What are Christian Addiction Treatment Centers?

Christian drug rehab programs function similarly to Christian alcohol recovery programs: They integrate the person’s faith into the treatment process to give them the best chance of rehabilitation.

Some rehab centers are secular in nature but offer Christian addiction treatment by utilizing something called RCBT: Religiously Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.[12] This uses many of the same tools, principles, and styles of CBT but instead uses a client’s religious tradition as the foundation to replace negative thought patterns or unwanted behaviors.

Christian drug rehab programs function similarly to Christian alcohol recovery programs: They integrate the person’s faith into the treatment process to give them the best chance of rehabilitation.

Some rehab centers are secular in nature but offer Christian addiction treatment by utilizing something called RCBT: Religiously Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.[12] This uses many of the same tools, principles, and styles of CBT but instead uses a client’s religious tradition as the foundation to replace negative thought patterns or unwanted behaviors.

The major tools of RCBT include[13]:

• Restoration of the mind
• Reciting and memorizing Scripture
• Meditative prayer
• Challenging unwanted thoughts using scripture or traditions
• Practicing gratitude, hope, mercy, and forgiveness
• Consistent involvement in a local church

Other rehab centers are Christian by their very nature and offer Christian-based recovery programs alongside more traditional therapeutic programs like MAT and CBT. While they function similarly to RCBT, an addiction program from an explicitly Christian rehab center will emphasize a strong role-model relationship between the therapist and client.[14]

Benefits of Choosing a Christian Rehab Center

Integrating faith into an addiction treatment plan is powerful if the client believes it will prove effective and makes small daily strides toward sobriety.

Even a secular person needs to believe in the governing conceptions of secular psychotherapy for it to be successful. For programs like CBT to be effective, a secular person with an addiction must believe in the efficacy of practices like collaborative style, clear agenda-setting, frequent client feedback solicitation, active listening, empathic communication, Socratic questioning, guided discovery of knowledge, and the importance of completing homework assignments to change unwanted thought patterns and behaviors.[15]

Conversely, suppose a Christian with an addiction believes in the efficacy of practices like reading the Bible, meditative prayer, vulnerable disclosure, and embodied community alongside the theological realities of renewal and restoration. In that case, faith-based therapy in a Christian Rehab Center will be effective.

Christian patients also appreciate not having their spiritual practices get ridiculed, opposed, or dismissed. In one study, when Christian former clients were surveyed about the quality of the secular care they received, they reported dissatisfaction when their spiritual beliefs were opposed or simply avoided by the therapist.[16]

National Christian 12-Step Programs

Christian 12-step recovery programs utilize the 12-step structure invented by Alcoholics Anonymous in the 1930’s. However, while 12-step AA defines itself as “spiritual” rather than “religious”, Christian 12-step is explicitly religious in nature.

Christian 12-Step

This non-profit faith ministry is a Bible-based recovery program that takes place in the context of small groups which meet around the United States. While it does use the famous 12 steps of AA, it uses explicit Scriptural justification for each one.

Check out the group directory to see if there is a small group which meets near you.

Celebrate Recovery

Hosted by over 35,000 churches since its inception in 1991, this Christian 12-step program has graduated millions of people from its program, and many of them are still living out their long-term sobriety. It’s currently the most widespread of any Christian 12-step program.

To find a local “Celebrate Recovery” ministry, search their group/state rep locator.

Re:Generation

Characterizing itself as a Biblical discipleship program, this Christian 12-step program exists in over half of all US states (most prominently in Texas), and it incorporates Scripture as a foundation for each of the12 steps of addiction recovery.

It’s easy to find support groups near you by using their group locator.