Building Skills For Recovery in Atlanta

At Empowered Recovery Center in Atlanta, we offer a wide range of recovery skills-building workshops during your treatment experience. These activities can provide tools to guide you forward throughout the stages of healing. While your exact schedule and recovery skills sessions can vary depending on your preferences and daily routine, you can expect to have access to the following addiction skills-building sessions.

Life Skills Building During Recovery

Life skills are necessary capabilities for positive, appropriate behaviors that help you face the demands and challenges of daily life effectively.2 These skills, including decision-making skills, are fundamental in various social contexts for fostering resilience, personal development, conflict resolution, and more.2 While they’re important at any stage of life, life skills in addiction recovery can be crucial for creating stability and beginning again.3

As you unlearn harmful behaviors and adopt a life without substances, these tools can help you stay on track in your journey. Here are some topics our life skills in recovery sessions cover:

• Money management
• Budgeting
• Resume writing
• Healthy eating
• Grocery shopping
• Activities of daily living (ADLs)
• Building support
• Making friends
• Finding hobbies

Relapse Prevention Skills Building

Relapse prevention is the process of recognizing triggers and building healthy coping skills in recovery to change negative patterns and sustain healing.4 Developing these early recovery skills can help you build a solid foundation and reduce the likelihood of returning to substance use when challenges arise.4

We work with you to create your own personalized relapse prevention plan. Your plan will include a range of strategies, such as avoiding high-risk situations, building supportive connections, and developing effective coping skills. Here are some relapse prevention skills we help with:

• Recognizing and managing triggers
• Emotional regulation
• Building a strong support network
• Healthy coping strategies
• Practicing gratitude and reflection

Team Building Recovery Skills

Team-building skills can help you connect with others, rebuild trust, and foster vital social skills for lasting recovery. You’ll have the opportunity to develop and practice these skills in different contexts, including recovery groups, at home with family, and in the workplace. We help you develop team-building recovery skills, like:

• Working together: Focusing on restoring social skills and trust through collaborative activities, like group sessions and peer support.
• Communication skills in recovery: You can learn how to communicate effectively by participating in group sessions and sharing your experiences.
• Conflict resolution: As you interact in team-building activities, you’ll work through disagreements in real time and practice healthy ways to manage them.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Skills

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an intervention that helps you recognize, avoid, and cope with situations where you’re most likely to use substances.5 This problem-oriented approach helps you gain control of stressful emotions and thoughts that lead you to want to take drugs.5

It also strengthens your commitment to sobriety when met with cues like people, places, things, and emotions that might otherwise trigger a return to use.5 Here are some challenges our dedicated team helps you gain the tools to address:

• Negative core beliefs: Identifying and changing negative thoughts about yourself that shape your life experiences.6
• Thought reframing: Shifting your perspective to view thoughts in a less negative light.7
• Cognitive restructuring: Identifying, evaluating, and changing inaccurate beliefs.8
• Cognitive distortions: Recognizing and addressing internal biases that can increase negative thoughts and feelings about yourself.9
• Perfectionism: Addressing self-worth based on striving, despite adverse emotional or mental health consequences.10

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) aims to help you build a healthy, positive life. This therapy teaches you how to imagine, express, pursue, and sustain goals despite having a history of challenging behaviors.11 DBT emphasizes building a meaningful life and positively handling life’s ordinary and difficult problems.11 At Empowered Recovery Center in Atlanta, you can gain DBT skills for recovery, including:

• Distress tolerance: Improving in managing emotional distress without resorting to impulsive behaviors.12
• Emotion regulation: Developing an adaptive ability that affects your physical and mental health, quality of life, and functioning.13
• Interpersonal effectiveness: Tools for positively setting boundaries, communicating needs, and navigating conflict.14
• Mindfulness: A key component of change, with an emphasis on awareness and acceptance.15

Seeking Safety Recovery Skills

Seeking Safety is a popular cognitive‐behavioral therapy used to treat co-occurring post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction.16 Struggling with a mental health disorder and substance abuse at the same time is very common.17 Experts recommend an integrated approach to address both illnesses together.17

Seeking Safety is important for recovery because it emphasizes coping skills, teaching you how to deal with trauma and addiction simultaneously without resorting to substance use.16 Here are some of the topics you can cover in Seeking Safety16:

• Safety
• PTSD: Taking Back Your Power
• Asking for Help
• Discovery
• Taking Good Care of Yourself
• Respecting Your Time
• Self‐Nurturing

Other Holistic Recovery Skills

Holistic therapy focuses on addressing the whole person through healing activities with attention to physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual wellness.18 With an emphasis on self-care, these practices can help you find balance in your recovery journey:

• Yoga and flexibility: Involves gentle movement combined with mindful attention to your body, breath, and energy.19
• Sound immersion: Using sound to induce deep relaxation and improve your sense of well-being.20
• Breathwork: Guided breathing exercises that can promote stress and anxiety reduction.21
• Meditation: Intentionally engaging your mind by bringing an increased awareness to thoughts and feelings.22

Building skills for recovery, communication, and life is crucial for your journey. Gaining these tools can help you create an independent, fulfilling life and progress in recovery. Here are some of the benefits of addiction treatment and recovery skills building:

• An easier transition to independence3
• Better coping skills when dealing with triggers1,4
• Improved relationships with family, friends, and other support systems14,18
• Improved physical and mental health18
• Reduced risk of overdose and drug-related diseases
• Improved emotional and psychological well-being18

Starting recovery can welcome opportunities for ongoing support and tools to stay focused on your journey. We offer a variety of treatment options at Empowered Recovery Center in Atlanta, including partial hospitalization programs (PHPs), intensive outpatient programs (IOPs), and standard outpatient care. You can access opportunities to participate in various skills workshops throughout your time in care at any level of addiction treatment.

Our admissions team is here to offer guidance and help with any questions about going to rehab. We’ll work with you to find an appropriate program for your unique situation. We can also help you explore your options for covering the cost of rehab, including using insurance for treatment. Contact Empowered Recovery Center in Atlanta to verify your insurance coverage online and embark on your healing journey.

References

1. Setiawan, A., Sahar, J., Santoso, B., Mansyur, M., & Syamsir, S. (2024). Coping Mechanisms Utilized by Individuals With Drug Addiction in Overcoming Challenges During the Recovery Process: A Qualitative Meta-synthesis. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://www.jpmph.org/journal/view.php?doi=10.3961%2Fjpmph.24.042&
2. Torres, D., Romero, A., & Fuentes-Ramírez, A. (2025). Life skills that promote school health in adolescents: a concept analysis. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12502442/
3. Abdelmouttelb, A., Elewa, S., Abdelsalhen, F. (2026). Life-skills training program: its effect on self-efficacy among patients with substance use disorders. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40359-025-03907-2
4. Melemis, S. (2015). Relapse Prevention and the Five Rules of Recovery. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4553654/
5. National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2025). Treatment. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/treatment#psychotherapy
6. Otani, K., Suzuki, A., Matsumoto, Y., & Shirata, T. (2017). Relationship of negative and positive core beliefs about the self with dysfunctional attitudes in three aspects of life. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5648313/
7. Catanzano, T., Azizaddini, S., Clayton, Jane. (2023). Framed and Reframed! The Art of Using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques to Combat Burnout. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0363018822001098
8. Ezawa, I., Hollon, S. (2023). Cognitive restructuring and psychotherapy outcome: A meta-analytic review. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10440210/
9. Harvard Health Publishing. (2022). How to recognize and tame your cognitive distortions. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-recognize-and-tame-your-cognitive-distortions-202205042738
10. Shafran, R., Egan, S., & Wade, T. (2023). Coming of age: A reflection of the first 21 years of cognitive behaviour therapy for perfectionism. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005796723000074?__cf_chl_tk=Eoby_OGcv_jYXMFaAWv0tt.Pq2ORTKl6lMU73gck_qc-1774977839-1.0.1.1-R2FoEYG2wZ5nohVqWeo8F2Vcup1P7.IUWPYjAFTIDa0
11. Dimeff, L., & Linehan, M. (2008). Dialectical behavior therapy for substance abusers. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2797106/#:~:text=Abstract,build%20a%20life%20worth%20living.
12. Zeifman, R., Boritz, T., Barnhart, R., et al. (2020). The independent roles of mindfulness and distress tolerance in treatment outcomes in dialectical behavior therapy skills training. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31647267/
13. Kozubal, M., Szuster, A., & Wielgopolan, A. (2023). Emotional regulation strategies in daily life: the intensity of emotions and regulation choice. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10460911/
14. Wu, S., Liu, S., & Wu, Y. (2023). The efficacy of applying the Interpersonal Effectiveness skills of dialectical behavior therapy into communication skills workshop for clinical nurses. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10015201/
15. Eeles, J., & Walker, D. (2022). Mindfulness as taught in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy: A scoping review. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10084181/
16. Sherman, A., Balthazar, M., Zhang, W., et al. (2023). Seeking safety intervention for comorbid post-traumatic stress and substance use disorder: A meta-analysis. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10175993/
17. National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2024). Co-Occurring Disorders and Health Conditions. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/co-occurring-disorders-health-conditions
18. Folgueiras-Vila, A., Martorell-Poveda, M., Del Señor Sesmilo-Martínez, M. et al. (2025). Self-Care in Addiction Recovery: A Scoping Review. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12409770/#inm70124-sec-0021
19. Woodyard, C. (2011). Exploring the therapeutic effects of yoga and its ability to increase quality of life. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3193654/
20. Goldsby, T., Goldsby, M., McWalters, M., & Mills, P. (2017). Effects of Singing Bowl Sound Meditation on Mood, Tension, and Well-being: An Observational Study. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5871151/
21. Bentley, T., D’Andrea-Penna, G., Rakic, M., et al. (2023). Breathing Practices for Stress and Anxiety Reduction: Conceptual Framework of Implementation Guidelines Based on a Systematic Review of the Published Literature. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10741869/
22. Basso, J., McHale, A., Ende, V., et al. (2019). Brief, daily meditation enhances attention, memory, mood, and emotional regulation in non-experienced meditators. Retrieved on March 31, 2026, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016643281830322X