What Is Recovery Capital in Addiction Recovery?

When recovering from an addiction to drugs or alcohol, it’s important to have access to quality mental health care, and the support and understanding of the people around you to be successful for the long term. 

These resources and tools you have access to is known as your recovery capital in addiction recovery. 

Recovery capital is a recognized framework in addiction treatment that your mental health team at The Phoenix Recovery Center (TPRC) can help you find, build, and engage to help you not only during the treatment process, but also your long-term sobriety.

The Four Types of Recovery Capital

There are four main categories of recovery capital in addiction recovery. They are: 

Cultural Capital

This type of recovery capital includes the values, beliefs, and norms held by your and your community, such as: 

• Cultural traditions
• Ethnic connections
• Religious or faith-based connections

Personal/Human Capital

This encompasses all the resources you personally hold that can assist with your recovery:

• Coping skills
• Education
• Job skills
• Physical health
• Problem solving skills
• Self-esteem

Physical Capital

This type of recovery capital includes the tangible resources you need to be successful during and after your recovery: 

• Access to health care
• Clothing
• Employment
• Financial resources
• Food
• Reliable transportation
• Stable housing

Social Capital

This category encompasses those within your personal social network that you can turn to for support and help, such as: 

• Community connections that reinforce sobriety
• Coworkers and peers
• Family members
• Friends
• Mentors
• Sponsors
• Therapists and counselors

Why Recovery Capital Matters for Long-Term Sobriety

Ask any recovering addict and they’ll tell you that most times, maintaining lifelong sobriety is harder than staying sober during the recovery process. 

Many times not having strong recovery capital is why some people who have tried other treatments were not able to find lasting results. 

This is because during recovery, they have access to the full support and guidance of their mental health team. Once you leave an intensive inpatient Residential Program, while you still have constant support from licensed clinicians, you’re also now around all the influences and stressors that may have caused your addiction in the first place. 

This is why higher recovery capital is necessary for a stronger foundation for sustained recovery, not just completing an addiction recovery program. 

Recovery capital in addiction recovery is that missing piece you need for long-lasting success. 

How Recovery Capital Is Built During Treatment

For some people, it can be hard to identify what you can use to build your recovery capital. 

The good news is that during your addiction recovery program, your mental health care team will guide you through the process of identifying the people, tools, and resources already at your disposal to help you achieve long-term sobriety.

Here are some examples:  

• Cultural Capital: Identifying community support groups and adopting wellness routines are part of your cultural capital and can help you adjust your values and norms. 
• Personal/Human Capital: The therapy and skill-building during your recovery process is a source of human capital as it helps you learn how to regulate your emotions, manage stress, and handle triggers. 
• Physical Capital: Securing basic needs, such as stable housing, and employment support are all part of your physical capital, giving you a strong foundation for recovery success. 
• Social Capital: Family therapy and rebuilding relationships are a source of social capital, building a network for support and accountability. 

Why Local, Community-Based Care Strengthens Recovery Capital

Receiving treatment for your addiction near where you live can be very important for your sustained recovery. If you seek out addiction treatment outside your local area, you won’t have easy access to the local support system you’ve built with those going through the same experience.

Staying local and connected to a local support system helps preserve and grow your social and cultural capital. Additionally, it can help make building up your physical capital much easier as well. 

At The Phoenix Recovery Center (TPRC), we’ve helped thousands of people just like you receive the addiction treatment they need close to home living in the Salt Lake Valley and the entire Wasatch Front, including South Jordan, West Jordan, Draper, Sandy, Provo, Orem, Tooele, Lehi, Saratoga Springs, and Eagle Mountain. 

How The Phoenix Recovery Center Supports Recovery Capital in Addiction Recovery

At The Phoenix Recovery Center (TPRC), our main goal is to provide our clients and families with the knowledge and support they need to regain their lives through lasting solutions. 

This includes understanding all the components of their recovery capital for addiction recovery, and how they all work to help them achieve and maintain long-term sobriety. 

TPRC uses a fully-personalized, four-part step-down model for our addiction recovery services that allows our clients to start with a more intensive residential treatment option, and gradually move, or step down, to more flexible care options as they progress. This allows our clients the opportunity to start getting back to work and being with their families while still continuing their treatment. 

The TPRC step-down model for addiction recovery includes:

• Our Residential Treatment offers 24/7 care in a 44-bed residential facility.
• Daytime Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) with 21 clinical hours a week of structured, evidence-based care where you can continue to work, go to school, and care for your family each evening. 
• Intensive Outpatient Treatment Program (IOP) with nine hours of clinical sessions a week, Monday through Thursday, with both day and evening options available.
• Your care continues for the long term through our General Outpatient Program (GOP),  where you can attend TPRC monthly alumni meetings and weekly AA/CODA meetings to build up your social capital to help with long-term accountability.

Start Building Your Recovery Capital Today 

It’s not uncommon for someone starting the addiction recovery process to feel like they’re all alone and have nothing in their life to support them. 

The licensed clinicians at The Phoenix Recovery Center (TPRC) will not only provide you with the framework you need for a successful addiction recovery, but will also teach you how to measure and add to your recovery capital, helping you understand that you’re not alone on this journey. 

Contact us today by filling out our online admissions form, calling us at (801) 438-3185, or visiting TPRC at 489 W South Jordan Pkwy Ste 400, South Jordan, UT 84095, to have your insurance verified for free and learn more about our addiction recovery services.