Clinical Lead Reflection

A Reflection of You -

It makes sense that being in rehab feels difficult right now. The walls, the rules, the routines—these may echo earlier institutions where you felt powerless, misunderstood, or trapped. Your frustration is not just about this place; it is also about what those environments once meant for you. When you were there before, you didn’t have much choice, and so being here now may stir up the same feelings of not being in control. 
 

What’s important to notice, though, is that this place is not the same as those past institutions. The feelings that rise up are familiar, but the meaning can be different. Here, you are not being punished—you are choosing to face yourself, to give yourself a chance to heal. The very act of staying means you are exercising a kind of control that you may not have felt before: the choice to remain in a place that might help you rather than hurt you. 
 

In psychodynamic terms, what you are experiencing is a repetition: the past is alive in the present. But within repetition there is also the chance for something new. Rehab offers a safe setting where the old feelings of being powerless can be felt again—but this time, the outcome does not need to be the same. This time, you can use the environment to work through those feelings and see how they shift. 
 

Staying here may allow you to experience what real change feels like—not only in your habits but also in your emotional world. That means beginning to feel frustration, anger, even fear in a place that doesn’t punish you for having them, but instead encourages you to understand them. If you can stay long enough to notice the difference, rehab can become not another institution that takes away your control, but the first one that gives you back your choice to grow. 

by Clinical lead at a rehab