Evidenced-Based Treatment

Most people do not come to us with just one problem.

A person may begin using alcohol to quiet anxiety that has gone untreated for years. Another may rely on stimulants to counter depression, exhaustion, or emotional numbness. Someone else may use opioids to manage trauma-related hyperarousal, insomnia, or chronic emotional pain. 

Over time, substance use alters the brain’s stress and reward systems, making emotional regulation and decision-making more difficult. This results in a swirling, downward spiral in which addiction and mental health symptoms feed on each other to undermine health.

Depression, anxiety, trauma-related conditions, mood instability, and chronic stress commonly accompany addiction and significantly influence relapse risk. Mental health symptom, left untreated, makes a person vulnerable. A person may stop using substances while still struggling with panic, emotional overwhelm, hopelessness, impulsivity, isolation, or unresolved trauma. Without addressing those underlying drivers, the likelihood of relapse skyrockets.

Addiction and mental health conditions must be treated together. Effective treatment requires helping patients strengthen the behavioral and emotional capacities that support long-term recovery.

We deliver care aligned with established clinical standards, including the American Society of Addiction Medicine Criteria, trauma-informed treatment principles, and evidence-based psychotherapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Motivational Interviewing.

These therapies are not used in isolation. They are integrated into our Progressive Behavior Scale (PBS), a clinical framework that organizes treatment around seven core recovery behaviors associated with stabilization, psychosocial development, and relapse prevention:

• Honesty and Transparency

• Emotional Regulation

• Boundaries

• Stress Management

• Intrinsic Motivation

• Situational Awareness for Relapse Prevention

• Recovery Community

The Progressive Behavior Scale helps translate complex clinical concepts into observable recovery behaviors that patients can understand, practice, and strengthen over time.

For example, CBT interventions may help a patient identify distorted thinking patterns that undermine honesty, increase impulsivity, or fuel relapse-oriented thinking. DBT skills helps patients improve emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and honor interpersonal boundaries. Motivational Interviewing helps patients strengthen intrinsic motivation and move through ambivalence toward meaningful behavioral change.

We weave trauma-informed treatment principles throughout this process. Many individuals entering treatment have histories of chronic stress, instability, grief, neglect, violence, or relational trauma. Those experiences shape nervous system functioning in ways that affect trust, emotional regulation, impulsivity, conflict management, and relapse vulnerability.

Behaviors often labeled as “resistance” or “noncompliance” are almost always better understood as manifestations of stress activation, learned survival responses, or maladaptive coping skills. Effective clinicians  recognize these dynamics while still maintaining accountability, structure, and clear behavioral expectations.

We help patients develop the emotional, cognitive, relational, and behavioral capacities necessary to sustain change over time. Recovery endures when patients learn to regulate stress, communicate honestly, maintain healthy boundaries, tolerate emotional discomfort, build meaningful support systems, and recognize relapse risk before it escalates into crisis.

Addiction affects far more than substance use alone. It impacts neurobiology, emotional functioning, relationships, decision-making, physical health, and social stability. Sustainable recovery therefore requires integrated, evidence-based care that addresses the whole person.

ARS maintains a clinically rigorous, trauma-informed, whole-person approach to treatment. We combine evidence-based therapies with a quality of support that helps our patients break free from the burden of substance use and that equips to build a more hopeful future.