In the therapeutic community (TC), program stages are prescribed points of expected change. Individual status can be described in terms of typical profiles at various points in the plan of the program. This chapter provides a description of the program stages as the main structural component of the TC model, specifically designed to facilitate the change process. In traditional long-term residential TCs, there are three main program stages, induction, primary treatment, and re-entry, consisting of several phases or substages. These stages are described in terms of main goals, stage-specific activities, and typical outcomes. Individuals who complete all stages of the planned duration of treatment are candidates for program graduation. Aftercare plans are a special activity of the late re-entry phase of the program. Each stage-phase marks signify where individuals are in their socialization and psychological growth.

Residents in the therapeutic community (TC) engage in a variety of interpersonal roles and relationships both within and outside of the program. Friendships and attachments, romantic or sexual, “naturally” emerge within the peer community and are profoundly affected by the insistent intimacy of the TC community life. This chapter examines how these interpersonal relationships are utilized to transmit community teachings on right living and recovery. The poor quality of past friendships and romantic attachments has been implicated in the drug problems of substance abusers in general. Among residents in TCs, the relationship problems that most commonly surface are related to sexuality, interpersonal fears, and lack of relationship skills and values. Of special importance to the individual and the community, however, are three main types of relationships: sexual relationships, romantic relationships, and friendships. Contemporary TCs have changed their tolerance levels toward greater acceptance of homosexuality.

In the therapeutic community (TC), the therapeutic and educational component that focuses specifically on the individual consists of the various forms of group process. The groups that are TC-oriented, such as encounters, probes, and marathons, retain distinctive self-help elements of the TC approach. This chapter provides an overview of general elements and forms of group process in the TC. Conventional psychotherapy and group therapy have not been particularly effective with substance abusers entering TCs for various reasons. Group tools are certain strategies of verbal and nonverbal interchange that are employed by participants to facilitate individual change in group process. There are two main classes of group process strategies: provocative tools and evocative tools. Provocative tools, hostility or anger, engrossment, and ridicule or humor, are most pointedly used to penetrate denial and break down deviant coping strategies such as lying.

A theoretical framework of the therapeutic community (TC) grounded in clinical and research experience can maintain the unique identity of the TC and the fidelity of its wider applications. This chapter illustrates several broad initiatives: generic TC model, general guidelines for adapting and modifying the TC for special settings, special populations, and funding limits; the codification of principles and practices of the TC into explicit standards to maintain the integrity of the program model and method, training and technical assistance, and research agenda. Staffing compositions have changed to reflect a mix of traditional professionals; correctional, mental health, medical, educational, family, and child care specialists; social workers; and case managers to serve along with the experientially trained TC professionals. The evolution of the contemporary TC for addictions over the past 30 years may be characterized as a movement from the marginal to the mainstream of substance abuse treatment and human services.

Privileges and sanctions constitute an interrelated system of community and clinical management through behavioral training. The management of the community is the responsibility of peers and staff. This chapter details the formal system of community privileges and sanctions prescribed by staff and the informal system of verbal affirmations and correctives implemented primarily by peers. Privileges are used to promote individual socialization and personal growth. It confirms the resident’s overall personal autonomy and ability for self-management. Money is a major problem in the lives of substance abusers. However, money difficulties also reflect social and psychological problems among substance abusers in therapeutic communities (TCs). Sanctions may be grouped into verbal correctives and disciplinary actions. Sanctions promote community awareness and peer self-management and maintain social order through addressing individual and collective infractions. Sexuality is approached differently from the other rule-governed behaviors in the TC.

As components of the therapeutic community (TC) treatment model, the stages define the program’s plan for moving individuals toward the goals of social and psychological change. This chapter describes the process of change in the TC in terms of participation and levels of involvement. It focuses on participation and community as method through the program stages. The chapter outlines some relations between the social and psychological dimensions of individual change and the community expectations for participation. It also describes the process of multidimensional change through treatment in terms of levels of involvement in the community. Participation and involvement link community as method to the individual in the change process. The terms engagement, immersion, and emergence label the individual’s level of involvement in the community. Perceptions related to self and identity are incremental through the levels of involvement.

Work is one of the most distinctive components of the therapeutic community (TC) treatment model. Indeed, the telling mark of the TC social environment is the vibrancy of its work activities. Work in the TC is a fundamental activity used to mediate socialization, self-help recovery, and right living. This chapter describes how work mediates essential educational, therapeutic, and community goals. For disadvantaged, antisocial, or nonhabilitated substance abusers, many of whom have few work skills, social identity and self-esteem are first acquired through participation in the work structure of the TC. Work in the TC addresses characteristics of the person and the disorder. These characteristics can be classified into related categories: personal habits, work habits, work relations, self-management, and work value. Job functions are utilized in three main ways: for skills training and education, for therapeutic change, and to enhance the peer community.

In the therapeutic community (TC), peers are the primary change agents. In their varied social roles and interpersonal relationships, residents are the mediators of the socialization and therapeutic process. This chapter details how peer roles and relationships are utilized by the community to facilitate the goals of socialization and psychological change. The socialization history of serious substance abusers is marked by negative peer influences. Functional roles in the TC are those involving performance demands, prescribed skills and attitudes, and defined relationships with others. Three prominent community member roles are peers as managers, as siblings, and as role models. A defining element of the TC model is the use of peer roles for social learning. The chapter describes how the various community and functional roles in the social organizations are utilized by peers to change themselves and others and how socially conditioned race-ethnic and gender roles and issues are addressed.

In the therapeutic community (TC) perspective, changing the whole person unfolds in the continual interaction between the individual and the community. This chapter provides the multidimensional picture of social and psychological change in terms of behaviors, cognitions, and emotions. Four major dimensions reflect the community’s objective view of individual change. The dimensions of community member and socialization refer to the social development of the individual specifically as a member of the TC community and generally as a prosocial participant in the larger society. The developmental and psychological dimensions refer to the evolution of the individual as a unique person, in terms of personal growth, personality, and psychological function. Each illustrates typical indicators of individual change in terms of objective behaviors, cognitions, and emotions. Changing the “whole person”, however, includes how individuals perceive and experience the program, the treatment, and themselves in the process.

At the core of the change process in the therapeutic community (TC) is the relationship between the individual and the community. Internalization is a familiar psychodynamic concept connoting learning that involves “taking in” the behavior and teachings of others. In the TC, internalization is evident when new learning becomes a “natural” part of the individual’s repertoire. In the TC internalization is inferred from patterns of behavioral, experiential, and perceptual change occurring over time. These may be described in terms of several broad characteristics: cognitive dissonance and behavioral conflict, generalization, learning to learn, and confirmatory experiences. The course of internalization can be characterized as a gradient that depicts changing levels or stages of internalization. Four stages refer to changes during treatment, compliance, conformity, commitment to program, and commitment to self. A change in identity is the distinctive marker of the integration stage.