Young men and women come to Four Circles Recovery Center dealing with co-occurring substance abuse and mental or emotional health problems. After an orientation and learning period spent in the recovery center, groups of men and women head off into the hills for wilderness adventures that form the core of the therapeutic curriculum. Brief return trips to the recovery center allow for family therapy over the phone, AA or NA meetings, aftercare planning – and necessities like laundry!

Located in the spectacular Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Four Circles Recovery Center is a proud member of the Aspen Education Group, which has been featured for its innovative wilderness therapeutic programs on Dr. Phil, CNN, Dateline NBC, in The New York Times and others.

The Four Elements of Four Circles Recovery

The Four Circles recovery program is based on goals of improvement in 4 key areas:

• Mental health
• Physical health
• Spiritual health
• Emotional health

Mental Health Therapies

• Individual therapy
• Group therapy
• Addiction topics workshops
• Meditation training
• 12 steps education
• Journaling
• Art therapy
• Living skills training
• others

Physical Health

• Hiking adventures that can last for as long as 2 weeks (all necessary equipment is supplied)
• Martial arts training
• Adventure ropes courses
• Yoga
• Gardening
• Sports
• Others

Spiritual Health

• 12 steps work
• Meditation exercises
• The power and beauty of the wilderness
• Journaling
• Sweat lodge therapy
• Martial arts training
• Visions quests and other rites of passage

Emotional Health

• Journal writing
• Family therapy

• Gender specific treatments

Wilderness Therapy and the 12 Steps

With expeditions that venture deep into the wild, for as long as 2 weeks at a time, men and women at Four Circles have ample opportunity for wilderness therapy.

At Four Circles, therapists/guides use nature and the experiences gained while providing for yourself and your team while in the natural world as teaching tools that create meaning to each of the 12 steps.

Learning through the majesty and scale of the natural world to accept the idea of something bigger than yourself, and through daily meditation and reflection time, learning rely on your personal "higher power" as a life-guide to your recovery process.

Through daily process groups while on the trail and in camp, each member of the group will have an opportunity to explore how the actions and thoughts of each day's challenging wilderness adventure fit into their spiritual recovery journey.

Men and women at Four Circles have an opportunity while living in the wild to move through the first 4 of the 12 steps, prepared for step 5 by the end and ready to admit to at least one other person the wrongs they have done. Some people choose to proceed to step 5 while in the wild, revealing to their group their past wrongs.

Why Gender Separated Programs?

Men and women face separate and unique challenges during the initial recovery process. Often, the life factors that cause chemical dependency in women vary greatly from the causes of substance abuse in men, and so groups benefit far more when gender separate and able to focus on more meaningful issues.