ClickNation

I had a chance on Friday to spend the day in a therapeutic community for substance abusers as part of my training. It was an intriguing experience. The idea was that we (8 counselors) would come in as new residents, participate in a meeting, work on a crew, observe an encounter session. I was assigned to a cleaning crew. I learned that I am not very good at the string mop, but got better. My vacuuming was fine.

It was all unnatural, of course, because the residents knew we were leaving at the end of the day. Also, we all had adequate ego strength, drug-free systems, etc. which are likely not the norm among most first day residents.

NIDA has a 2002 report on therapeutic communities, their structure and efficacy.