The Benefits of Mental Health and Regulating Your Emotions – Outpatient mental health services
March is Self-Harm Awareness Month. We are taking this chance to speak to our outstanding mental health department, focusing on our treatment plans to regulate emotions and other unique offerings throughout the Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations programs.
Follow along with us each month as we highlight topics within the Healing Lodge departments and bring to light some of the ways our residents and their families have utilized healing tools.
First, let us briefly mention the history and mission statement of the Healing Lodge as a whole.
What does the Healing Lodge believe?
The Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations is a Native American youth residential treatment facility that provides a safe and caring healing environment for all adolescents, and their families, in need. Our wellness program is grounded daily in balanced traditional, cultural, and spiritual values and practices. These values and practices foster respect, honesty, generosity, strong cultural identification, and hope for positive life changes. The Healing Lodge treatment program integrates traditional, spiritual, and cultural values with chemical dependency counseling to create a holistic healing approach.
How was the Healing Lodge founded?
The history of The Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations begins in 1986 when The Confederated Tribe of the Colville Reservation, The Spokane Tribe of Indians, The Kalispel Tribe of Indians, The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, The Coeur d’Alene Tribe of Indians, The Nez Perce Tribe, and The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla (the “Seven Nations”) banded together to talk about creating a chemical dependency treatment solution for youth.
Because we are focused on optimal healing for residents and their families, we aim to provide a sanctuary for those seeking help to receive tools that they can utilize for years to come.
We sat down with Jamie Rosteck, a Mental Health Counselor of our Outpatient Mental Health Services department, to dive deeper into the facility’s day-to-day.
Rosteck states, “Over the course of 90-120 days, we may provide the residents with hundreds of tools they can use to regulate their emotions or to find inner peace in chaotic situations. Even if they use just a few of those tools throughout their time outside of the lodge, we hope they will achieve the life balance they need.”
What makes the Mental Health department at the Healing Lodge unique?
At the Healing Lodge, individual counseling sessions are entirely led based on the needs of the resident. While the group sessions are a required segment of the lodge treatment plan, individual and family sessions are up to the resident’s choice.
These sessions allow the resident to find a safe space to play, laugh, cry, heal, talk, or simply be. “The counselors have no agenda going into the individual sessions other than to create a place of peace and safety,” states Rosteck, “we tackle negative self-talk with education on how to re-train thought patterns of the brain. We focus on positive psychology and mindfulness when getting to the root of the behavior. We believe that substance abuse disorders and mental health go hand-in-hand, and we take care to provide resources to tackle these with a wrap-around approach.”
The counselors and advisors on staff meet to gather information on each resident to know how to offer the individual tools and treatments. Each resident is unique, and we work hard to create an environment where the residents feel they are important and their needs are not to be ashamed of.
Rosteck accounts on the all-encompassing process to educate the young residents on a balanced lifestyle; “Nourishing your body can look like a lot of different ways such as finding those internal motivations. Family, nutrition, a healthy amount of sleep – it’s all balance. We also have a Chef and P.E. professional on staff, and we educate the residents on vitamins and information and how certain vitamins relate to mental health.”
The Healing Lodge utilizes a fully integrated treatment plan to offer our residents the best possible outcome for future successes, “We work with therapy tactics such as EMDR, DBT, IMR management, and others to best assess behavioral conditions or responses from traumatic experiences” states Rosteck.
What is one of the biggest myths some may think about this type of treatment facility?
“One of the main myths is that we will force a patient to talk or further, that we will tell the patient’s families everything they tell us, counselors. The fact is, mentally healthy people are healthy by choice. We will never force you to talk or tell us anything about your trauma or life experiences. There are often ways of healing we can access without saying any words at all. Sometimes mental health is listening to music or simply getting into a safe space to just be. We can offer that.”
The mental health department is just as concerned with the healing that will occur within the center as we are with the healing that will take place back in the residents’ homes and daily lives. Rosteck and the other counselors always determine a plan for post Healing Lodge living; “Do they have the support available to them? The families are amazing resources to step in and provide more daily help to the child. Before they leave the center, we come up with a plan for Telehealth.”
What does aftercare look like at the Healing Lodge?
Rosteck accounts for addressing the individual’s needs in care and determining the best next steps for success, “We meet people where they are at. What are their goals for staying out of treatment? We aim to get you to a place where you can manage your emotions; when you can identify triggers and utilize coping skills no matter what your surroundings may throw your way.”
Our aftercare program follows up with the child up to a year or so after they leave. We work hard to set up services in their area and ensure the child has someone to lean on if they need assistance, such as simple advice, college applications, GED assistance, and resources relevant to their area of living.
“The child is in the driver’s seat on how successful they want to be. We will match the child’s effort and provide the necessary tools for living the life they have worked hard to lead. Aftercare is working behind the scenes to make sure the kid is not left behind or falling between the cracks,” states Rosteck.
Who does the Healing Lodge serve?
“Although The Healing Lodge primarily serves Washington, Oregon, and Idaho residents, our program is available for all tribal and non-tribal youth in need.”
We serve both male and female youth populations all over the country, ages 13-18, and their families.
We work with the families to provide a team effort outcome that the child can rely on. Our main goal is to find healing for the entire family, and we offer support to the family with trusted resources as needed.
“We understand there are a lot of moving parts, and we don’t blame anyone for their struggles. We do want to see healthy relationships formed between the child and their family, and we will work hard to meet the family where they are at and offer help to the resident in the best way that we can.” – Jamie Rosteck.
If you would like more information on the application process or have a general question, we would love to connect with you.
Please find our contact page here.
