Therapeutic Community experiences

[Epicene]

Hi all

I've just been accepted into a TC run my my local PD service. Its being run as a one day a week model, which is obviously different from residential ones. I'm super excited because the group looks really supportive and from the information meeting it looks so different from any intervention I've tried before.

I was curious about others' experiences and what enabled you to get the most out of it (or any challenges)?

Thanks.

[sherlock holmes]

My only experience was a residential style TC so not sure how comparible it will be.

The main thing I took away was that I needed to challenge myself and be challenged by others to recover. If I didn't want to recover then there was no point half heatedly being there (which in the end was my ultimate struggle, I was ambivalent about recovery at the time).

The best bit about a TC is having the opportunity to help each other out, challenge each other, encourage each other etc and I found the staff are much more involved as it's a community.

[finding.my.wings]

I think the thing with therapeutic communities is that everyones experience is different and you'll hear good and bad eperiences.
Are you considering going? or have you been put on a wait-list?
i guess the best thing for you to do is think about what you want to gain if u were to go?
are you willing to live-in for quite awhile and work really hard?
are you willing to give up your current life (daily activites like seeing friends etc) and go somewhere to get better or do you want to stay living in the communtiy and do it that way?

[sherlock holmes]

J said that it's a one day a week service, not residential ^