. It is the first, valuable step towards addressing a client’s struggles with substance misuse. The consultation process also allows us to understand a client’s personal needs – as identified by themselves, or in many cases by their immediate family and loved ones. Here we begin by creating a personalised client profile and by assessing suitable methods of engagement.
Intervention
“Intervention is a loving act that asks friends and family to demonstrate integrity and honour by making the hard decision to do what is right, not what is easy”.
– Jeff & Debra Jay 2008
The intervention process is there to aid the dependent person into essential treatment services, primarily detox and/or a rehabilitation facility.
Not all situations require an intervention process, as some dependent individuals seek support autonomously.
However, at times it can be of paramount importance for an intervention process to be applied by the family and loved ones if a person has become unhealthily dependent and blinded to the impact substances are having on their world. In this scenario, family and loved ones are often the first to make contact with Phoenix Guardians, when the dependent individual will not seek help themselves.
At Phoenix Guardians we understand taking those first tentative steps towards recovery can be difficult. This is why we pay special attention to providing the family and loved ones with a well-structured and carefully guided intervention process, communicating clearly and frequently at all times. We will navigate you through the process, stage by stage, and manage any complexities that arise, from accessing detox and or treatment facilities, engaging a sober coach and or psychologist or doctor where needed.
Alongside our expert guidance through the intervention process we will address your questions, allay your fears and explain the reasons behind the dependent individual’s behaviour and why they are unable to, at that moment, take back control from something which is sabotaging them and those they love and care about.
Interim support is also available for the family: Whilst the dependent individual is in a treatment centre we can also work closely to support family members and significant others in understanding their own needs. Helping them implement positive behavioural change towards their loved one’s dependency and its impact on the family structure.
Travel Companion Service
This part of the recovery process is often too easily underestimated by family members and loved ones.
Our expertise in this field teaches us that well-meaning family members and close friends often jeopardise this necessary therapeutic process by insisting on accompanying their loved ones to and from a treatment facility. Unfortunately, a lack of therapeutic knowledge here can undermine, or even damage, their recovery. Ultimately, this can result in prolonging the individual’s dependency in the longer term.
At Phoenix Guardians we understand the vital importance of accompanying the dependent person both to and from treatment, whether in the UK or globally. This is why we identify and match an appropriate Sober Coach from our staff team who is qualified to accompanying the dependent individual to the treatment facility.
The accompaniment process enables the sober coach, as someone outside the family dynamic, to immediately begin establishing a therapeutic relationship to engage rapport and trust. The Sober Coach at this point begins to break down existing and unconscious behavioural responses that are crucial in establishing accountability in the individual. The healing work truly begins here.
We advise individuals to discuss any concerns they may have in relation to any aspect of the travel companion process prior to travelling.
Bespoke Support & Continued Aftercare
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
– Vivian Greene
Often individuals ask –‘What does healthy recovery look like?’ ‘What happens AFTER I have detoxed and/or attended a rehabilitation facility?’ ‘Why do I need aftercare and support?’
Our experience at Phoenix Guardians of what does and doesn’t work with dependent individuals is informed by our clients’ feedback and wellbeing and our professional expertise, and is also supported by a growing body of scientific evidence (see how research informs our work). Our methods are endorsed by our successes in having provided individualised and ongoing support during, and immediately after, treatment (see our testimonials). Such support brings about stability and increased resilience and longevity of sobriety for the individual on their road to recovery. We believe that our personalised and specific after care support programme can reduce, and even eradicate, the chance of relapse.
At Phoenix Guardians we also understand that relapse may be a part of the process for some dependent individuals. We know that recovery can be full of pitfalls. Our attitude to relapse is that it is not a failure, but rather a valuable opportunity to learn how to achieve future success by paying attention to what hasn’t worked. We are committed to working with our clients through the highs and the lows of the recovery journey.
This is why we are devoted to our bespoke support and continued aftercare provision, as we believe having a constant source of support is critical to successful recovery. Our clients inform us that our expertise and continued professionalism in this area is second to none, offering a unique service and support structure that goes beyond what many other service-providers offer.
Our Aftercare and Support Provision consists of two key service areas – sober coaching and counselling or therapy.
Sober Coaching
Our Sober Coaches offer guidance and companionship to individuals going through the process of substance recovery. The Sober Coaches are a key part of a consistent team approach and the aftercare support plan. Whether the individual is at an early stage of intervention or aiming to navigate life after detox or attending a treatment facility, our coaches empower the individual to implement positive change in their day-to-day life from the moment they are engaged.
As part of our tailored approach, coaching can be flexible. It may encompass just a few days a week, eight hours a day for seven days a week, or even 24-7 support is available, depending on the individual’s specific requirements at the time. For example, our senior Sober Coach was engaged during a home-detox phase in another country. Here the Sober Coach worked closely as part of a team that included a doctor, counsellor and case manager to home-detox the client and provide 24/7 support for a consecutive 10-day period during this critical time. The coach was later engaged to work on the client’s lifestyle plan as part of our aftercare and support.
A Coach will assist individuals to identify potential challenges and triggers before they arise. They will bring accountability and work to empower clients to identify realistic goals and to help implement the created Healthy Lifestyle Plan towards achieving a rewarding sober lifestyle.
Many of our Sober Coaches are Certified Life Coaches and are often recovered addicts themselves with multiple years of sobriety. Our team are skilled communicators and provide companionship and practical guidance to the client in a one-on-one setting anywhere in the world, helping to empower the client to improve their life decisions.
It is important to know that our coaches do not act as an individual’s therapist. Where mental health issues or past trauma is present we have experienced therapists in our team who can engage with clients to address these therapeutic considerations. A Coach’s focus is purely solution-based, focusing on the individual’s strengths, goals, objectives, and the choices they make and most importantly the actions they take on a day-by-day basis.
Counselling & Therapy
As an integral part of our continued aftercare support, we recognise that a holistic approach is required to achieve long lasting success. We therefore provide counselling and/or therapy in the form of individual counselling, couple counselling, family therapy, or psychotherapy, depending on the client’s needs.
We appreciate that the complexity of each client’s personal schedule needs to be balanced against the importance of maintaining consistency for therapeutic value. Bearing this in mind, we therefore also offer sessions face-to-face, via Skype or phone.
We believe counselling and therapy is an important element of a successful recovery. The personalised combination of therapy alongside Sober Coaching is a powerful mix that tackles the issues behind the substance dependency.
Issues that can be addressed through counselling and therapy:
Lifestyle Coaching
In working holistically we address all aspects of an individual’s recovery, not just stopping after the acute needs have been met. Phoenix Guardians will work with the individual to assess and create a new lifestyle without alcohol and/or drugs by incorporating the use of our Well-being DNA approach.
Our qualified Life Coaches will consult around present lifestyle factors and those wishing to be gained. They can offer ad-hoc support or structured support assisting with maintaining and achieving healthy boundaries.
They will work closely with recovering dependent individuals who are post-treatment and managing themselves well, but would like that extra support from time to time.
Health & Wellbeing Retreat Programmes
We are excited to offer bespoke health and wellbeing retreat programmes solely created for an individual and their specific needs. These unique programmes are created by Phoenix Guardians’ experienced team and aimed specifically at addressing the missing aspects of an individual’s ongoing therapeutic journey of recovery and reconnection.
The Health & Well Being Retreat will allow the individual a chance to achieve full reconnection to themselves, their environment, and importantly to others, as we know that substance disorders can ruin an individual’s attempt to live a real, autonomous, connected and rewarding life. Thereby the bespoke programme will redress highlighted discrepancies and or dysfunctions that would have been created in the dependent individual’s life during the period of their dependency.
Our experienced team of Facilitators, Counsellors and Sober Coaches can build a programme to include one to one, and/or group sessions to address the specific health and wellbeing needs of the recovering individual – thus creating a unique experience of recovery to help the individual to realign once again to themselves their feelings, aspirations, hopes, desires and intuition, learning to trust themselves again, and importantly to reconnect on an authentic level to their family, loved ones or friends.
More detail about this service can be provided on request.