Shoreline Recovery Center encourages self-care practices from mindfulness to boundary setting and physical wellness.
Self-care is a concept that is essential for overall wellness. For most of us, it’s a proactive approach to ensuring we have the resources to navigate life’s challenges and maintain healthy relationships. But for those struggling with addiction, it plays a vital role in restoring purpose, confidence, and balance during the recovery process.
Individuals who become addicts are often predisposed to trauma, which creates a multitude of reasons to turn to drugs and alcohol to cope. Over time, many view themselves as worthless victims and develop a mentality of hopelessness.
Characteristics such as impulsivity, aggressiveness, depression and anxiety are all trauma responses that become part of this new personality. Developing self-compassion and confidence are typically at the top of their struggles.
“These symptoms increase one’s likelihood of engaging in self-destructive behavior, including more substance use,” said Shoreline Recovery Center Clinical Director Mike Gallagher.
The staff at Shoreline Recovery Center use several modalities with clients to help them understand and practice self-care. During weekly group counseling sessions, clients share prevention stories with each other as a way to connect and heal.
Throughout its curriculum and 1:1 therapy, staff teach the importance of sleep hygiene, diet, medication management, mediation and exercise. In addition, multiple groups throughout the week include mediation and mindfulness skills.
All curriculum groups and therapy sessions encourage open communication, self reflection, and weekly goal setting.
“In most cases, a client benefits greatly from having a full awareness and understanding of their current circumstances to accept their situation and to begin to change,” said Shoreline Recovery Center Therapist Max Kubota. “But it takes several weeks to begin helping clients switch their perspective.”
From mindfulness and healthy sleep routines to setting boundaries and reconnecting with creativity, self-care practices help those in recovery regulate stress, avoid relapse triggers, and rebuild a sense of identity beyond addiction.
“Recovery is not just about abstaining from substances—it’s about creating a life of sobriety that you don’t want to escape from,” Gallagher said.
Self-care strategies must be taught to clients in a way that is sustainable, while also practiced alongside professional treatment.
“Each therapist and counselor will teach client’s multiple different skills and self care methods to see which one the client relates to most or feels works best, then moving forward uses those specific techniques through the healing journey,” Kubota said. “We’ve noticed that body based self care like exercise comes a lot easier than mental self care for those early in recovery.”
What’s been proven time and again is that self-care is a foundational tool for long-term sobriety and mental health.
“Addiction often erodes a person’s sense of self-worth, and with it, the ability to practice self-care,” Kubota said. “Reintroducing self-care in a compassionate, practical way isn’t just helpful—it can be a life-saving step in the recovery journey.”
