APN Pathways

1: Set Goals & Examine Identity Bonds​

This initial stage is about intentional goal-setting and identity exploration. Clients are encouraged to:

• Define personal motivations for change
• Reflect on how identity, values, and social bonds have influenced behavior
• Develop a foundation for commitment to the healing journey

All relationships, including therapy at APN, start with safety. We’ll start by outlining your treatment to establish a secure foundation and communicate your assessment results clearly. Together, we’ll set measurable wellness goals and use tailored tools to explore your identity and relationships, preparing you for the journey ahead.

2: Build Momentum Through Change Principles

As you begin to examine and put experiences into perspective, we will lean into principles of change to build momentum and motivation. Change is an essential component of treatment, and we will focus on a few specific elements, including:

• Understanding your dimensions of wellness to reframe and embrace any health conditions and their biology
• Developing whole-body awareness and responding with care
• Gaining insight and education on your unique needs and barriers with psychoeducation and tools to set you up for success
• Working to change your internal dialogue and reflect on behavior patterns to increase confidence and prepare for progress
• Strengthening your support system through interaction with the APN community and your family of choice
• Developing recovery behaviors and non-addictive coping strategies to propel you into a culture of change

This phase fosters early wins to boost engagement and confidence.

3: Reset Relationships & Pursue Healthy Support

As you build upon your early accomplishments and momentum, you will start to challenge yourself by further investigating the maladaptive behaviors you have developed and experienced in relationships throughout your life. In this pathway, clients focus on redefining interpersonal connections by:

• Identifying toxic or enabling relationships that could undermine and derail your progress
• Learning healthy boundaries and communication skills
• Strengthening or rebuilding support systems comprised of family, peers, chosen family, and professional support – so you feel confident confronting dysfunction and growing toward healthier relationships

Though it can be difficult to set boundaries and redefine relationships, we will be with you along the way to help you navigate what comes up. This stage is key to preparing for real-world relational dynamics.

4: Practice the Pillars of Wellness for Balance & Purpose

By the time you prepare to embark on this pathway, you will be ready to fully embrace our model of whole-person healing. You will refine your new value system and root yourself in a balance that includes emotional, spiritual, physical, social, financial, occupational, intellectual, and environmental wellness pillars.

A shift toward holistic well-being occurs through:

• Integration of fitness, nutrition, sleep, and spiritual practices
• Establishing daily rhythms and routines
• Reinforcing the link between physical and mental health

During this stage, clients develop balance and purpose-driven living as part of recovery.

5: Resolve Trauma & Its Lingering Impacts

Trauma affects people differently, and we will work with you to create a bespoke path toward resolution, focused on the initial events and their lingering impacts.

Clients engage in deeper trauma work with trusted experts to:

• Process unresolved trauma and its influence on present behavior
• Utilize evidence-based modalities (e.g., EMDR, neurofeedback)
• Gain tools for emotional regulation and post-traumatic growth

You can trust us to support you with various resources and move at a pace that is challenging but comfortable for you. We want to assist you in a controlled revisiting, revising, resolving, and restoring of your empowered state, disentangling you from the hold of your past.

6: Increase Capacity for Vulnerability & Intimacy

All the previous pathways will lead you to a new point where you are ready to develop new life priorities and create healthy bonds, unburdened by fear, dysfunction, or trauma.

This phase helps clients cultivate emotional openness and authenticity by:

• Exploring patterns of avoidance, isolation, or codependency
• Practicing safe vulnerability in relationships
• Building intimacy skills to support future connection and attachment

During this step, we will work together to further explore how fear has compromised your capacity for relational intimacy in the past, and what healthy intimacy can look like moving forward.

7: Reintroduce Yourself & Your New Role

Your renewed identity balances your sense of self, relational connections, and self-control. With a growth mindset, you can continue to optimize your life and your identity to shape the best version of yourself.

During this stage, clients begin to envision and step into a renewed identity, including:

• Reclaiming agency in personal, family, and community roles
• Aligning actions with values and purpose
• Building confidence to lead life beyond treatment

With your newly crafted identity, you can shed any facades and begin to show people who you really are and what they can expect from you going forward.

8: Revisit Your Journey as You Begin the Next

The final pathway before your next phase of growth and maintenance invites you to review what you have accomplished. You have strengthened your support system, solidified your values, and embarked on a new chapter grounded in significant strides toward long-term healing. You have laid a solid foundation, and you now understand that recovery is less about finding a “cure,” and more about learning how to truly care for yourself.

As clients transition out of structured care, this final stage involves:

• Reflecting on growth, challenges, and resilience
• Planning for sustained recovery with clear aftercare strategies
• Reinforcing internal and external support systems to maintain momentum

During this last phase, we will review any regrets, resentments, and gratitudes you feel for the journey behind you as you prepare for what lies ahead. This pathway provides closure and reinvigorates your confidence in the next phases of your life, empowering you to heal yourself, your relationships, and the world around you.