Recovery Yoga and Meditation
Every residential day at NorthStar Regional begins with meditation. Our yoga therapy in Minnesota focuses on one skill above all others: staying present when hard feelings come up instead of escaping them. That skill can help when a craving hits at 9 p.m. Gentle, trauma-aware yoga and stretching are offered throughout the week and adjusted to what your body can do. You do not need any faith or experience, and classes are open on both our men’s and women’s campuses. We accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and most major insurers. Once you learn these practices, you can use them anywhere at no cost.
The practice at a glance
Meditation to open
Every residential day begins with a grounding practice before the clinical work. It helps you focus, decide what you want from the day, and relax your body.
Movement practice
Yoga and stretching within the meditation series. Plus the walking club and fitness programming, scaled to wherever your body is right now.
Reflection and gratitude
The day closes with a 10th-step style reflection: what happened, what it meant, what tomorrow needs.
Inpatient Rehabilitation
Meditation opens every day. Movement runs through the week on both the men’s and women’s campuses.
Licensed Treatment Programs
Founded 2015
Addiction and mental health care in one system
Multiple Campuses
Across the Twin Cities metro
MN Department of Health: Licensed
MN Department of Human Services: Licensed
Understanding the therapy
How Yoga and Meditation Help
Addiction is, among other things, a habit of escaping: the moment a feeling gets uncomfortable, you use something to avoid it. Meditation trains the opposite: you sit, your thoughts race, you feel restless, and you practice staying. You notice the discomfort, name it, and wait for it to pass without acting on it. That is not relaxation. It is the exact skill you need when a craving hits at 9pm on a hard day. And you practice it in a safe room at 8am.
The movement side does the same work through the body. Gentle, trauma-aware yoga and stretching lower the constant agitation that makes using feel like a need. They also help you notice the physical feelings you learned to ignore during years of use. At NorthStar Regional this isn’t an elective. Residential days open with meditation, and movement practice runs through the week within our meditation series. Each day closes with reflection and gratitude. None of it requires any faith, so your higher power stays yours to define, or to skip.
Is this right for you?
Signs Yoga and Meditation Could Help You
Everyone in residential care gets the practice. These are the signs it deserves to become yours.
Your Body Never Fully Unclenches
Shoulders up by your ears, jaw tight, always tense. Years of stress and being on guard cause lasting physical tension, and releasing that tension is where this work starts.
Bedtime Is When the Mind Attacks
The day ends and your thoughts take over: replaying, predicting, judging. Meditation trains you to redirect your attention instead of getting stuck in those thoughts.
Cravings Hit You Physically
Restlessness, a crawling skin, a chest that won’t settle. If urges live in your body, the counter-skill has to live there too.
You Can't Be Alone with Yourself
Silence feels uncomfortable, so you fill every quiet moment with sound, screens, or people. Meditation helps you get comfortable being alone with your thoughts. In time, you may even enjoy it.
You Force Your Way Through Urges
You get through urges by forcing yourself to hold on until they pass. That works until it stops working. Learning to stay present with an urge is a more reliable way to use that same determination.
You Get It, But Your Body Doesn’t
You understand your patterns. But understanding them has not calmed your body. Some calming only happens through the body, not through thinking.
If even a few of these sound like you, that is reason enough to call. You don’t need to be certain, and you don’t need a diagnosis. A comprehensive assessment will sort out where this fits in your care. Reading this for someone you love? Start with our guide for parents or our guide for spouses and partners.
How It Helps
Yoga and Meditation for Addiction and Mental Health
The same racing thoughts that lead to a craving can also lead to a panic attack at 3am. Mindfulness and movement belong in dual diagnosis care because they calm the nervous system, which helps with both conditions. Whatever you’re carrying, it has its own page and its own place in the plan.
For Addiction
Every substance we treat is explained on its own page, from the first assessment through sober living.
For Mental Health
At designated NorthStar Regional programs, these conditions are treated together with addiction as co-occurring care, in one plan. Standalone mental health treatment, no substance use diagnosis needed, is available through our outpatient clinic in Shakopee.
What to expect
How Yoga and Meditation Fit into Your Day
Each residential day at NorthStar Regional starts with meditation and ends with time for reflection.
Morning Meditation Before Treatment
Every residential day begins with a grounding practice before the clinical work. It helps you focus, decide what you want from the day, and relax your body.
Movement Practice
Yoga and stretching within the meditation series. Plus the walking club and fitness programming, scaled to wherever your body is right now.
Reflection and Gratitude
The day closes with a 10th-step style reflection: what happened, what it meant, what tomorrow needs. Practice, not perfection.
Where You'll Find It at NorthStar Regional
Where Yoga and Meditation Are Offered
Yoga and meditation are offered every day in residential treatment. After that, you can keep using these practices anywhere you go.
Residential
Inpatient Rehabilitation
Meditation opens every day. Movement runs through the week on both the men’s and women’s campuses.
Extended care
Low-Intensity Residential Treatment
A longer stay gives you time to make the practice a daily habit, and to make that habit your own.
The long game
Relapse Prevention
Mindfulness written into the plan for the bad day: the wave rises, you stay, it passes.
Treatment Options
Explore Our Addiction and Mental Health Therapies and Services
Recovery rarely rests on one method. Below are the addiction and mental health therapies and services at NorthStar Regional. Each has its own page. Your comprehensive assessment, the full evaluation that sets your plan, decides which mix of therapies your plan starts with.
Who's behind the work
About NorthStar Regional
NorthStar Regional is Minnesota’s treatment system built around access: alcohol and drug treatment centers and mental health care across multiple Twin Cities metro locations. Founded in 2015, we provide one connected continuum: detox (withdrawal management), residential, outpatient, mental health, and a sober housing pathway. Separate men’s and women’s campuses, co-occurring care at designated programs, and no faith requirement set us apart. We accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and most major insurers, and if you are uninsured, our admissions team helps you through enrollment. A person can walk in with nothing and leave with everything they need to build a life.
Paying for Care
Insurance and Payment Options
Our team helps review your benefits and handles the paperwork with you. If you have no insurance, we help walk you through enrolling for benefits. County case managers, probation officers, hospitals, and crisis teams send clients to us because, in their words, we just get it done.
Insurance and State Funding
Commercial plans, Medical Assistance (Medicaid), county placements, and private pay. We verify benefits and handle the paperwork with you.
We Are Here to Help
We help review your benefits, find your right starting point, and schedule you for the same day or the next whenever possible. Then we pick you up anywhere in the Twin Cities metro.
How Admission Works
What Happens From Your First Call to Your First Night
You did the hard part when you picked up the phone. Here is exactly what happens next, so nothing about day one is a mystery.
You Call and a Real Person Answers
A real person answers, usually within seconds, and asks one short question: substance use, or mental health? There is no phone tree, and you don’t have to tell your life story. We ask only what we need and handle the rest.
We Help with the Details
Our team helps review your benefits, and a short screening covers withdrawal risk, medical needs, and mental health, so you land at the right level of care. Then we schedule you, same day or next day whenever possible.
We Pick You Up
You get reminder calls and texts before pickup. For residential, your admissions coordinator and your driver also call you together, so you know who’s coming, what car to look for, and when to expect them. Many of our drivers are in long-term recovery themselves, and yours will help with your bags.
A Real Person Meets You When You Arrive
Your driver walks you inside and introduces you by name to the team member waiting for you. Your intake team completes your application with you. If you’re hungry, there’s a meal waiting. From there, treatment starts, and we help take care of the logistics along the way.
“The client has done the hard work by picking up the phone. We will carry them the rest of the way.”
Sarah Roy, Executive Vice President
Reviews from Google
Why Clients Choose NorthStar Regional
Don’t just take our word for it. Here is what alumni say about their time in treatment.
Keep reading
Related Articles and Resources
Resources
Before You Call
How admissions works, guides for families, and the forms you can complete early. More resources are linked throughout the site, or contact admissions and we’ll send anything by email.
Questions we hear every day
Common Questions About Yoga and Meditation
Does NorthStar Regional really start every treatment day with meditation?
Yes, at the residential level. Residential programming opens each morning with meditation, before the clinical work begins. The day closes with a reflection and gratitude practice. Both are on purpose, because recovery skills need to be practiced every day, not just talked about.
What is recovery yoga?
Gentle, trauma-aware movement inside the treatment week: stretching, breath work, and poses scaled to real bodies in early recovery. No experience is needed. You do not need to be flexible or own special clothing, either.
Is this religious?
No. NorthStar Regional has no faith requirement anywhere in treatment. Meditation here is a practical skill for a racing mind. Your spiritual life stays exactly as open as you want it: your higher power, your definition, or neither.
How does meditation help with addiction?
Cravings rise, peak, and pass, most often within minutes. Meditation trains the one skill that makes that bearable: staying present in an uncomfortable body without acting. It also lowers the constant agitation that makes using feel needed.
I can't sit still. Can I still do this?
You are exactly who it is for. Nobody starts calm, and the practice is bringing your attention back, not achieving stillness. Movement practice exists precisely for people whose minds settle only after their bodies do.
Will insurance cover treatment that includes yoga and meditation?
Yoga and meditation are part of our covered treatment programs. We take Medicaid (Medical Assistance) and most major insurers. We check what your plan covers before anything else happens.
Admissions
Make the First Call and We'll Take It from There
Confidential, no obligation, and answered by someone who knows what you’re facing and cares to listen.