Why Choose Four Circles

Four Circles Recovery Center is a wilderness-based, licensed substance abuse treatment program that utilizes a powerful blend of services backed by research and proven effective in treating substance abuse and co-occurring disorders. Our management team is comprised of experienced, licensed clinicians with extensive professional and personal experience in substance abuse treatment and recovery. Through our dual use of traditional counseling and wilderness therapy, participants are encouraged to use our powerful therapeutic tools to explore their issues and begin a journey toward healthy self-expression.

The pristine wilderness of North Carolina allows you to connect with the most essential and basic elements of self – allowing you to rebuild your life through the transformational power of nature. Our hybrid model allows us to utilize wilderness therapy and, at the same time, teach essential daily living skills to help our client’s transition to their next phase of treatment.

We offer gender-specific treatment for young men and women, with separate programs designed to meet the specific needs of each gender. Our men’s program focuses on issues specific to men growing up in today’s world, with an emphasis on adventure and experiential learning. Our women’s program is tailored to address the issues facing young women in recovery in the comfort and safety of a nurturing, supportive environment. 

In our holistic approach to treatment, Four Circles helps participants achieve sustained recovery by focusing on the mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional spheres in your life (the four circles). To grow into a healthy, balanced individual, we believe you must simultaneously address all four circles.

MENTAL HEALTH

We address mental health issues using research-based clinical interventions that have proven effective with young adults recovering from substance abuse. We offer individual therapy, group therapy, educational groups on the disease of addiction, psycho-educational skill-building, family therapy, mindfulness/mediation training, 12-step meetings, journaling, art therapy, essential daily living skills, and reading.

PHYSICAL

As part of our holistic approach to substance abuse treatment, we make physical activity a highlight of the recovery process. As a wilderness-based program, we offer wilderness expeditions up to two weeks at a time. While hiking and camping, we will teach you how to live in the wilderness in comfort and safety. We use modern field gear including tents, backpacks, seasonally rated sleeping bags, and other gear that will keep you comfortable. Our approach to physical health and wellness includes hiking, camping, recreational sports, martial arts instruction, gardening, nutritional education, yoga, high and low ropes courses, and primitive wilderness skills. As part of our wilderness component, we follow and teach Leave No Trace (LNT) ethics.

SPIRITUAL

Spiritual growth plays an integral role in our program. Although we do not endorse any particular religion, we encourage each client to develop and enhance their own belief system. The wilderness is a wonderful environment to develop a spiritual center, as nature’s beauty is both awe-inspiring and humbling at the same time. Our spiritual component includes 12-step work, mediation/mindfulness, martial arts, wilderness expeditions, journaling, sweat lodge, vision quest, and rites of passage.

EMOTIONAL

Emotional balance and growth is an important factor in recovery. This includes working with co-occurring mental health issues in addition to chemical dependency issues. Our program is rich in metaphor, and we have a comprehensive recovery workbook designed to help clients gain insight into the recovery process. Based on individualized treatment plans, we offer individual and group therapy both at base and in the wilderness, as well as gender-specific treatment, journaling, family therapy, and extensive discharge planning.