Women who seek help with their substance use disorders come from different backgrounds and have unique life experiences shaped by things like trauma, relationships, identity, and the particular ways substance abuse affects them.
The Women’s Program at All In Solutions is designed to provide women with the opportunity to heal on a personal level without reservations or shame. The program supports women on their journey to recovery by allowing them the time and space necessary to build a foundation that is truly their own.
What Is a Women’s Addiction Treatment Program?
A women’s addiction treatment program is a gender-specific treatment program for women that provides treatment based on how women develop addiction rather than how men do. The program delivers a variety of evidence-based approaches — including individual therapy, group therapy, dual diagnosis treatment, and trauma-informed care — to help women achieve recovery in a women-only setting that is built around an understanding of the specific circumstances, risk factors, and barriers that women face in dealing with addiction.
At All In Solutions, our women’s program is available across multiple levels of care, from medical detox and residential treatment through PHP and IOP. Every client receives an individualized treatment plan developed through a thorough clinical assessment that addresses not just the substance use disorder, but also any co-occurring mental health conditions, trauma history, and relational dynamics that may be present.
How Does Women’s Addiction Treatment Work?
Women-only addiction treatment programs work by addressing the specific challenges in recovery that women face, such as:
The Telescoping Effect
The telescoping effect is one of the most distinguished gender differences between men and women with substance use disorders.[1] A woman will progress from experimentation with substances to developing a substance use disorder much faster than a man and at lower levels of use, which will typically cause severe consequences more quickly.
A woman entering a substance use disorder treatment program may find that her clinical presentation is significantly more advanced than that of male counterparts who have been using substances for the same period of time. It is critical that treatment providers adjust their approach based upon the clinical differences associated with how quickly women develop a substance use disorder.
Trauma and Substance Use in Women
Trauma and substance abuse among women is more than a trend — it is a serious matter that should be addressed as such. According to national data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), women in substance abuse treatment experience trauma at much higher rates than men, particularly in relation to childhood trauma, interpersonal violence, and sexual violence.[2] Many women turn to substances as a means of coping with unaddressed trauma.
This is why a trauma-informed approach to care is essential. At All In Solutions, our women’s program is built on this approach. We work hard to structure our program to address the effects of trauma and to create safe, supportive, and empowering spaces for women to heal from addiction. Trauma-focused therapy is part of every personalized treatment plan developed for women whose addiction stems from trauma.
Mental Health, Body Image, and Self-Esteem
Co-occurring mental health disorders among women with substance abuse are more prevalent than those of men, and the degree to which mental wellness is intertwined with addiction can be much stronger.[3] Conditions such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders frequently present alongside alcohol and drug addiction, often preceded by untreated mental health symptoms that became long-term drivers of the substance use disorder.
How a woman’s body image and self-worth are impacted by both addiction and trauma — and by society — is seldom addressed in mixed-gender treatment. Women recovering from substance abuse often have to work through deeply ingrained beliefs related to their worthiness, their appearance, and their identity that are rooted in their addiction, their trauma, and in societal messages directed at women. The Women’s Program addresses these issues directly, not as secondary components, but as integral components of total recovery.
The Women’s Program at All In Solutions
For many women, co-ed treatment programs don’t always take into full account how trauma presents differently between men and women, nor do they go into the caregiving responsibilities many women left behind, or the shame that has been reinforced by years of hiding the problem from family, employers, and often themselves. But the women’s program at All In Solutions was built with those realities in mind, giving women room to do the difficult work of recovery surrounded by other women who are going through the same thing.
All In Solutions is a co-ed program where men and women participate in treatment together in the same clinical community, not a strictly gender-separated facility. But in addition to co-ed sessions, we also offer women-only groups and gender-specific programming where women can talk openly about experiences they may not feel comfortable bringing into a mixed setting, such as pregnancy and postpartum recovery, domestic violence, custody concerns, eating disorders that overlap with substance use, or the particular ways that trauma shows up for women in intimate relationships.
But though we are a co-ed program, housing is always separated by gender. Depending on which of our facilities your treatment is taking place in, women may live in a dedicated women’s building or in separate quarters within a shared facility.
We have found that combining gender-specific space with a co-ed clinical community gives women the best of both worlds — a place to be fully honest with other women, and practice reintegrating into the kind of environment most of them will return to after treatment.
Why Women Benefit From Gender-Specific Addiction Treatment
Women and men experience substance use disorder differently, and the treatment for substance use disorder should reflect those differences. Research consistently shows that women develop substance use disorders through distinct pathways, progress through addiction more rapidly than men once use begins, and face unique barriers to seeking and remaining in treatment.[4]
Women also are more likely to develop a substance use disorder after experiencing trauma, and are also likely to be dealing with relationship and mental health issues.[5] Many women suffer from co-occurring disorders like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders alongside their substance use. Trauma has been identified by SAMHSA as one of the top risk factors associated with developing substance use disorders in women and is typically connected to childhood trauma and domestic violence.[6]
Women may also face barriers in accessing substance use disorder treatment that men do not, such as the fear of losing custody of a child if they enter treatment, or the stigma associated with being a woman who has a substance use disorder.[7] Programs that have historically been available to women have often been designed for men and do not meet the specific needs of women.
Creating a women-only substance use disorder treatment program has been successful in changing the treatment dynamic from mixed-gender programs to targeted, woman-centered care — allowing for increased engagement and discussion related to substance use disorder in women.
Who Is the Women’s Program Right For?
The Women’s Program is for any adult female who is looking for a woman-centered treatment environment, whether just starting their recovery journey or at any stage of treatment. This is the right environment for women if they:
- Have an addiction related to trauma such as childhood abuse, sexual assault, or domestic violence.
- Have co-occurring mental health issues such as PTSD, depression, or bipolar disorder in addition to their substance use disorder.
- Have had difficulty being open or engaged in a mixed-gender treatment program.
- Are a mother, pregnant, or have caretaking responsibilities that have contributed to their substance use disorder.
- Are looking for any level of care, including detox, inpatient, intensive outpatient, or partial hospitalization, in a women-only setting.
If you would like to learn more about our women’s program and whether it would meet your unique needs, please reach out.
Find Out If Our Women’s Program Is Right for You
The Efficacy of Women’s Only Addiction Treatment
Gender-specific addiction treatment research continually supports women-only treatment environments. Researchers have found that women in gender-specific programs have greater comfort with sensitive topics such as trauma, self-esteem, and relationships, engage on a deeper level, and have comparable or improved treatment outcomes compared to mixed-gender programs.[8]
SAMHSA also recognizes gender-responsive treatment, which includes trauma, co-occurring disorders, and social context in women’s substance use treatment as a best practice in women’s substance abuse treatment. Studies show that women with substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health conditions experience improved treatment outcomes when care addresses trauma and gender-specific needs.[9]Trauma-informed care is important for women with trauma histories and is integrated into addiction treatment services. Data shows that individuals will have better outcomes across clinical, social, and relational measures when receiving integrated trauma and addiction treatment compared to treating each issue separately.[10]
