Our Progress Based Approach: Measuring Growth in Treatment & Recovery

Progress-Based Milestones Guide Our Long-Term Treatment Program

Burning Tree Ranch has one unified goal amongst every team member: to help chronic relapsers create a life of excellence beyond sobriety.

We are dedicated to providing our clients with the tools, support, and environment to help our clients learn to live free of any future relapse.

As a specialty program dedicated to permanent, lifelong recovery, Burning Tree utilizes milestone-based metrics to track, analyze, and examine our clients’ progress during all 4 phases of treatment.

Moving Beyond Time-Based Measures to Realize True Growth

Traditional time-based measures, such as counting days, weeks, or months in treatment, are insufficient for gauging a client’s readiness for lifelong sobriety.

We recognize that chronic addiction develops over years, not days or months, and overcoming it requires a more comprehensive approach.

Many families who come to us have already realized that short-term fixes are ineffective. They are ready for real, tangible solutions and are willing to do something different to help their loved ones finally overcome addiction permanently.

Brook McKenzie, COO

“Our treatment is long-term because it is based on progress. We provide our clients the space and time to make full, permanent recoveries.”

Brook McKenzie, LCDC, COO

From Resistance to Willingness: The Importance of Honesty in the Recovery Journey

While other treatment centers track days, we track our clients’ resistance and willingness to become permanently sober. We correlate a client’s progress by measuring the varying degrees of willingness they demonstrate in pursuit of absolute freedom.

For the chronic relapser and their family, the consequences associated with addiction have grown more and more grave over time. As families become more honest about the need for a different approach, they also become more willing to embrace the change required to establish a foundation for lasting transformation.

When willingness is high, resistance is low.

Observing Progress Through Behavioral Changes

It is very easy for the chronic relapser to say they want to be sober. It is quite another to do all the things required to achieve it. That’s why we allow behavior to do the talking and not the words.

We seek to help our clients match the same passion they held for using and drinking with the intensity and fervor required for permanent sobriety. This is why we let behaviors indicate progress, not words. The chronic relapser may very much believe that they want a new life of sobriety, but only their actions will inform us of their progress towards that goal.

When our clients become more aware of how their behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes hinder their progress toward long-term sobriety, they develop honesty, integrity, and selflessness – key indicators of their readiness for aftercare and beyond.

Grain Silos at Burning Tree Ranch

Progress-Based Assessments: Tailoring Treatment to Individual Needs

Our motto is that we’d rather keep a client a day too long than one day too few.

Our clients undergo advanced psychological screenings, clinical evaluations, and medical assessments to determine their progress throughout treatment and aftercare.

Over time, as the chronic relapser deepens their relationship with honesty, they gradually begin to respond to life differently. A focus on self is replaced with a focus on others. They start to engage in a more altruistic view of life with their peers and family.

This is what progress at Burning Tree Ranch looks like.

Major Milestones of Treatment

The 4 Phases of Our Long-Term Treatment Program

The complete long-term treatment program at Burning Tree Ranch is broken up into four key phases. We start with full residential treatment before transitioning into aftercare and independent living. 

Phase 1

Intensive Residential Programming

Clients are immersed in our progress-based clinical environment’s structure, routine, and disciplines for chronic relapse. Everything in Phase 1 is designed to support the client in sobriety outside of treatment.

  • Location: Kaufman, TX
  • Emphasis: To establish the foundation for permanent recovery outside of treatment.
Phase 2

Supportive Residential Programming

Clients engage in a combination of continued residential treatment with overnight weekend passes to our aftercare programming & transitional living. This phase is designed to evaluate readiness for a full transition into aftercare.

  • Location: Kaufman & Dallas, TX
  • Emphasis: To establish the client’s preparedness to take on more responsibility in early sobriety.
Phase 3

Tailored Aftercare & Supportive Living

Clients reside in our gender-specific supportive housing while attending aftercare, gaining employment, continuing case management, participating in the AA community, making amends, and pursuing deeper engagements with the recovery community.

  • Location: Dallas, TX
  • Emphasis: For the client to become fully self-supporting while growing in sobriety, responsibility, & self awareness.
Phase 4

Tailored Aftercare & Independent Living

Clients become eligible for independent living with an approved sober peer while continuing their aftercare commitment, growing in their recovery disciplines, and maintaining consistent, self-supporting employment.

  • Location: Dallas, TX
  • Emphasis: Preparing for complete independence financially, emotionally, & spiritually.

The Journey Begins

Clients graduate the entire Burning Tree continuum of care with a strong foundation of sobriety, a comprehensive set of life skills, and a renewed purpose in life.

Comprehensive Addiction Medicine and Evidence-Based Therapies

At Burning Tree Ranch, we employ a wide range of evidence-based therapies to address addiction from multiple angles, promoting lasting recovery. 

These therapies contribute to our comprehensive treatment approach, helping clients develop the skills, insights, and resilience needed to maintain long-term sobriety.

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