Trauma-Informed Care in Lawrence, KS
At Avalon Wellness & Recovery, we honor your unique journey with trauma-informed care that treats all clients with dignity and respect. Break the cycle of trauma and find lasting freedom from addiction today.
The Impact of Trauma on Long-Term Health Outcomes
Addiction
Unresolved trauma heightens addiction risk through altered reward pathways and emotional numbing, with studies linking adverse childhood experiences to 4-12 times increased rates of substance use. Trauma and addiction create cycles of self-medication, where trauma triggers cravings through the somatic memory and increases the risk of relapse.
Mental Illness
Trauma contributes to 100% of PTSD cases, over 50% of depression and anxiety cases, and co-occurs with 80% of other severe mental health diagnoses. Trauma reshapes brain structures such as the amygdala and hippocampus, increasing hypervigilance and stress. Long-term, it causes dissociation and emotional dysregulation, worsening outcomes without intervention.
Chronic Disease
Chronic trauma, especially from childhood, increases the stress hormone cortisol, causing inflammation that drives heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune conditions. Trauma survivors show 2-3 times higher rates of hypertension and obesity, and are at an increased risk of certain cancers as well.
What is Trauma-Informed Addiction Treatment?
Trauma-informed care (TIC) in addiction treatment is an approach that acknowledges the role and impact of trauma on one’s mental health, physical health, and addiction recovery journey. It shifts clinical providers’ focus from “what’s wrong with you?” to “what happened to you?”. Trauma-informed treatment centers understand how trauma can deeply impact one’s neurological, biological, psychological, and social functioning.
At Avalon Wellness & Recovery, programs are guided by the principles of trauma-informed care, and staff are dedicated to building a safe and empowering environment for you to heal.
Trauma-Informed Care Principles
Safety
Prioritizes a physically and emotionally secure environment to prevent re-traumatization, stabilizing the nervous system for effective therapy.
Trust
Builds reliable relationships through consistent, transparent support, fostering openness and a strong therapeutic alliance.
Empowerment
Designed to restore a sense of control in victims of trauma by validating their experiences or strengths, and offering choices in the treatment process.
Peer Support
Facilitates shared experiences in group settings, reducing isolation and normalizing recovery from trauma-addiction cycles.
Collaboration
Clients collaborate with their therapists and treatment teams based on respect and shared power, and the patient is viewed as the expert about their own experiences.
Cultural Sensitivity
Honors diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and identities by integrating culturally responsive practices into trauma-informed care, ensuring treatment respects individual values.
How Trauma-Informed Care Supports Addiction Recovery
Recognizes Role of Trauma
Trauma-informed care identifies how past adverse experiences, like childhood abuse or chronic stress, fuel addiction cycles by altering brain chemistry and emotional regulation. This understanding shifts treatment from blame to empathy.
Rewire Stress Responses
By using techniques like somatic experiencing and mindfulness, trauma-informed approaches help rewire the amygdala and HPA axis, reducing hyperarousal and fight-or-flight triggers that drive substance cravings.
Strengthens Self-Awareness
Therapies such as CBT and EMDR build mindfulness and body awareness, helping individuals recognize trauma triggers before they lead to addictive behaviors. This fosters emotional intelligence and breaks automatic patterns tied to unresolved pain.
Improves Dopamine Regulation
Trauma disrupts the brain’s reward system, leading to chemical imbalances that drive addiction. Trauma-informed care restores natural dopamine pathways through skill-building and safe relational experiences to support sustained sobriety.
Evidence-Based Therapies for Trauma Recovery
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
This uses bilateral brain stimulation via guided eye movements to process and rewire trauma memories stored in the amygdala and hippocampus. This evidence-based therapy, endorsed by the APA and WHO for PTSD, reduces the emotional charge of traumatic events without requiring detailed verbal recounting, minimizing re-traumatization risks.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) uses eye movements and imagery rescripting to rapidly reconsolidate trauma memories, often resolving PTSD symptoms in just a few sessions. For those in addiction treatment, ART breaks the trauma-craving cycle, restoring mental clarity and resilience without prolonged exposure to distress.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
DBT teaches mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness skills to manage intense trauma responses. Integrated into addiction programs, DBT equips clients with tools to handle cravings and emotional dysregulation, fostering stability and preventing relapse.
Cognitive Behavioral Trauma Therapy
Trauma-focused CBT identifies and restructures distorted thoughts stemming from trauma, using exposure and cognitive restructuring to reduce fear responses. Trauma-informed addiction care addresses co-occurring anxiety and shame, building healthier coping skills for long-term recovery.
Creative Art and Expressive Therapies
Creative and experiential pathways, such as art, music, and movement, help clients connect with their emotions and rediscover joy in recovery. They provide non-verbal outlets for processing trauma without requiring confrontation of painful memories. These therapies complement clinical treatment and nurture the soul’s healing process.
Integrated Wellness for Trauma Recovery and Nervous System Repair
We believe healing involves the whole person—mind, body, and spirit. Nutrition support, mindfulness practices, and fitness activities work in harmony with clinical care to strengthen overall well-being.
Infrared Sauna & Steam Room
Infrared sauna and steam room sessions promote detoxification, reduce inflammation, and calm the nervous system by enhancing circulation and inducing deep relaxation. These therapies soothe hyperarousal from trauma, support emotional release, and complement addiction recovery by easing withdrawal symptoms.
Cold Plunge Therapy
Cold plunge therapy exposes the body to controlled cold temperatures, activating the vagus nerve to regulate stress responses and build resilience against trauma triggers. In recovery programs, it sharpens mental focus, naturally boosts dopamine, and interrupts craving cycles, empowering clients with tools for balancing the autonomic nervous system.
Yoga & Breathwork Sessions
Yoga and breathwork sessions restore vagal tone, release stored tension in the body, and cultivate present-moment awareness to interrupt trauma-driven reactivity. Tailored for addiction healing, these practices enhance mind-body connection, improve sleep, and integrate with therapies like EMDR for comprehensive nervous system repair and sustained sobriety.
We Work With Most Commercial Insurance Providers
We do not accept Medicare or Medicaid. Contact our admissions team to verify your benefits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you accept insurance?
Yes, we work with most major commercial insurance providers. However, we cannot accept Medicare, Medicaid, or Oscar Health. Please contact our admissions team to learn more about your insurance benefits and payment options today.
Do you provide transportation?
We can assist you with transportation within a 50 to 75-mile radius, and outside of that on a case-by-case basis. Contact our admissions team to explore your options.
How long is your addiction treatment program?
Typically, residential treatment lasts 30 to 60 days, though this varies by individual. Aftercare depends highly on each individual, and we offer several levels of care, including partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and standard outpatient therapy to support you for the long term.
How does Avalon Wellness & Recovery support clients after treatment?
Recovery is a lifelong journey, and we’re committed to helping you maintain your progress long after treatment. Our aftercare services include case management, an active alumni network, community events, and ongoing outpatient therapy to help you stay connected with support and prevent relapse.
What role does family involvement play in the recovery process?
Family involvement is an important part of recovery. Our family classes help loved ones understand addiction, trauma in the family system, and the recovery process. We provide education and resources to empower families to be active participants in their journey toward lasting recovery.
Trauma-Informed Addiction Treatment in Kansas
End the cycle of trauma and addiction with trauma-informed residential care. Our healing environment provides medical monitoring and therapeutic guidance, rooted in safety, empowerment, and a deep understanding of the role trauma plays in recovery.
Table of Contents
Google Reviews
Chantiel Hevel
I can’t say enough about how nice this facility is and how amazing the staff is. As a family member of a recovering addict it truly brings relief to my heart knowing the workers at Avalon genuinely want to help and bring recovery for the people we love. The love and support without judgement is healing and I cannot recommend them enough! Truly, so grateful for them.
Donald Rayton iii jr
Avalon saved my life!
I was in a pit of misery and despair. My twenty plus years of addiction to meth, and my frequent visits to prison took so much time from my family that I felt like a outcast. In my darkest times I had lost the will to live.
Avalon met my wife and I where we were. Meaning in our addiction. They treated us with kindness and absolute understanding, because many of the staff have been down the same paths. There’s nothing like a bunch of complete strangers treating you like they’ve known you for years. Not passing judgement, or acting like they’re above you.
Their approach to addiction counseling is so easy going and understandable that it’s a wonder they ever have open beds. This place is beautiful. The staff is amazing! The CEO makes himself available to clients for small talk and wisdom. The Director is a Wizard! From the Nursing Staff to the Clinical Staff everyone comes to work smiling. You can clearly tell everyone in the building has your best interest at heart.
Today my wife and I are doing amazing. Avalon has armed us with tools to battle our addiction. The work is a constant grind. But it is worth every minute. I’m now available for my family in a way I have never been.
There is no way to measure the gratitude I have for the people at 801 Iowa St. These people are my family now. They are genuine and intentional in all they do. Lawrence, Kansas is lucky to have this place in the community. For it not for them I would still be either in jail, prison, or worse DEAD.
Thank you Avalon! For helping me to take back my life.
God Bless
Jeremy
If it was possible to leave more i would they make you feel like family maybe better. Everything about this place is custom fit. Everything they did was above and beyond what they had to. Best decision i have made so far.
Derek Fuller
Sandi Brooks
I have never stepped foot in a more beautiful place to recover. Not only that, but I have never been apart of such an amazing, supportive team of people that all have the same vision of helping the next addict/alcoholic find their way to their own recovery journey. This place has by far exceeded any expectations that I had. I only wish that I would have had a chance to start my own recovery journey off here over 13 years ago. Top Notch!!
Robert Woody
Amazing leadership and a client centered mentality. They use Evidence based recovery techniques combined with 12 step programs. Brand new facility just opened a bit over a month ago. Has a gym, sauna, client recreation with old style stand up arcade games, air hockey, and TV. I wish this facility had been available when I started my recovery. Full inpatient treatment with medically assisted detox! They are even working on opening up the pool! This place is great!!
Andrew Richards
If anyone, and i mean ANYONE is seeking help with addiction, i highly, HIGHLY recommend Avalon. I started their program on June 27th, and im about to celebrate 30 days of recovery on the 19th, and i graduate on the 25th. My life is 100x better than it has been in the last 5 years, and its all thanks to Avalon!!
Crystal Lynn
So being the only place in Kansas or around here that accepts couples Avalon has been nothing but welcoming and helpful throughout my whole recovery process I have enjoyed my stay here I’ve enjoyed the people I’ve encountered here I’ve just enjoyed the whole process and they have a pool and a sauna like who does that Avalon
Avalon Wellness & Recovery
801 Iowa St, Lawrence, KS 66049, United StatesAccreditations
Take the First Step Toward Lasting Wellness
You don’t have to do this alone. Avalon is here to guide, support, and empower you every step of the way. Contact our admissions team today to learn more about our programs and find the right level of care for you.