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Program Philosophy
The Manor House
program model is based on the concept of
informed decision making. In order for you to
make an informed decision, there are two things
which must be established; knowledge and
awareness. To many,
knowledge and awareness are synonymous, but
there are subtle differences in their meanings
at Manor House.
Knowledge is the
intellectual side of understanding. It is based
on facts, figures, definitions, processes, and
rules. Knowledge comes to us rather easily at
times. It is the traditional way we learn in
schools. It comes to us through books,
lectures, and observations. By itself, it is no
more than data stored in a computer, and
statistically the computer can be programmed to
make decisions. The computer, however, will not
take into account life’s experiences. It does
not factor in personal preferences, flavors, and
intrinsic values. The decisions it makes will
be predicable in an unpredictable world. There
will be errors. We can not eliminate all
errors, but we can minimize risks.
To minimize the
risks, we add the second structural component to
our model; awareness. Awareness
is understanding at
the emotional level. It takes into account all
of our personal experiences. It shows us the
effects on those for whom we care. It brings
reality into the model and enhances our
knowledge. With a more complete understanding,
founded on knowledge and awareness, we are ready
to choose to change our behaviors. We will have
learned.
We can use
tobacco as a common frame of reference to see
how this model works. The similarities are
easily transferable to other
substance
addictions.
Everyone knows
that tobacco is extremely harmful. No one
argues that point any longer. Both smokers and
non-smokers will acknowledge the life
threatening affects of tobacco usage. They can
and will tell you what can and does happen to
smokers at the intellectual level. They have
the knowledge. So, why do smokers continue to
smoke? They have the knowledge, but not the
personal emotional level of knowing that we call
awareness. They are in denial; a nice little
term that just means they have not given up the
adolescent psychological phenomena of
immortality. They still hang onto the unfounded
belief that bad things happen to others, but not
to them. They wish to believe, in some small
measure, in their own immortality. It is not
until they get a wake up call, a life changing
experience at a personal level, that they gain
awareness. They or a loved one are diagnosed
with cancer and the prognosis is not
encouraging. Now they have a complete
understanding by which to make a decision. They
have awareness at a personal (emotional) level
that demonstrates what the knowledge has been
telling them at the intellectual level.
Unfortunately, the knowledge and awareness often
comes too late for the choice to be fully
effective.
At Manor House,
our goal is to provide you with two components
of the Knowledge/Awareness/Choice
(Kay-See) model; to give you knowledge through
classroom instruction, to give you awareness
through open forum discussions, and to get you
started on a recognized
12 step program for life
long management of your choices. We will get
you to the point where you can make an informed
choice; the third component of Kay-See.
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