One of our community’s greatest challenges is helping those of us suffering with substance use conditions such as drug and/or alcohol use or dependency. Many of those we love are additionally struggling with mental health issues, which occur simultaneously for these individuals. Chrysalis Health is committed to providing an empathic, compassionate, and integrated approach to helping them make healthy, positive changes and improve their lives.

At Chrysalis, we use evidenced-based, best practice treatment models to help people make changes in problematic behavior. Chrysalis is committed to guiding individuals to become prepared, determined, and successful throughout the predictable, yet difficult, path and process of change.

Substance Use Services

What we do.

Our substance use programs provide comprehensive services to children, adolescents, adults and families. After thorough assessment to determine treatment needs, an individualized treatment plan is developed. Our therapists and counselors provide individual, group, and/or family counseling based upon the inidividual’s needs and the program in which they are participating.

Chrysalis Health has developed an integrated and compassionate approach to substance use counseling, which includes a focus on the stages of change, relapse prevention planning, information and education, life skills development, and building social support systems. Our comprehensive services also include psychiatric evaluation and treatment, if needed, crisis intervention, and learning to access community resources. Whether through our outpatient or more intensive day programs, Chrysalis Health is here to help those struggling with the often complex problems brought on by substance use.

Substance use disorders are serious diseases that affect your brain and behavior

When you are addicted to drugs, you cannot resist the urge to use them, no matter how much harm the drugs may cause.  Some people think drug addiction is only about “hard drugs” like heroin, cocaine, or other illegal drugs.  But you can also get addicted to alcohol, nicotine, painkillers, and even some legal substances.  Furthermore, battling substance use disorders is not simply about gaining better self-control.

At first, you may start taking drugs or drinking alcohol because you like the way it makes you feel.
You might also use substances to help manage symptoms of mental illness, such as anxiety or depression.  You may think you can control how much and how often you use it. But over time, drugs change how your brain works. These physical changes can last a long time. They make you lose self-control and can lead you to destructive behaviors.  The substance use continues, even if you want to stop using and see the damage you are causing yourself and others.

Certain risk factors may increase someone's likelihood of using substances such as a family history of a chaotic home environment, ineffective parenting, lack of nurturing and parental attachment, or parental drug use or addiction. Other risk factors for substance use include a childhood history of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a history of anxiety or other mood disorders, and behavioral problems. Factors related to a child's socialization outside the family may also increase the risk of drug use, including inappropriately aggressive or shy behavior in the classroom, poor social coping skills, poor school performance, and association with a delinquent peer group or isolating oneself from peers altogether.

Drugs and alcohol can have a negative impact on the growing adolescent brain, especially one that is already affected by childhood trauma.
Adolescent substance use is a major public health concern. Unfortunately, community-based education that is designed to demonize drugs can often have the opposite result—causing drugs to appear more enticing to the risk-taking nature of teenagers or making adults feel like failures for not being able to stop using.  Such tactics often lead people to avoid seeking help for their substance use.  Instead, all research points to the fact that substance use disorders are a chronic, relapsing, brain disease.  So, having realistic, practical goals for treatment is important.

At Chrysalis Health, we are dedicated to helping individuals heal from substance use.

We provide accurate, age-appropriate information concerning drugs and alcohol to each individual suffering from addictions.  For pre-teens and teens, we work to normalize healthy curiosity, risk-taking behaviors and the natural adolescent desire to become more independent of their caretakers. We provide a formal assessment that includes a look at risk and protective factors within the context of each individual’s use. This helps each client understand their use on a continuum of severity from non-use to dependent use.

We also combine the latest science and research with practical experiences and insights gained over decades of work with individuals of all ages who abuse substances. Most importantly, we endorse a basic philosophy that promotes safety first while encouraging each client to remain drug and alcohol free.