Your AA Alternative.
Muscala Chemical Health Clinic is an alternative to AA that is based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
The Clinic is based on the notion of ‘Individualized Recovery/Chemical Health’ thru study and application of materials which are ‘The Best of The AA Alternatives’. Participants are introduced to the basics of Muscala Chemical Health, Smart Recovery, Rational Recovery, Women/Men For Sobriety, Dr. Stanton Peele’s Life Process Program, Prochaska’s Change Techniques and books by Tom Horvath, Jeffrey Schaler, Anne Fletcher and Joseph Volpicelli. Each participant is encouraged to do more in-depth study of the programs/study materials that are best suited to their personal needs and interests. Materials are incorporated in the treatment plans of Clinic clients. Members of the public (who are not Clinic clients) are also introduced to these approaches by attending any of three weekly group activities.
1. Develop a clear sense of your personal strengths, values, characteristics and self-worth so you can use these ‘resources’ in your efforts to defeat your problem(s)
2. Your priority is to increase and sustain the motivation to change; to reduce and eliminate your old/unhelpful chemical health and to increase/embrace a new/constructive/helpful chemical health
3. Believe in yourself and your ability to make for change.
4. Increase your skills and ability to handle thoughts/urges/cravings.
5. Improve your skills at handling pain, difficult emotions/feelings and achieving pleasurable states without chemical use.
6. Improve your lifestyle thru exercise, diet, recreation, self-care and use of leisure time.
7. Improve your ability to report lapses, prevent relapses and to recycle/renew efforts to change
8. Stay committed and consistent to your plans of chemical health even if you lapse or relapse. Persistence is the essential key to victory.
9. You are personally responsible for you own chemical health. Spouses and others are personally res...